[Utada Hikaru] You're not Japanese, and she can tell, in her 36th thread!

[Picaflor 7/4]

^I'm assuming the moogle in your avatar is from kingdom hearts? not ff?

I like everyone else, found utada through simple and clean way back when. Back in 2002 I was bored one day and asked my mom to take me to a blockbuster so I could rent a video game for my ps2 and I came across kingdom hearts, it looked really cool cause the front had a heart shaped moon and blah blah blah. So I played it and fell in love with the remix in the beginning, since I didn't know how to work the computer and look up the song, I just turned off my ps2 and restarted the game over and over and over to hear it. Then once I beat the game, I found out it was by utada hikaru (never even crossed my mind to look in the booklet) and decided to look her up and fell in love instantly. and thus my obsession with jpop/japan was born.

also, thinking about new york and the "you're not japanese" quote. during an mc session she asked "aren't the americans funny?" in japanese to her japanese speaking fans, which I find odd cause she is american herself. born in new york! she is making fun of herself! yes! haha

[Tony G]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdEDSUGn_sg

I was just reading some live reports of her latest tour and she performed a cover of 'The Bitter End' by Placebo, which is like, one of my favourite songs of all time. Her cover is so. damn. good. it needs a studio version! Her voice sounds excellent singing harder rock songs, which she rarely does. I love her covers of random songs, she has such good music taste <3

[KremlinChaos]

I hate doing Top 5's because it's so hard to choose! This is my current top 5.

1. Poppin'
2. Stay Gold
3. BLUE
4. Hotel Lobby
5. Kremlin Dusk

[amorphose]

Originally Posted by Picaflor 7/4

also, thinking about new york and the "you're not japanese" quote. during an mc session she asked "aren't the americans funny?" in japanese to her japanese speaking fans, which I find odd cause she is american herself. born in new york! she is making fun of herself! yes! haha

I knew she said something along those lines! haha I thought she said American fans though and was referring to how psychotic we were. XD

Ooh, hey! H initiate. How snazzy is that?

[primavera♥]

^ quite snazzy

i dont get any of the tour jokes. i feel so excluded. why couldnt she come futher south like atlanta or miami (miami wouldve been perfect. its like a few hours drive)

it is strange for her to say that though XD

[ストロボ・EdGE]

Originally Posted by StrawbariSnowAyumi

^ quite snazzy

i dont get any of the tour jokes. i feel so excluded. why couldnt she come futher south like atlanta or miami (miami wouldve been perfect. its like a few hours drive)

it is strange for her to say that though XD

I prayed every night for her to come to Orlando or Miami ( ).

[Keiichi_JPU]

Originally Posted by amorphose

^I think it fits better with DEEP RIVER than UB. haha Dareka no... too!

I'm one of the people that found about Hikki through KH and about J-Pop through Hikki. For me though, I didn't buy the game and then like the song... It happened like this: I heard about the game and thought it would be stupid cause I hate Disney, so I wasn't even gonna look into it. Well, when they started airing the commercials, I would see them ALL the time and I fell in love with the song. I was pretty young (9 or 10?) and I didn't really know how to work the computer, so I couldn't find the song online.

So I actually bought KH just to find out who sang the song and so I could hear the whole thing. I did end up playing it and liking it quite a bit, but it started out as like "omg, i need to know who sings this song!!!11!" and after I found out her name I bought the COLORS single.

Scary, almost exactly the same as what happened to me.
Except I actually bought KH cause I liked the game but then I was like OMG this song is awesome And COLORS was my first Hikki single too, and then I bought Exodus and I fell in love with her Also I discovered J-pop through her, thanks to her I started listening to other artists as well, like Ayu.

Oh and my top 5.. very hard, but I'll give it a shot:

1. hikari / Simple And Clean (love em equaly)
2. Kremlin Dusk
3. Beautiful World
4. TAKE 5
5. COLORS

I wish I could squeeze Dareka, Keep Tryin', HEART STATION, Tokyo Nights and Hotel Lobby into that..

[amorphose]

^Haha, I knew nothing about Japanese releases and was expecting COLORS to be a full album. I was like WTF at first, but I liked COLORS so much that I didn't care. Then I really read up on her, learned the Japanese system, bought all her Japanese albums as well as all the singles from Can You Keep A Secret? up to COLORS and it was just history after that. I ordered a new single or album like every 2-3 weeks for a whole year. I blew my whole preteen allowance on the *****. XDD

[Polyrhythm]

My first Hikki purchase were the Taiwan presses of Heart Station/ Stay Gold, Prisoner of Love, and Heart Station. I threw away the Obi's LOL....didn't know what they were...

[Crystal_Ageha]

^ I wasn't familiar with the OBIs until my first Japanese purchase, either. --They don't have that in the U.S., right? I've never seen any come with it, not even when I ordered online. I don't know how other countries are, other than those two, either, since I've never bought CDs from anywhere else. So I have no idea what the OBIs are all about, hah. Just one of things I've honestly never thought about until now...

[bluegie]

Originally Posted by amorphose

Utada is great because no matter what song of her's comes on, I can listen to it at any given moment. Most other artists I usually skip if I'm not feeling it. haha

Ooh, here's a good question that I don't see asked too often... What are some of your LEAST favorite songs?

I'm not a fan of WINGS or kairo. Not sure what it is about WINGS. I listen to it sometimes, but I really didn't like it when Keep Tryin' came out. kairo makes me so sad, 'cuz I think it'd be so awesome if it were recorded with a real orchestra. The synth ruins it for me. I used to not like For You or Time Limit, but I love both now. And surprisingly, unlike most, I like everything on First Love, my least favorite being time will tell.

Oh finally there's another person dislike kairo . I hate this song so much and I was shocked that the majority loved the song back when UB released. And from the talk between you and StrawbariSnowAyumi, I can see that I have a different taste towards hikki's music with Strawbari.

First Love was the hit because the Japanese public was shocked that how on earth an 16 yr old girl could sing that well. Honestly, if you dun like R&B that much, I dun think you will love the materials in the first two albums. I would say I love First Love, but not as much for Distance. I would really call Distance as a generic R&B/pop album. When I got the album (along w/ A BEST hehe), my brother said A BEST sounded better even tho it was a best album. First Love is much better because it flows well, the songs united together, and it really showed the thought of a teenager.

IMO DEEP RIVER is her strongest album up to date. That was the time when she started jumping out of R&B. The theme of the album was "dark", or black and white as the cover indicated... Yet it was really colorful indside. I still consider DR as her best.

The music on UB and HS are under the influence of sync instruments. IMO I like HS more. Admittedly UB is more experimental, and the composition is more dynamic. But the end product is too complicated and I find it uneasy to listen with. I feel the uncertainty, and probly it's related to her current state of mind during 2005 - 2006. HS on the other hand is more soothing. It's simple but it unified the songs together.

So my fav album from most to least will be: DEEP RIVER, HS, First Love, UB, Distance. Nothing against others because I may like R&B while you may like something else. Btw, I dun really like R&B, it's just that hikki can make anything wonderful..

My top five songs... I dunno I have too many fav songs...

And I'm quite indifferent to her English songs... .

[emi♡]

I never really like Kairo either...but I respect it for other reasons. imo, it's more on the artistic side to be really listenable.

I remember someone calling it the best Jpop song ever created when UB was released lol They had it in their sig here...forgot who it was...It really does remind me of the sea though...

I still love UB the best. I like her experimental/pop side better, and the songs for me are a little more solid and diverse than the works on HS. It used to sound like a transitional album to me, and I think in some ways it is...but I think it would only truly be if her works continued to be more like HS and continue even more so into the synth/electro sound.

Do I have a top 5...

1. Passion
2. Take 5
3. FINAL DISTANCE
4. Hikari/Keep Tryin'
5. WINGS/YMMWTBAM/Devil Inside/COLORS/Traveling

[bluegie]

I hope she'll move on to something else other than synth sound. Not that I hate it, but it'll be weird if she sticks around the same genre for too long. Like... First Love and Distance can be grouped into R&B style, while DR in a more pop diversity.. We can however see a bit of DR music in UB (e.g., COLORS, Dareka, BML). UB and HS are under synth department. I'm expecting she'll try something new... I will be a bit shocked if she's making a third synth album.

[hpg23]

Originally Posted by Picaflor 7/4

^I'm assuming the moogle in your avatar is from kingdom hearts? not ff?

Yeah it is, I find them much cooler in their Kingdom Hearts form~


If she has to change genres, I would love her to try more rock oriented stuff *-*, or electronic rock, that would be like sooooo hot

[emi♡]

Originally Posted by bluegie

I hope she'll move on to something else other than synth sound. Not that I hate it, but it'll be weird if she sticks around the same genre for too long. Like... First Love and Distance can be grouped into R&B style, while DR in a more pop diversity.. We can however see a bit of DR music in UB (e.g., COLORS, Dareka, BML). UB and HS are under synth department. I'm expecting she'll try something new... I will be a bit shocked if she's making a third synth album.

You know, I think I would be too. I think another album in the style of HS would be a little boring...but I do trust her to bring something new to the table, and I know with her next album she'll do something new, or another fusion type thing.

I think she gets bored sometimes lol I think she has to change it up.

[Picaflor 7/4]

btw. I still throw away my obis. even though I know what they are for. as far as I know, the only use is to make them look nice when they are all stacked up, and you can sell a cd for a higher price with it's original obi, but since I don't ever plan on selling any of my jpop cds and the only person that ever looks/listens/takes out my cds is myself, I don't care about how "nice" they look.

I love wings, it sounds so 60s ish, like i'm back in the brady bunch era and I'm in a "cool cat lounge" bar or something. and its all snazzy jazz up in the joint, and utada walks out from behind the curtains, sits at her piano and plays it live with a jazz band from the 60s. I can so see that. the ending is long though, they could definitely shorten that up by a good full minute.

Kairo though...I don't hate it, but I find it boring. the lyrics are cool about hide and seek, but it's skippable on the album. :/ snore.

[primavera♥]

Originally Posted by bluegie

Oh finally there's another person dislike kairo . I hate this song so much and I was shocked that the majority loved the song back when UB released. And from the talk between you and StrawbariSnowAyumi, I can see that I have a different taste towards hikki's music with Strawbari.

First Love was the hit because the Japanese public was shocked that how on earth an 16 yr old girl could sing that well. Honestly, if you dun like R&B that much, I dun think you will love the materials in the first two albums. I would say I love First Love, but not as much for Distance. I would really call Distance as a generic R&B/pop album. When I got the album (along w/ A BEST hehe), my brother said A BEST sounded better even tho it was a best album. First Love is much better because it flows well, the songs united together, and it really showed the thought of a teenager.

IMO DEEP RIVER is her strongest album up to date. That was the time when she started jumping out of R&B. The theme of the album was "dark", or black and white as the cover indicated... Yet it was really colorful indside. I still consider DR as her best.

The music on UB and HS are under the influence of sync instruments. IMO I like HS more. Admittedly UB is more experimental, and the composition is more dynamic. But the end product is too complicated and I find it uneasy to listen with. I feel the uncertainty, and probly it's related to her current state of mind during 2005 - 2006. HS on the other hand is more soothing. It's simple but it unified the songs together.

So my fav album from most to least will be: DEEP RIVER, HS, First Love, UB, Distance. Nothing against others because I may like R&B while you may like something else. Btw, I dun really like R&B, it's just that hikki can make anything wonderful..

My top five songs... I dunno I have too many fav songs...

And I'm quite indifferent to her English songs... .

yes. . .many people have a different taste than me for i look for very specific things that make me sound like a complete weirdo, in music. (i am a weirdo when it comes to art forms) and although first love is a good album it does nothing for me. its like listening to BoA for me.
DEEP RIVER was just gorgeous btw. letters, deep river, tokyo nights etc <3

i guess im the type with music as with books to be super imaginative i feel the need to be put in an aura of a surreal non-earthly world. utada only accomplishes that for me in UB and some songs on DR and a few on HS. HS is too dry. as opposed to a surreal world i feel like im sitting in a high rise apartment in tokyo just chillin. she doesnt need synth necessarily but thats what i look for. thats why i like ayu, hikki, and many v-kei bands (before they go mainstream ugh) ^___~

i cant wait to see what type she would do next. maybe she should just go all rock. (if she puts out anything next)

[AyUta]

Noooo, everyone dislikes kairo . Love that song .

[Polyrhythm]

What? I LOVE Kairo....even though I cant totally see why people might think its boring and hate it.

[U-GO-BOY]

I love Kairo too!

and I think she should do more songs like Uso Mitai ni I love you. but with a more electronic sound.. that would be awesome <3