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(miss)understood is vastly better than ULTRA BLUE in my opinion. While I did enjoy the consistent ethereal feel of ULTRA BLUE and felt it was by far Utada's most mature album to date, it was an enormous step backward in so many aspects. In particular, the arrangements of the songs are sloppy, repetitive, and sound surprisingly dated. Strangely, I found that the slickest sounding song was the oldest, COLORS. It really is a shame because the songs are all really well-written and flow flawlessly, but the arrangements really don't do them justice. I felt that every song could have been absolutely stellar but as a result of the poor arrangements, most of the album sounded like filler. At first, I liked the album, but by my third listen it became almost painful how dated and monotonous the production sounded. I liked the electronic elements, but I wanted something that sounded more polished or organic, like Madonna's Ray of Light album, the space-age thumpers of Hikki's own Exodus, or the glossy messy-ness of Ayu's RAINBOW album. The other huge problem I have with the album are the vocals. Utada has a lovely voice, but she seems very uncomfortable in her upper register. Unfortunately, I found that on most tracks Utada was trying to sing much higher than she is capable of and was noticeably straining. As a result, very often in the album her vocals either sounded hoarse and raspy or shrill and piercing, and she showed little control over her vibrato. Overall, the consistent ethereal feel and excellent song writing really shine, but at the same time the cheaply done arrangements and technically poor vocals detracted hugely from what could have been an incredible album.
Conversely, I was blown away by (miss)understood, though admittedly it is a love it or hate it type of album. Your enjoyment of the album really depends on how broad your musical tastes are and if you don’t mind cohesiveness being sacrificed in favour of variety. The album is the perfect showcase of Ayu’s incredible versatility and ability to change. It presents such a vast array of musical genres and styles to the listener, ranging from electro pop to funk to sweeping balladry, while still feeling classically Ayu. Furthermore, each track is undeniably polished and refreshing. Even more impressively is how fluidly the album flows despite having such distinctly different and diverse tracks. As with most Ayu albums, the tracks are generally ordered by genre, but the album doesn’t feel disjointed at all. Although every track feels very unique, there is always an underlying emotional theme that flows into the next track. For instance, the album starts off with a burst of exuberance and style with Bold & Delicious, then flows into an equally bouncy song with a slightly darker, off-beat side with STEP you, which flows into the haunting yet still poppy Ladies Night. The album is structured perfectly to never bore the listener but also avoids interrupting the continuity of the album. I loved how it feels very bubbly at first and slowly becomes darker, moving from despair to anger to melancholy, and slowly becomes more uplifting, ending with the sombre but optimistic tracks. I will say that although it flows well, overall because there is so much variety it detracts a lot from the coherency of the album. But that’s the album’s charm, you either get it or you don’t.
Personally though, I think everything I mentioned is somewhat trivial when I listen to music. Ultimately, what it come down to is which album has the better songs, and that is where I think (miss)understood totally trumps ULTRA BLUE. Upon first listen, I thought all the songs from last year’s singles, Ladies Night and rainy day, and the two interludes were absolute stunners and easily some of Ayu’s best work. Upon repeated listens, I began to appreciate the aforementioned songs even more and grew to love all of the album tracks as well. Conversely, on ULTRA BLUE I liked all the tracks but I only loved One Night Magic, COLORS, and Passion on first listen. After multiple listens though, I was expecting to like the album even more, but the flaws of the tracks became more and more apparent. Even still, ULTRA BLUE is a worthwhile album and I might have put too much emphasis on the negative aspects of it, but (miss)understood is by far my favourite album of any artist. To me ULTRA BLUE seems like an album that’s easy to like but hard to love, while (miss)understood seems like an album that’s easy to love and easy to hate.
Ick, long post. I feel sorry for anyone who actually read this whole thing.
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