Heart Station

Way back in 1999 Utada Hikaru sang the theme song for a TV Drama called "Majou no Jouken". The song was "First Love" and for me, anyway, it has stood the test of time as Utada's finest song. In a country where tie-ins between songs and TV shows or commercials are vitally important, it was also one of the greatest matches between song and show that I've ever heard.

This brings us to the current drama season in Japan (April-June, 2008) and "Prisoner of Love". This song is the theme song for a show called "Last Friends", which may be one of the more heart-rending programs ever shown in Japan. I had long though that Utada would never be so lucky as to approach the brilliance of "First Love", but this song does it. In addition, no song I can think of would be a better fit for the drama it is connected with.

Others have praised "Flavor of Life", but I would say buy this CD for "Prisoner of Love".

First off - unless I have some strange alternate version of this album, the track listing amazon lists for this album is incorrect. Princessa's review gives the correct track listing and lists all 13 tracks on the album.

Overall I was very pleased with this album... some people who purchase it might fall into the same category I did - people who either watch anime movies, play anime games, or both and who enjoyed the japanese songs (or "j-pop") from the soundtracks so much that they decided to do a little bit more digging on j-pop music. Track 13 "Flavor of Life" was the number two most downloaded track - worldwide, I believe - and Utada was the only non-American artist to hold that distinction. I'd recommend inputting "Flavor of Life" as a search on utube DOT com and listening to it - if you like it then more than likely you'll like most of the other songs on this album. While Flavor of Life's my favorite there are several other strong contenders on this track that give Flavor a run for it's money... I really didn't like tracks 8, 12 and 13 and track 4 was only interesting the first few times (ballad version of track 13) but you can always burn a second copy on your PC leaving out those 4 tracks and be left with an album that's quite a treat.

I was extremely surprised that they didn't include the english translation of the lyrics in the little booklet that comes with the CD, although a diligent enough search on google will turn these up. Then again when an artist is singing in Japanese and you STILL like it even though you don't have a clue what she's saying most of the time that tells you something about just how appealing the music is. Needless to say looking up the translated lyrics will give the song even more of an impact once you're listening to it.

Again, it goes without saying that different people have different tastes in music - follow my advice and give Flavor of Life a listen on utube first before buying this. And quite honestly I think twenty three dollars for an album (plus shipping and handling to boot!) is outrageous for an album no matter how good it is... do some shopping around online, I bought a copy (brand new) for fourteen dollars including shipping and handling and I was quite happy with my purchase.

Also as an FYI - track number 10 abruptly cuts off. I was scratching my head in puzzlement given my CD arrived brand new in it's original shrink wrap, wondering if there had been some sort of mistake at the factory. I did some research on google - from what I'm seeing it looks like they deliberately gave track 10 an abrupt ending for emotional impact, an artistic license sort of thing. I mention this mainly so you're not stuck thinking you got a flawed copy of the CD.

What a great CD!
Track 1: Fight the Blues. I dare you not to say "We fight the blues" after hearing this song...
Track 2: Heart Station. Great. Nice melody
Track 3: Beautiful World. Favorite track. Possible Anime song. Chorus is beautiful.
Track 4: Flavor of Life (ballad) Soulful. Not crazy about the wailing-like aspect, but good sound.
Track 5: Stay Gold. Good ballad.
Track 6: Kiss & Cry. Nice trumpet sound. Makes me think of Cowboy Bebop or something. Lyrics are fun. Melody will make you hum it for days.
Track 7: Gentle Beast Interlude. Instrumental?
Track 8: Celebrate. Ha! Will definitely make you "swing;" this is like a super cheesy dance music that you can swing to. Nostalgic. Listen to it.
Track 9: Prisoner of Love. Cool. I wish I could sing the chorus.
Track 10: Take 5. Favorite Track. Has some very anime-soundtrack feel to it. I somehow think of "outer space" anime. Kinda like lynminmei's theme in the Macross movie.
Track 11: Boku Wa Kuma. Cute song. Sounds like a Sakamoto Maaya song.
Track 12: Nijiiro Bus. Favorite song. Would love to sing the chorus of this one. I swear I had the words "Nijiiro Bus" for days ringing in my head.
Track 13: Flavor of Life. I like the ballad version better.
Here's how much I love this CD: I bought the full mp3 version (since I didn't want to wait) and then bought the CD in Amazon. Great pictures in the booklet. Worth it.

I've been following Utada Hikaru's music career ever since I was in collage. And though i'm not nearly as obsessed with her as i initially was, i can still say i'm a fan of her.

I've actually first heard of her through her second album, "Distance." I was initially very impressed by the music video and the R&B-infused music of "Can You Keep a Secret?" and "Wait & See ~Risk~", and eventually went back to her debut album of "First Love", which seemed amateur at that point.

But my favourite by far was her third album, "Deep River." One song would flawlessly blend into each other as you weren't concerned with which was a single and which was just another song. It was a great concept album, and it was the first time she showed us her ability to layer arrangements beautifully. From "Sakura Drops" to "Travelling" to "Deep River", there seemed to be more instruments yet to be discovered with each addition listen.

I wasn't very happy with her next album though, "Ultra Blue." Sure, the singles were pretty good, but there were no tie-in with any of the fillers, yes fillers, full of cheap hooks and forgettable melodies.

So when i found out her new album, "Heart Station", was recently released on Amazonmp3, i was skeptical at best. I had close to no expectation.

Well colour me surprised. Perhaps it's due to my recent infatuation of electronica, but the tracks were very well paired with her upbeat music and electronica through her usual use of flamboyant arrangements. What's more was that in the later tracks such as "Celebrate" and "Prisoner of Love" she had once again introduced her R&B origin, a la her first album "First Love" only sounding a lot more mature. It's only been a few days since my first listen but i'm definitely thinking she has come full circle.

Highly Recommended.

Here's my personal rank of her CDs (highest to lowest):
Deep River, Heart Station, Distance, Ultra Blue, First Love