Deep Dive: Utada Hikaru Part Three (Deep River)

    You'd be hard pressed to find an artist who has had a three album run like Utada Hikaru has. One that comes to mind right off the top of my head is Björk. Which is one of Utada's biggest inspirations. And I find a parallel here between the two and their first three albums. First Love is inspired by Debut. Distance is inspired by Post. And our latest subject, Deep River is inspired by Homogenic. All 6 of the albums have their own identities and nothing is copied. Like Björk with Homogenic, Utada leans all in on electronic with Deep River. And we thank God for that every day. Get your swimwear on, folks. We're Deep River diving.

    This record hits harder in more places than any of Utada's previous effort. We begin at the river's basin with "SAKURA Drops." Which is experimental and absolutely, positively gorgeous. So gorgeous that Disney copped this song around 2012 to use in one of their Disney on Ice escapades which Utada called them out on on Twitter. Which is was astonished by. She's so cool!

    Side note: her music videos were so cool this era. We then move into the thumping, life-changing "traveling." One of the best Utada songs to date. She really changed her game up from this single onwards. It was a career changer, for sure. It's experimental and so unique that it is practically timeless. It's always going to be a killer song with pre-choruses that hype you up and a bridge that takes you out.

    

    I think "Shiawase ni Narou" is one of the few places we get on this album that feels like a direct progression from Distance and to a lesser extent, First Love. It has an R&B feel, but it still has the album's distinct experimentation. This album is Utada's own color, and we see that all throughout like we do on this song's outro especially. 

    The title track is one of my favorites to listen to during summer. It has such a breathless build up, and when it finally opens up, it's chilling. It's a ballad, but it's one we hadn't heard from Utada up to this point. And it's engaging. Lush with instruments and beats. I feel like the music video perfectly captured this song's vibe.

    "Letters" is one of my favorite Utada songs. It's so poppy and has a variety of influences that it feels like a tango at time with a tiny bit of latin flair, acoustic elements, and experimental pop. Utada sings with such feeling on this album, but it comes through the clearest here. "Tell me that you really, really love me/then you go ahead and leave me/how the hell do I go on?" That's a hook that we get right at the end of the song. A joy to sing and a damn cool listen. The lyrics are so clever and colorful. Just like the song itself.

    A fun fact about the album booklet and photoshoot is that it contains a random picture of Utada's foot. Which just feels so random because we get mostly headshots and body shots from her and then BOOM! A foot. She always knows when to throw a curveball.

    With that said, let's "Play Ball." The "I'm throwing my heart" part of this song is so cute and welcomed. A fun baseball metaphor for a country that loves the sport. It continues the album's overall vibe. It's crazy to think that Japanese artists can release a single two years before an album and it fall right into place into an album. This song wasn't a single, but it helps carry the vibe of previous singles released before this album. Utada has always been a professional at this. See her latest, tenth studio album, BAD Mode, for that. 

    "Tokyo NIGHTS" was one of the first songs of Utada's that I ever heard. And I cherish it still to this day. It embodies what Deep River is all about both sonically and lyrically. Deep River is the eight best-selling album of all time in Japan. It sold very quickly too, being 5th in first week sales. It's arguably her most acclaimed work. Which says a lot because all of her albums are acclaimed. One of the very many reasons why for this album is this track. It's engaging from beginning to end. And when you think Japanese music in all of its glory, eccentricities, uniqueness, and overall amazing musicality, you probably think of tracks like this that you never got State side. It along with "Hikari" and "traveling." Those three are the bare essence of this album.

    "A.S.A.P." keeps the fun going. It shows you how well this album flows. As I have absolutely no gripes with the track listing. Nothing feels out of place, and everything is deliberately planned. A strategy Utada would deploy through every following release in the future. The vocals are still strong here, and the melodies are still on point. As always. The song does have a strong foreboding feeling. Which we lacked in earlier songs, so it shakes us up in a good way.

    "Usomitai na I Love You" is another great album track. It's an alt-rock song that does not feel out of place amongst this electronic jungle due to the tricky, genre-bending verses. Deep River being 12 tracks works to its advantage as it shows off all of its strengths with absolutely zero weaknesses. It doesn't overstay its welcome. And when you're finished with it, you immediately look back through it to enjoy the smooth ride all over again. Then you do the same thing a couple of times of year for the next twenty-one years. True story.

    The album's first single is a reworking of the title track of her last album, "Distance." This new take, "Final Distance" sounds nothing like its original, and it really only borrows from the original lyrically. It works greatly. It's heartbreaking. The story for this song is heartbreaking, and it speaks to Utada a lot that she reworked the song into this touching tribute for a fan who passed away tragically. 

    There's a remix of "Distance" on the "Final Distance" single by m-flo that is an absolute treat. It sounds like space which is what m-flo does with their work a lot. That remix was actually an entry point into Japanese pop for a lot of people. Please check it out!

    We then come to "Bridge (Interlude)" which continues a standard practice of Utada albums to feature an interlude before the album's final song. She would continue this on her next album, Ultra Blue, as both albums feel like a parallel themselves with Deep River and its final song, "Hikari," and Ultra Blue and its final song, "Passion," feeling like dawn and dusk respectively. The formulas for the two albums are a lot alike, but they deviate where necessary. "Bridge" is a beautiful interlude that leads us to the absolute bomb that is the final track.

    "Hikari" is one of Utada's signature songs. People in the West know it as its English version "Simple and Clean," the theme song for Kingdom Hearts. That's the thing about Utada is that when she is approached to make a theme song for a franchise, she makes it so good and so original and so signature to the franchise that she becomes synonymous with that franchise herself. This song will be a driving force for decades. It's so unique to Utada. Not to mention just stunning and like a polished diamond. It really needs no explanation or introduction. "Hikari" is that important to Japanese pop.

    That music video both does and does not match the song. "Hikari" is every bit epic and adventurous. That video is so everyday, mundane, and happy. Crazy nostalgic too. There's a story behind it, of course. But the whole thing is just so Utada. And it's what's made her a legend. 

    I think this is the first dive where I have mentioned music videos so much instead of just the music itself. I think it all encompasses Utada's art and how every medium is important to her. If nothing else becomes of Utada's deep dive series, I do hope that you will give her albums a listen and appreciate them if not become obsessed with them. 

    A reason why I'm covering Japanese artists is because publications that publish "the greatest albums of all time" do not pay attention to any artists from other parts of the world. While I don't dabble in much music from outside of Japan and Asia, I know that there are artists out there that rival the ones from America and the UK that speak English. The musicality of artists like Utada, Matsutoya Yumi, and Mr. Children are unmatched, and their own colors that make Japan's music scene shine bright. Music is universal. We should all have open minds and embrace every bit of it. 

    Thanks for reading my ideals! Hahaha

Rank: S Rank. It's a Deep River of perfection.

Recommendation: make it the soundtrack of your everyday or what you think Tokyo life is like.

Standouts:

    SAKURA Drops

    traveling

    Deep River

    Letters

    Tokyo NIGHTS

    Hikari