1) On And On 2) Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - FYI 3) Apple And Cinnamon 4) Taking My Money Back 5) This One (Crying Like A Child) 6) Automatic Part II 7) Dirty Desire 8) Poppin' 9) Come Back To Me 10) Me Muero 11) Come Back To Me (Seamus Haji & Paul Emanuel Radio Edit) [Japan Bonus Track] 12) Come Back To Me (Quentin Harris Radio Edit) [Japan Bonus Track]
US Tracklist :
1) Come Back To Me 2) Me Muero 3) Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - FYI 4) Apple and Cinnamon 5) Taking My Money Back 6) This One (Crying Like A Child) 7) Automatic Part II 8) Dirty Desire 9) Poppin' 10) On and On
This Is The One is Utada Hikaru's 2nd full length Eng album . It was released in Japan on 2 Sat's ago ie. 14th March & the USA will see a release date for her new album on 12th May .
So far only 1 single's released from This Is The One & this's her 1st Eng album release in 5 years , after 2004's Exodus . Both of her Eng albums are released under her surname in a way to separate her Eng & Japanese works .
I will review This Is The One based on the Japanese tracklist as frankly I don't like the way the songs are being spread out with regards to the US tracklist . It's weird that both countries's tracklist are different for reasons that I can't put my finger on .
On And On is a nice R&B & somewhat mid tempo driven tune which more or less sets the mood & vibe on what you should expect for the album . It's not the type of opening that I was hoping for as I wanted something like Devil Inside with regards to Exodus but this's still ok in my books .
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - FYI is 1 of my fave songs on the album as Utada sampled the famous classical tune Ryuichi Sakamoto of the same title .
I never thought she was able to blend R&B & Classical pretty well in this context & here I was being skeptical initially on whether will she be butchering such a classical piece of tune but thankfully , the end result was great .
Apple And Cinnamon is a nice mid tempo R&B no. . For me what I like about the song despite the weird title is the lyrics which're pretty meaningful & just like the next song Taking My Money Back , it's also another good tune .
This One (Crying Like A Child) is also another fave song of mine on This Is The One as the melody's pretty much unique as compared to the other tracks as it has a pretty much heavier synth factor & also a good guitar backing .
The lyrics pertaining to This One (Crying Like A Child) is quite bittersweet for that matter too .
Automatic Part II is an interesting title as she sampled her debut Japanese single Automatic which she released it alongside with time will tell 11 years ago .
Frankly I can't really hear that much of the original Automatic in Automatic Part II , maybe a few trances of the melody here & there but still it's an interesting concept that she has chosen to do with regards to Automatic Part II .
Dirty Desire is probably the only song that has remaining traces of songs which you can find in her debut Eng album Exodus . Unlike the lyrical contents of some songs in Exodus , Dirty Desire's quite kid friendly to a certain extent & I like the well dirty beats pertaining to the song .
Poppin' is just whack in either a good or bad way depending on how you feel about this song . It's pretty unique as compared to the other songs in This Is The One . The beats are fierce & the lyrics are pretty amusing to say the least .
Come Back To Me is the lead tie in single for This Is The One . I still have issues with the song in that it's really mainstream R&B stuff . I don't know if that's considered a good or bad thing but sometimes I have days where I like this mid tempo tune , some days I don't .
Me Muero is the last track on the album & just like Poppin' , it sounds different in that it's kinda lounge inspired especially in the beginning of the tune which I adore . At least in a way the album ended off pretty nicely .
Only found in the Japan edition are 2 remixes of Come Back To Me . You have the Seamus Haji & Paul Emanuel Radio Edit & Quentin Harris Radio Edit remixes .
Frankly I'm lousy when comes to describing of remixes & it doesn't help that much I'm not really a remix person to begin with . But all I can say is that pertaining to both remixes of Come Back To Me , they're naturally more upbeat than the original take of the song .
After 5 years since the release of Exodus , the question's is This Is The One a good follow up ? Well to me , it's but to a certain extent . For me I like that this time round , the lyrical content for Utada's new album is more mature & more kid friendly unlike some of the songs on Exodus .
The bad thing I realised after I gave This Is The One a listen is that it's very mainstream sounding as compared to Exodus . Gone were the fast , fierce upbeats & heavily synth tunes you can find in Exodus . Instead they have been replaced with quite a lot of mid tempo tunes .
Other than a few slightly upbeat ones , the rest of the album are pretty much very R&B mid tempo-ish which can be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it . I guess this time round Utada decided to make an album that can reach out to people more easily as that's something I suspect she didn't managed to achieve with regards to Exodus .
With that said , go & do yourself a favor & pick up a copy of This Is The One to support Utada , that's the least you can do .
Blog Personnel
Karen Pang
# 10th Jan
# #1 BREAKERZ fan in Singapore since 2008 debut single ♥
# My music blog consists of JPop/Rock singles & albums reviews that I put my heart , efforts & soul into writing them as I'm disgusted with the way that JPop/Rock music is being treated/written/reviewed in Singapore so to the local media (yes you TEENS , Teenage Magazine & The Strait Times) , screw you all . I basically can write better JPop/Rock reviews , period
