[CoriKaru]

"Utada come back to me!
Bring me your Japanese!
Some English with quality!
Your song is one in a million of other Generic R&B Ballad Songs!"

Sorry, that just came out of me without thought yesterday when I first heard this song. Made me laugh.

So let's see. A lot of what I think about this song has already been said and I don't want to bring down the spirit that much because I'm glad others actually are going bat crazy over this.

Here's my issue. I'm not disappointed because this is exactly what I expected. I wasn't looking forward to her english work in general, although my excitement started picking up a little bit recently and is still on a rise. As soon as I saw the title of this song, I had a nice guess of the kind of song it would be.

The song is ordinary. It's too mainstream. So mainstream it's kind of boring and I fear America won't even pay attention to it. Not because they can't relate and because it will go over their heads as Exodus may have done but because I'd like to give America a little more credit than it seems to be getting. I don't think Americans are going to simply eat up a song b/c it sounds American and not Asian. It also has to be good, capturing, alluring. It doesn't hurt to have one liners as well. That can be a very important thing for newcomers to have, something that sticks with audiences, something catchy, A HOOK (that's the word I was looking for). More so in faster dancier songs so it doesn't apply as much in this case but it couldn't of hurt being that this song has NONE.

Even though it's not EXODUS-esque, it doesn't have her Japanese flare either. Upon first listen, I disliked the song. I didn't hate it, I didn't turn away in disgust. I simply heard it. Was like yeah this turned out as expected and I'm not crazy about it. I definitely hope this isn't representative of the rest of her Album as a whole.

As with some of her other songs that have grown on me with repeated listens, I decided to rush and force the process this time around. So I brought up the song on YouTube and listened to it throughout the day and as expected it has grown on me. My opinions haven't changed but I like it a little bit more. I still believe it should have been so much more though.

As for the lyrics. They suck. The "One in a million" line makes me cringe. It's like every cliche song from the 90's. The repeated echoed lyrics in the verses make me tremble in fear. The chorus is terribly EMPTY. The beginning overly dramatic piano part needs to disappear. So out of place and is featured in every Horror Film ever made in Black & White. Ugh.

I do like Utada's voice in this song so my next observation isn't a negative, just an observation. Her voice in english sounds different in her music as it does in her regular speech (as can be expected and we're probably all aware of by now). Especialy during the chorus when she sings "ME!" during "come back to ME!". It doesn't carry out her normal "strength" I guess. It begins strong and normal and at the end turns into something else. It's still okay, but it's lesser than how she usually emphasizes her words if that makes any sense. And the sound "ME" exists in the Japanese language as "MI" so language has nothing to do with what I'm talking about in this instance.

Sorry, seems I did bog it down a bit. Well as for what I do like. I'm glad to say she did do a few special things in this song that reminds me how she plays with melodies in Japanese. During the verses at the end of her lines such as "don't want to be alone" and "Leave her alone", I like how she sings those parts and I like the bridge, especially how she sings "Baby take it easy on me". That's like the best sounding part to me in the song. Definitely need more of that. But the bridge kind of surprised me. It could have gone either way and it definitely went the RIGHT way. Made the song a little better.

And I like the ending "Na na na naaaa." People have been saying "La la la la laaa", but I've been thinking it was "Na." I could be wrong but that's what I hear. I'll listen again to make sure though.

So yeah. Also about the lyrics. As I stated, they suck. I hope Utada didn't write them. This is all.