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Originally Posted by sxesven
Everytime I read how much people despise Exodus I can't help but being entirely baffled. The claims that Hikaru 'deserted' pop music and went hip-hop seem pretty unfunded. Hikaru has never been a pop artist to begin with, having started out as a (pretty generic) R&B artist and eventually turning out to be a lot more. 'Deep River' already drew influences from everywhere while still retaining Hikaru's R&B-ish style. It made for a very eclectic and challenging album that showed Hikaru was a brilliant musician and exceeded 99% of the mainstream acts in quality and sheer excellence.
Exodus seemed to be the only logical follow-up to Deep River (although Utada was indeed not Hikki, but that aside - it's still the same musician). On the musical side of things it's amazing. Cracking synth sounds, buzzing beats. It's at times almost avant-garde yet always entirely infectious and catchy. It's got more in common with Peaches and M.I.A. than with your regular American mainstream act. And because Exodus is indeed such a musical achievement, I just don't understand why people hate it so much. Ignorance? I don't know.
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I take offense to the 'ignorance' comment. I am not ignorant because I dislike Utada's Exodus album. I found no logical connection in terms of style between Deep River and Exodus whatsoever. Exodus had no songs that had the 'down to earth' style that Deep River did, and I mean the song itself, not the album as a whole. I would consider Utada previously pop because the songs traveling and DISTANCE were very much pop as was most of her first album. Musically, I thought Exodus was sorely shallow and insubstantial -- again with the lack of 'down to earth' style. By the way, I didn't HATE Exodus. I was grossly disappointed. I think my overall judgement of the Exodus album is far from ignorant or uninformed. Rather, it is more of an educated opinion.