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I don't agree Ayu's newer work lack emotion... But they do work with a different set of emotion nowadays... She can pass really complex emotions with her voice only, like the mocking sarcasm in SLT, the bittersweet optimism in blossom, the overall self-depreciating sarcasm in the next LOVE, the melancholic determination in Do it again, etc. Her music doesn't deal as much with saddness, angst and dispair as before, and as those are more pungent feelings. IMO she isn't lacking feeling, but as her age the feelings she is singing about are more complex.
And the same can be said about Utada... the First Love Utada wouldn't produce those new songs, not even feeling-wise. The song for her mother on the SC2 is really complex, more than teenager Hikki would ever be able to produce.
Now, both can't sing to save their lifes live, Ayu is more of a theatrical performer, always were, and when performing live the emotion translates both to the ears and to the eyes. Hikki is a vocal performer, and she does have more emotion on her voice than Ayu, but you can pretty much ignore her while on stage because she isn't all that interesting to watch and looks extremely unconfortable, but the emotion on her voice compensates this.
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