Customer Reviews

Heart Station

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Heart Station is a great triumph from Utada. I just received my copy in the mail along with a beautiful promotion poster. Each track is strong because all the songs fit so well together. There is a feel good vibe throughout all the tracks that runs like a common thread from the first song to the last. Sometimes Cds aren't very bad but the tracking order is wrong so the album lacks the right continuity. That doesn't happen with Heart Station. Now, thanks to Ipod playlists you can arrange the track order anyway that you wish. I would not change anything on Heart Station.
I have been a Utada fan since First Love debuted in 1999. I was living in Osaka, Japan at that time and you could hear First Love piped in at Mr. Donuts and outside from speakers around the shopping districts. First Love was such a huge hit, that even the local baseball teams were playing it over the loud speakers.
Distance was another strong album and its long been my favorite Utada CD since it appeared back in 2001. When Exodus came out, I felt the quality wasn't there. I honestly thought that Utada was heading for the big downward spiral that often happens to J--pop singers who are no longer popular and not desired by the public. That was something lacking in Exodus that caused it not to sound like a real Utada effort. Ultra Blue was ok and much better than Exodus but it lack the creativity and driving energy of First Love and Distance.
That's why I'm glad that Heart Station has just been released. This is the album to cause people to forget the experimentation that resulted in Exodus. I think it will put Utada back on the Japanese charts and keep the current fan base happy while acquiring new members.
From Fight The Blues, Utada sets up the perfect audio atmosphere that leads to Heart Station, another strong track, and then Beautiful World.
The first 3 tracks are very strong. Next up is Flavor of Life, as a ballad version. Then it's the nice catchy piano intro to Stay Gold. Kiss & Cry takes elements of a song in Exodus and remixes that fleshing it out into a much stronger track.
Gentle Beast is a nice little melodic interlude which blends in well with Celebration. Celebration is my favorite track on Heart Station. I think its just as strong as Wait & See and Automatic from past albums.
My second favorite track is Prisoner Of Love that captures the right emotions musically for the context.
Teiku 5 is very catchy and keeps the tracks moving along. A wonderful upbeat song.
Boku ha kuma reminds me of Japanese children's music and it does a great job of showcasing youthfulness. When I first heard it, it made me think of the old Ultraman show and all the children singing the theme song in Japanese. Next is a great song called Niji iro basu, with a driving beat that shows off Utada's playful singing style. Last is the bonus track, Flavor Of Life this time as a regular pop song but it still works for me as a dance track or a ballad.
Here's the track list
1. Fight The Blues
2. HEART STATION
3. Beautiful World
4. Flavor Of Life -Ballad Version
5. Stay Gold
6. Kiss & Cry
7. Gentle Beast Interlude
8. Celebrate
9. Prisoner Of Love
10. Teiku 5
11. Boku ha Kuma
12. Niji Iro Basu
13. Flavor Of Life
If your new to Utada and you like HEART STATION, I also recommend First Love, Distance, Deep River, and Ultra Blue. Out of those recommendations, First Love and Distance are my favorites. They are much stronger than both Deep River and Ultra Blue.

As my favorite female Japanese vocalist, Hikaru Utada has rarely made a poor musical choice over the last decade. I hold her single "Colors" (alongside Ken Hirai's "Aika (Elegy)") to be the greatest thing to come out of the entire J-Pop movement, and its a pity this wonderful vocalist is not known more to the Western world. She did try, on her "Exodus" album a few years ago, but sadly that didn't do for her what the record company thought it would.

Cut to 2008 - after a difficult personal life and time away from the spotlight, Utada returns with her strongest album ever. I will be the first to admit that its not her 'best' album - that honor remains with the timeless "Deep River" (which still sounds jaw-droppingly flawless), but its certainly the best female J-Pop album in the last three years, and certainly the one with the most diverse musical genres within it.

Hikaru Utada has had a very Christina Aguilera-type career in Japan, where her debut album was straight-forward radio-pop. She then experimented on her later albums with more of a ballad-style, acoustic-folk sentiment, but all the while retaining her trademark pop sensibility. On "Heart Station", all these elements come together. There is a faux-rock track, a track written especially for young children, and a noteworthy song about death.

That song about death, "Teiku 5" (translation : Take 5) is by far my favorite track on this stellar record. The cut is notorious because it ends suddenly with no forewarning (and I mean that, it just ends abruptly with no musical cohesion or sense), but as an artistic statement and explanation of what death is all about, this made perfect sense. Never one to think that Utada would venture into the realm of spirituality, but she's done it in the most interesting way here.

My other personal favorite would have to be the singalong "Boku Ha Kuma" which is so instantly addictive. The production here is top-notch - and it sounds like Pharell and Timbaland both collaborated on the album (they did not, obviously, but it sure sounds like them). Utada also stretches herself vocally here - in fact, every song could be a single. Most single-worthy of all is "Flavor of Life" (already a huge hit on the Singles Chart in Japan) and the opener "Fight the Blues".

Lets face it - no one can do JPop as well as Utada. Sometimes I think she has rejuvenated the entire genre. Recently I was listening to some contemporary Jpop by its' prime female stars such as Koda Kumi (whom I really can't call a musician), Ayumi Hamasaki (who is too pop-rock for my liking), and even Every Little Thing (a little too acoustic and Starbucks-ish for me). Utada fills the void perfectly. She has the right elements of pop, folk and radio-friendly tunes that stick in your head whether you speak Japanese or not. This is what I look for when I buy a pop album, which is why alongwith Ken Hirai's AMAZING new 2008 album "Fakin' Pop", this is a prime contender for Album of the Year.

Never boring, and constantly innovative, this is one album you should be buying if you're a true appreciator of world music. And check out that cute album cover! Utada returns to us, and the world is a better place.

Four and a Half Stars

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.

It is difficult to rate this in comparison with her other works, because each album has a different feel to it and a different flavor. If 'Ultra Blue' was experimental pop, though, this album is best described by the name of the interlude- a Gentle Beast.

A Gentle Beast in that while is pulses with deep energy, this album is soothing and optimistic even when the song content is about breaking up, thinking of that lost love, or even death. Ever while soothing the listener, it still has a strong energetic undertone to balance it out. The sound of this album is somehow perfectly uniform in that all the songs fit well with one another, but still manages to show a deep diversity in sound types.

Though there is that experimentation we've grown to expect from our beloved Hikaru, there is also a clever blending of genres that carefully reminds us where she has been musically, from the R&B sounds of 'Kiss & Cry' to the Kairo-like 'Take 5' to the upbeat and catchy pop sounds we remember from the Distance Album making their appearance once again in 'Celebrate'. The emotional-depth of the lyrics remind fans of the Deep River album, and the fresh, experimental techno sounds remind us of Exodus.

One interesting thing to note about this album is the ordering of the songs- almost all the singles are placed just before the interlude, successfully separating the more commercial songs with the songs written specifically for the album. (So far the exceptions to this are "Boku wa Kuma", her children's song, and "Prisoner of Love" which will be released as a single on the 21st of May.) Though on a lesser album this may lead listeners to skip the album-only songs altogether and opt to only hear what they've already heard on the radio, this doesn't happen on HEART STATION because the songs that come after the interlude, the album-only songs, are brilliantly done and hold their own when placed next to the better known singles.

My favorite album-song of HEART STATION is the unique "Take 5" track, which confounded some listeners at first glance due to its abrupt ending. The song, about death, gives us a peaceful listen and a quick ending that made many fans disconcerted and uncomfortable (going so far as to wonder if their copy of the song or their CD was corrupted. It wasn't.) It is almost as if waking from a dream, and it's brilliant.

My favorite single is definitely "Prisoner of Love" the only song on the album besides "Flavor of Life- Ballad Version" that featured strings, this song has raw energy and emotion along with a beautiful and mesmerizing melody.

All the songs are excellent, and whether you're a new listener of Utada's work or you're an old fan wondering if the album is worth getting, I'd recommend it highly as something to tell you where Utada's been but also, perhaps, where she is going.

A+ Hikki!

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

"Heart Station" is the latest release by Utada Hikaru. I really enjoyed the album and I'm pretty sure other Utada or J-Pop fans will enjoy it as well. However, this album felt more like a singles collection if you got the singles released before "Heart Station." Nearly 2/3 of the tracks were already released as singles. I'll be reviewing each song separately.

"Fight the Blues" starts off the album with a bang. "Fight the Blues" has heavy ethereal sounds to it, Utada also breaths to add to the beat. The message of the song is good but the song was really boring to me. It's a good album opener, but some won't like it.

"Heart Station" was one of the A-sides on Utada's "Heart Station/Stay Gold" single. "Heart Station" has a beautiful instrumentation with beautiful lyrics. The metaphor about being connected with radios and love was really cute. The song does get repetitive sometimes however.

"Beautiful World" was one of the A-sides on Utada's "Beautiful World/Kiss & Cry" single. "Beautiful World" has a very beautiful instrumentation and Utada knows how to hit her high notes perfectly. The song is a very beautiful song that shouldn't be missed.

"Flavor of Life -Ballad Version-"is the smash hit single from 2007. The song is pretty nice and Utada sounds really good. But the song is overall boring. Nothing really changes in it. It also over stays it's welcome. It's about 5 minutes long; it should have been about 4 minutes and 30 seconds.

"Stay Gold" was the other A-side on her "Heart Station/Stay Gold" single. The piano is very beautiful in this song and Utada sounds beautiful as always. But just like "Flavor of Life -Ballad Version-"it over stays it's welcome.

"Kiss & Cry" was the other A-side on her "Beautiful World/Kiss & Cry" single. "Kiss & Cry" takes her old R&B style and mixes it with her new experimental pop style. The two blends well together, the hook borrows from her English song "Hotel Lobby" which appeared on "Exodus." "Kiss & Cry" is a song that will take a few listens to fully appreciate.

"Gentle Beast Interlude" breaks up the gap a little bit between the singles and new tracks. This interlude borrows some lyrics from "Heart Station" and the sounds are very unique, the track blends in right in Celebrate. The reason was Gentle Beast and Celebrate were originally on the same demo.

"Celebrate" is a hot 4 minute dance tune. It has a very hot beat and catchy, simple lyrics. Only thing I didn't like was how bored Utada sounded when she sang the chorus.

"Prisoner of Love" was released as a re-cut single to promote Utada's album and the Dorama it was being featured in. "Prisoner of Love" shows off more of her old R&B style with her new style. The lyrics flow together beautifully and the ending is the best part with the sad, true lyrics. It's a song that shouldn't be missed.

"Take5" is one of Utada's most unique songs. It has a very awesome beat with beautiful lyrics that flow together perfectly. The cut-off at the end caused controversy after some people thought it was their copy being defective. But Utada made it that way because the song talks about death and suicide, and the cut off symbolizes death takes away life quickly.

"Boku Wa Kuma" is the next song right after "Take5." This is a bit of storytelling on Utada's part as "Boku Wa Kuma" is a children's song, and children are often symbolism of being reborn. So it goes perfectly with "Take5." "Boku Wa Kuma" is a kids song and Utada made it perfectly. It's a very cute song.

"Niji-No Basu" is the ole Utada style. Happy beat, depressing lyrics. "Niji-No Basu" has an analog sound and it has a catchy beat. The song gets a bit, darker near the middle since the song goes into about wanting to be in a world where there is no one. It's a song that takes a few listens to fully appreciate but it's not a song that should be missed.

"Flavor of Life" is a bonus track and I say that it should have been the one to replace "Flavor of Life -Ballad Version-" "Flavor of Life" is more up-tempo then the ballad version and it's much shorter and is at the right length. It's a great end to "Heart Station."

Even though "Heart Station" has a lot of singles, all the songs are great. Though some might be a bit lengthy the songs are great. It's an album that shouldn't be missed.
5/5

Ever since "Deep River," J-pop jaggernaut Utada Hikaru has constantly updated her sound, going from more mainstream urban-pop to more experimental, even ambient, electronic pop. With this artistic growth, she has been lucky to maintain a solid grasp of the attention of her audiences by consistently yielding big sales in Japan. Usually when an artist, especially one that started out in such a bombastic, mania-inducing manner as she did (her Japanese debut album, "First Love," still holds the records for being the highest and fastest-selling studio album in the history of Japanese music), decides to reinvent herself in a bid for credibility, music critics and cynics alike would be the first to bash her for betraying her fan-base. Fortunately for Utada's sake, she's always presented herself as more than just another J-pop dimwit: even in her teens, she carried herself with such poise, understated grace, sophistication, and so much potential that it didn't even matter when she began to make more mature-sounding music. The transition was basically seamless (if not effortless).

In her latest progression, "Heart Station," Utada Hikaru updates what she had with "Ultra Blue" (deep, brooding, atmospheric, ethereal pop music fueled by understated emotion and pure class) by making the mood of the album lighter and more pleasantly dream-like. Although she keeps the emotional resonance in every single track strong, you get the sense that she's at a better place as an artist and as a human being with this effort. In fact, this can be her most intimately organic, human-sounding album yet (despite all the studio wizardry - which deserves commendation on its own sonic merits). Ironic, considering this is the album that followed her divorce with her husband. Regardless, if she does feel more liberated creatively and emotionally, it definitely shows with the way the album sounds.

Utada's music has always displayed a sense of urgency when it comes to the emotional connection between the song and the singer, and in "Heart Station," you have never seen her more in-tuned and graceful with her delivery. "Beautiful World," for example, though being suspiciously similar in sound to past tracks like "This Is Love" and "Traveling," holds its own because Utada sounds in-peace, yet still melancholic. It really does tug the heartstrings a bit, even when it's seemingly weightless (not to be confused with being just disposable pop fluff - despite the light-as-air general atmospherics of the music in question, all of the tracks are at heart credible, solidly-composed, worthy pop gems). Even better is "Stay Gold," arguably Utada's loveliest moment. If a baby's breath or silk would have a sonic counterpart, this would be it. The track is grand and powerful not because it explodes into your ears garishly, but because it is hypnotically gentle. Tracks that stimulate not only the ears, but all the senses and one's psyche are what make Utada Hikaru stand out from other big-name J-pop artists: she has the ability to conjure up great sales and legitimate credibility because of her unmatched music prowess (she does, after all, sing, write, and produce all of her songs on her own using her own tools). When it comes to true artists with such mainstream ubiquity, Utada Hikaru is unmatched. Ayumi Hamasaki, Namie Amuro, and Kumi Koda may have their own respective strengths as the other female high priestesses in the J-pop game, but not one of them have displayed as much sophistication and utterly pure talent as Utada has all these years.

That being said, Utada's more experimental pop leanings may come dangerously close to becoming lounge music or too ambient for consumption (probably inching towards new age-y stuff), but thankfully she's still got some pop chops in her to remain savvy with what the people want. She does, after all, continue to garner big sales numbers (something that can't be stressed enough - she's always one of the highest-selling, if not, the highest-selling female J-pop artist in every calendar year her albums come out): a testament to her ability to find something that connects with the masses. This fact only shows that no one has it better than her in J-pop and in world-wide pop music in general: she's at the point of her growth as an artist that she can do whatever the hell she wants, but still get away with it with flying colors. Many artists from all over the world would definitely want to be in her shoes. What more, she garners all this critical acclaim with such modesty: a bonus in pleasing the Japanese tradition of grace, subtlety, and peacefulness when conducting your manner in public. The only bad thing Utada can do at this point is to abruptly stop making music. Only then will she truly be betraying such an adoring and well-deserved audience. Japan will always be open ears to its most regal of pop princesses.

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.

This album is in Japanese, and if you can't appreciate songs that you don't understand because it is Japanese maybe you don't want to have it but music wise, it is really always good to have works of Utada Hikaru, always good music! She has been my favourite female singer and this album is no exception. No regrets in getting this one!

Seems like every new album of Hikki's is my current fave, and this album is no different. There may be a little less soul, but this album shows musical genius that is truly Hikki. It's pure fun with danceable rhythms & orchestrated beats that I find most enjoyable working out or running. It lightens my heart, as does most of her music & lyrics, and puts a smile on my face. Heart Station is catchy with it's sultry lyrics that pulls you in. Just in her mid twenties, I cannot wait to hear what Hikaru will think of next...