[2007] This really convinced me! Utada is THE best!

[Luv ~Venus~]

^She really wasn't breathy until Heart Station. Hikki had great voice control during her first four albums (well 5, if u include Exodus). Her lives were excellent as well especially Hikaru no 5. You guys should watch her covers of other artists songs like A-ha's Take Me On and Green Day's Boulavard of Broken Dreams (OMG! Talk about excellent vocal control. ). I guess after UU06, her vocal cords were really damaged. I read from another Hikki fan that she was suggested to get a surgery on it but she refused.

[Kikaru]

Originally Posted by Luv ~Venus~

^She really wasn't breathy until Heart Station. Hikki had great voice control during her first four albums (well 5, if u include Exodus). Her lives were excellent as well especially Hikaru no 5. You guys should watch her covers of other artists songs like A-ha's Take Me On and Green Day's Boulavard of Broken Dreams (OMG! Talk about excellent vocal control. ). I guess after UU06, her vocal cords were really damaged. I read from another Hikki fan that she was suggested to get a surgery on it but she refused.

I think her voice control was pretty good in her first three albums. In Dareka is when it kind of started IMO.

[bondingo]

Originally Posted by Kikaru

I think her voice control was pretty good in her first three albums. In Dareka is when it kind of started IMO.

Agreed. I think there were some very...interestingly-vocalized songs on ULTRA BLUE. Especially when I heard a bunch of her Be My Last lives, I can't say I was all that impressed. That being said, she is a very talented vocalist, but I do think her vocal ability has sort of gone down after years of strain on her vocal chords.

Originally Posted by ayumisrael

That's exactly what I meant when I said that hikki's voice is flat!
As I wrote in my post, hikki is really good technical singer, but when it comes to emotion (specially with figurative and not simple lyrics she writes) I can hardly feel it from her excluding some songs/performances where it's really emotional (like FINAL DISTANCE) but most of the time her voice is just flat, smooth, normal which makes other artists vocals be better but I still could enjoy UTADA UNITED 2006 because all of the other things were awesome!

Being flat is considered technically incorrect though. My brother is majoring in Vocal Performance, so I hear this more than enough. Hikki does strain quite a bit when she sings, moreso in recent times, and that's horrible for her voice. I don't think lack of emotion is the problem. I think it's probably the opposite. She's straining her vocal chords singing the way that she does and that's really just going to be worse for her voice in the long run.