This Should Not Be The One.

by Bradley Stern
filed under: Anthony Mandler, Utada Hikaru

Here is the video for Utada‘s mediocre American re-debut, “Come Back To Me.”

Honestly, I’m quite angry with the entire Utada project at this point.

You’d think: With Anthony Mandler as the producer, an apparent increase in funding for the project (aside from the newly released album cover which I will NOT be addressing in the interest of inexpressible frustration), as well as a general peaked interest in her re-debut as an international artist seeking to branch out…why not go ahead and put a little more artistic effort into it this time around?

Here we have one of Utada Hikaru’s most visually stunning (gorgeous!) cinematographic efforts in her entire collection, and yet it falls flat on the ground. Why? Because aside from a few key dress changes and an assortment of longing, over-the-shoulder soap opera glances, literally nothing happens in this video.

NOTHING. Anything could have been more interesting than this concept. Even “Easy Breezy” was miles ahead of this one in terms of storytelling!

It’s hard to believe that after such a long wait, this is the actual video. Boring, boring, boring…What a complete disappointment!

And yes, this is coming from a massive fan. It’s only out of love, Hikki. You can do better!

pixel This Should Not Be The One.

  • Anonymous

    Yeah, yeah. I got your point. but I somehow realize from her recent interview that she want to play safe this time.

    and we may have to just deal with it.

    I don’t understand either why doesn’t she position herself somewhere around robyn and gaga.
    Cause I’d love that.

    I have been her fan for 10 years.
    and I found your blog when I was searching for Comback to me last month.

    I’m being your fan too now. : )
    Greetings from Thailand

  • JJS III

    This is playing it TOO safe. I’m not as disappointed by the video so much as the track. It sounds like a castoff from Mariah Carey’s post “We Belong Together” era. Latching on to the Stargate trend and completely lacking personality.

  • Proud East Coast Liberal

    Playing it safe is not the way for her to break into the American market big time.

    There is soo much competition out there and she has so much to offer that she really needs to stand out and more importantly be herself.

    This doesn’t come off that way at all. I am really disappointed as a long time fan. I still support her, but I just want to see her take her talent and explode domestically.

    If this was another artist, I wouldn’t say the video is horrible, but for Hikki, this is totally unacceptable and she should know better.

    In Brad’s review he used the word “mediocre”, I think he was being very generous.

    Who is managing her career? They need to be fired immediately.