Customer Reviews

Passion (Mlps)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Passion marks a transition into a new phase for Utada Hikaru. Her music is becoming more subtle and sublime. Gone are the days of clear, simple, but beautiful melodies such as Deep River, Final Distance, and Colors. Now, with Be My Last, Passion, and Keep Tryin', she's creating a fresh, new, unique sound that ties her ability to create memorable melodies with a more ambitious, complex, and developed style.

Utada Hikaru has evolved. She has gone from a cute little R&B singer to an artist of epics proportions. While others may say that 'Passion' isn't as catchy as 'Hikari' or 'Simple and Clean' were, there can be no doubt that with this latest single Utada Hikaru has taken a step forward into the unknown.

The song is simply gorgeous, a breath of fresh air in the often redundant world of pop music. The melody is strong and vibrant with incredible backing music and vocals. The 'muttering' or 'gibberish' in the song is actually Hikki singing "I need more Passion than you know" in English - but the phrase has been flipped backwards and inserted into the song. It adds an exotic feel and a cleverness to the track so lacking in many others.

The PV is a perfect companion to the song - fresh and breathtakingly beautiful with an inspired vision that only Kiriya Kazuaki could imagine.

The 'after the battle version' is a different arrangement of the song which, sadly, omits the bridge. It does, however, lend itself to its supposed placement at the end of the Kingdom Hearts II game, after a great battle. All in all, this song and this single are spectacular. A real treat for fans of Hikki, or just music in general.

This may be different than her usual J-pop vibe, but it's still a great song to listen to, and is a great way to escape from the mainstream music that we are currently listening to. True it is still J-Pop but it's j-pop with a whole new spin with sound effects, instruments, and melodies. Plus the addition of the english lines backwards is a nice touch and adds a funky new vibe to the song! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR HIKKI FANS AND KINGDOM HEARTS FANS (after all, it is the new theme song, and fits the game perfectly!)

Just from listening to this song, I've become an even bigger Hikki fan. It's so much more mature than her previous songs and fits perfectly with the new and darker Kingdom Hearts II. At first I was kind of iffy about the single, but the more and more I listened to it, it really grew on me. It's very different from her previous Kingdom Hearts single "Hikari" or "Simple & Clean" in that is much more mature, and has a deeper meaning. It's hard to figure out what that is exactly since there is only a rough translation out there, which you can get at www.kh2.co.uk

I haven't actually bought the single itself, but there are three versions of the song: There's the Opening version, the Single version and then the After the Battle version. The single version was the original and then transformed into the Opening version which provides a funky rock vibe about half way through the song, where she sings "My heart's a battleground" as well as some english lines backward, which sound like "I need more passion than you know" and "I need two emotions" it's very cool, and very different, but adds a lot to the song itself. The "After the Battle" version is accompanied by the Piano and is probably my favorite. It's slower than the single version and the way she sings it, is just amazing. It's so emotional and really provides an image as to what the ending is possibly like for Kingdom Hearts II, and from listening to it, it's going to be sad, no doubt. The reason the "after the battle" version is my favorite, is beacause she sings the song with so much...well, um, passion! No pun intended, since i'm serious here. Just by listening to some of the words she sings it's just sad and she really puts her emotions into this version; it's just breathtaking really. At the end of the "After the Battle" version, well at least after she sings the lyrics, there's this orchestrated version of the song, which finishes it off beautifully since as you get closer to the end of the song, the orchestrated part gets more intense.

Speaking of the orchestrated part in "after the battle" there is an actual Orchestrated version of the song, which is just beautiful, and I would highly recommend finding it and downloading from somewhere. It's beautiful.

I would highly recommend this single, especially for those die hard Kingdom Hearts fans like me. It's such a nice change from the main stream J-Pop music that she ususally sings. I mean, I love Hikari and S&C as much as the next person, but this is just so much different and I'm sure you'll enjoy this more mature song.

As far as the song Passion goes, it's one of Utada Hikaru's best, in my opinion. It's not as poppy as songs like Hikari (known as Simple and Clean in the USA) and Traveling, but in a way that's a good thing. The song, written for Kingdom Hearts II, is a more mature song written for a more mature game. The After The Battle version is also a nice treat where Utada Hikaru's voice is allowed to shine without the immense instrumental backing of the normal version.

The five star rating is for the song alone, but I'd give the CD product and presentation three stars. Many Japanese singles have b-sides or remixes, but this only presents one additional song, which itself is not much of a remix. I always think of singles like Traveling, which had two remixes and a karaoke version. I wish that the producers had done the same with Passion.

This CD has 2 mixes of the same song and thats it. It is well done and not like her earlier work which sounds quite dated.

i know pple say it doesnt add up to being as great as simple and clean..but u know u shouldnt compare one song to another like that...i mean u cant expect hikaru to think of EVERY song as the best..but i was impressed...this is a come back from her easy breezy definitely@_@...she's coming back to her old style which usually seems to fit her more...It really goes with the game Kingdom Hearts 2 as well...I personally loved the melody and teh backwards lyrics, they were great. So If ur a hikki fan or a KH fan i would definitely buy this..or if u love j-pop or just want something nice XD...but i reccommend listening to the song first, like a clip. Buy this and u wont regret it XD

I'm a huge Kingdom Hearts fan and Hikaru Utada fan as well. I contemplating on buying because of the price, but then I decided to buy it. I've always love the Japanese version of Passion better than the English version she did, so I'm happy to buy the single even if 22.99. The price is slightly steep but most likely because it needs to be imported. Overall I love it to death. Every time I hear this song I think about the opening of Kingdom Hearts and the ending scene of it as well.

I love this song. I just wish it was in the English version also, so I could understand the words.

Okay. First of all, I am an absolute Kingdom Hearts FREAK!!!!!!! So of course, once I heard her songs, I HAD to get
them before I shriveled up and died from lack of Utada! *lol* Her songs are absolutely BEAUTIFUL, and she has
not disapointed me, and I doubt she ever will.