Pop hit maker Hikaru Utada recently released the first best-of compilation of his career titled science fiction. One of Asia's leading pop superstars since the late 1990s, Utada released a compilation featuring their vast catalog titled Utada Hikaru SINGLE COLLECTION VOL. 1/VOL. 2 in the past, but this was a collection of singles rather than a best-of album.
The 41-year-old artist has always been able to capture the fluid atmosphere that existed between them and the times, and then deconstruct and reshape himself accordingly. This means that their best work is not just a collection of songs from the past, but a body of work that strongly reflects who they are today. Therefore, songs that were first released long ago have been remixed and recorded and a brand new song has also been included in the project. The album, mysteriously crowned SCIENCE FICTION, is a fresh and ambitious “new project” characteristic of the veteran pop artist.
It's still hard to say that Hikaru Utada's recent works – originating in R&B and magically transformed over the years by absorbing other genres, including electronica – have been widely accepted outside of Asia. Fortunately, the talents of the “Pink Blood” star are gradually being discovered in the US MALFUNCTION, their latest album featuring a meticulously detailed soundscape featuring collaborations with AG Cook and Floating Points, was ranked No. 31 on Pitchfork's “50 Best Albums of 2022” list. Also, “Somewhere Near Marseilles” was placed at No. 10 on the online music publication's “The 100 Best Songs of 2022” list. A new version, called “Sci-Fi Edit”, of this track is included on Utada's latest album.
The singer-songwriter's performance of “First Love” on the main stage at Coachella in 2022 likely helped boost their exposure on the American music scene as well. After their first music festival held together with a variety of 88 up-and-coming stages, the Asian star's music is slowly gaining traction in the US market. In fact, among the songs on science fiction, “First Love,” “One Last Kiss,” and “Kimini Muchuu” (I'm Crazy About You) charted on Billboard's Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. tallies (second at No. 61, No. 14 and No. 21, respectively) and “Face My Fears,” a collaboration with Skrillex and Poo Bear, charted on the Hot 100 of all kinds.
All of these highlights happened after 2019. Utada's music and current environment has changed dramatically since their first album First love became the best-selling album of all time in Japan and rewrote the country's pop music history in the late 90s. Now based in London, the J-pop giant resonates with various corners of pop and left-field music produced worldwide. That's why this best album, science fictionis the perfect opportunity to encourage further discovery of the appeal of this illustrious musician.
Since this best-of set is so current it could be considered new, let's draw a few pointers to help listeners make sense of it. The first thing that catches our attention is the album title, science fiction. Since this is also the name of Utada's upcoming concert tour later this year, it may be premature to try to unravel the mystery based solely on the album's content. But it's a compelling idea when considering their careers up to this point.
After starting out as a singer-songwriter whose music leaned towards R&B, the “Automatic” artist has gradually moved more towards electronic music since his third album. DEEP RIVER (2002) and has infused their songs with a physicality brought to life through computer music and enhanced by live performances. In MALFUNCTION, Utada experimented with more electronic sounds in collaboration with AG Cook and Floating Points, where looping level rhythms and alien sound processing thrown in here and there strike a strange, if contradictory, balance. Let's use “universality” and “discomfort” to describe these conflicting elements. When asked in a previous interview about these two elements present in their works, they replied, “Music is a very natural thing,” and then went on to say;
“(Music) can be waveforms, it can be thought of in terms of frequency, texture, volume. I'm the kind of person who wants to get a very round shape. I think that if you are careful in the distribution of all the elements, you naturally end up with the overall balance that you are aiming for. I think about the predictable and unpredictable areas, like, “If there's just one time in the song, it'll be the way I intended it to be,” and I think about how often and how much I have to mix that sense of discomfort into each element. I also think about the relationship between these elements in terms of their distribution.”
Utada's words indicate that they seek balance with a highly objective perspective, and their approach to expanding their sound by injecting a sense of discomfort into something universal can be said to be somewhat science fiction-like. The way mechanicality and physicality are precariously assembled under a tense sense of balance, combined with their distinctive musical prosody through bilingual lyrics, tug at our emotions every time we listen to their works.
Since revealing the name of their new best-of set, Utada has hinted that their interest in quantum mechanics and the hypothesis of simulation inspired the title. On “A Flower of No Color,” their latest single from the upcoming project, they sing “According to renowned scholars / We're just illusions / But today / as always / I'm in love with you” and, “But / if I can't believe in myself / I can't believe in anything / This is synonymous with not existing / Only facts that cannot be proven / Are called truths” These lyrics evoke themes such as the human principle and philosophical realism — perhaps the “famous scholar' is Nick Bostrom?
Another highlight from the album is their new song “Electricity”, which was first released on this album. This track, with a ripple from Sam Shepherd aka Floating Points, again features some innovative prosody with a strange “EEEE–le-eee-ctri-i-city” sound and Utada goes on to sing, “Fearing the unknown / addicted to conspiracy theories / To all this humanity / I want you to read a letter that Einstein wrote / to his daughter / Love is light, love is the essence,” referring to the much-discussed topic of fake news. in the age where fragments of meaning are endlessly propagated, the “Find Love” artist tells us that “the story etched in our ingredients / won't end even if the writing disappears from this planet,” giving a conclusion before disappearing into distance with the sound of the saxophone.
While deftly weaving the dichotomies of pop/alternative, Japanese/English, universality/discomfort, and reality/fiction, artist Hikaru Utada exists as someone who has slipped through all of these oppositions, moving fluidly between them and the times. Their presence shimmers like science fiction, this brilliant musician is now moving on to the next phase of his career.
—This article by Tsuyachan first appeared on Billboard Japan
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