This is the One: Hikaru Utada

For the most part, as I've exclaimed in the recent, Pop is dirt. There are little, rare exceptions of not-dirt-Pop, but for the most part, Pop is filth. Filthy dirt. Bleh.

One of the exceptions, however, I find is one young woman by the name of Hikaru Utada. I've written about her before, the last time probably about the time I went to see her on her last tour in Japan. Amongst the dirty filth that is the majority of J-Pop, she is a true diamond in the rough. She can actually sing. She can actually write good music. With her Japanese albums, she's always ahead of the curve, trying new things, creating wonderful tracks, not getting really stuck in what makes J-Pop the mostly-spew that it is.



Now, she's recently released her eighth album, This Is The One. It's her third for English-speaking audiences, the first - Precious - under the name Cubic U. The second being Exodus, under her new moniker Utada.

Compared to her last American effort, this circle of music-encapsulating plastic is a lot more solid. No hardcore jumps through genres. She seems to know where she wants to go with it, and I guess the producers do, too. Many of the songs, like Apple and Cinnamon, Come Back To Me, Taking My Money Back and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence really capture the style that I've come to love of hers. Sometimes soft, but never weak, and very poetic. Intelligence shines through.

Now, to the bad. There are more than enough songs on the album that boil my blood. Dirty Desire, Automatic II, and Poppin' sound like the same old MTV garbage spewing, canned R&B sex vomit that are keep Pop in the pits of Heck. Terrible beats and an over-the-top 'I'm sexy' focus seems to take away from the strengths that have made Ms. Utada a unique creature of quality.

It's not as though I don't find her sexy. On the contrary, she verily is. She is hotness cubed (so to speak). However, the problem inlies that she was already beautiful and sexy without these kinds of songs. Her skill as a singer and a songwriter already told me that she was. Her probably over-powering intelligence compared to mine already showed me that she was.

I'm no expert on her career, especially behind the scenes, and who knows how much control others have had over her music, but I feel the dirty hands of Mr. Industry all over it. The 'sex-sells' image seems very forced. If she wants to sing about how sexy she is and who she wants to be with, I'm all for it. I will gladly listen. Sex has it's place in art, but if it's the selling point, then - to me- it's not leaning on the good side of me.

Out of all her music to date (that I've heard), this work is one of her greatest achievements in recent years, but also a heartbreaker (again, for me). I guess it all can be summed up in the CD's cover. The uninspired and poorly placed title muddles her true and shining beauty.

Hikaru Utada's Official Site (English/Japanese)
Utada's Official Site (English)