[thinkingoutloud89]

I'm not the biggest Utada Stan. It took my a lot of time to get into their discography and it was a slow process to find a liking to everything they put out, that said rewatching the TVs I came to a realization that I already had some time ago: Utadas Music, whille always a testament to its time and Utadas personal circumstances, never sounds outdated like a lot of their peers music. Utadas discography is also one of the few enigmas in the J-Pop landscape, putting out rather crafted bodies of work with only a very few overall (compared to the average "female" J-Pop singer).

SCIENCE FICTION is what it is, a rather bland Best-of like the last few Single Collections. Utadas music never was fancy for the most part and I guess that's what the charm is (and the reason for what I stated above).

I do think the new mixes are superior to its originals. The sound quality is so good. These new versions just made me realize how much of Utadas vocals are muffled in its original and the addition of new instruments (or maybe just a polish of what was there?!) really makes them fuller.

As for the re-recordings: they are exactly what I would expect from a "2024" Version of those songs, and for that matter they are rather clever. Compared to Namies rerecordings or even Taylor Swifts, who are just vocally updated versions of their originals, Utadas are more of a self-cover. If we never knew these songs, we wouldn''t question them at all.

For that matter I can't share the sentiment of "ruining" older works. Firstly, those are Utadas Songs, and if they don't feel consent with those versions anymore, they are free to alter them to their liking. It is, as a matter of fact, what most artist do during live shows if they have an extended career anyways. Other than that tho, they are not taking away your memories with the originals. Especially in our day and age, where music is this readily available, you are free to chose what to listen to - and in this case which version.

I enjoy the updated version of traveling a lot. Do I think it's better than its original? - probably not. But I like the freshness of it and it brings me new memories I enjoy.