Utada's New Album

Utada's new album, Ultra Blue, came out today in Japan. After listening to the tracks, I feel a bit disappointed. It seems like she's still in her "experimental" mode, much like Exodus, her US CD from two years ago.

I feel that the style of Ultra Blue is just a bit... different... than what was on her three other Japanese albums. I can't say that I like it as much as her other Japanese CDs, but the music is still pretty original. I guess you can call it refreshing. Here are my favorites from the album:

Passion -- Theme song for Kingdom Hearts 2. It's practically embedded in all promo videos of KH2. I've heard it so many times that I'm starting to enjoy the song a bit.

COLORS -- It was first released as a single like 2 or 3 years ago. Catchy tune. I think it's the first song where I felt her style started to change. Probably the last great (according to my tastes) song from her.

BLUE -- Another catchy song. Much more palatable than the other new songs on this album.

Be My Last -- The single for this song came out last fall. I really like the melody, but it's a shame that her vocal talent isn't quite on par with her compositional talent.

I'm sure this CD will do well in Japan. Her legions of Japanese fans have been waiting for four years since her last album (not counting Exodus), and already bought out most of the tickets to her summer tour. Toshiba-EMI isn't likely to screw up the promotional/marketing efforts like what Island Def Jam did with Exodus in the US (or rather, what they didn't do). I still hope that she'll stop being so experimental and maybe put out something decent soon. In the mean time, I'll stick to Deep River.

Ultra Blue -- 6/10 (7, because it's Hikki, and I like COLORS)