My biggest concern for her now is that she doesn't follow in the footsteps of Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears.

She is the first Japanese Female artist who cracked Billboard Top 100. Congrats, Utada!

But, yes, I think This Is The One should have been released first, to gain that fan base, and then EXODUS, which is truly an underrated album, being released next.

I’ll still root for her though, Utada is still, after 10 years of loyal song-making, fresh and very easy to listen to, with her swift and smooth vocals, and pounding, yet soft and chilling melodies, she sure can make it into the US and other territories, the talent is most certainly there, people just need to listen!

I know you said, “Honeys, if you’re gay, burn it up like a gay parade,” to “Used to be a Virgin, now I’m with Island Def Jam,” was head-tilt worthy, but I actually LOVE them! x) I find “Do you like the way I rhyme? It’s pretty darn clever” and hell, half of “FYI” much much worse xP

As for if this is better than ‘Exodus’, we’ll have to agree to disagree. The songs and lyrics from ‘Exodus’ were past head-tilt – they were just cringe! xD(Even my favorite, ‘Tippy Toe’ had me going ‘what was she thinking? Catchy, if not a little wordy tho…’)

This one may really be “this one” for her. It’s not perfect, but it’s good.

i've been a hikki fan for quite some time and i know exactly why she went in this direction. she got a strong fanbase, almost downright obsessive, with her previous work. she spent a long time grinding out this album while working on her new japanese album, too. the intense effort was for a reason, i'm sure hikki has a difficult time backtracking so far. when she was Cubic U, apart from being decidedly r&b the songs were still romantically touching. which is probably why they didn't fly off the charts like this will.

hikki is counting on a massive response with this highly sexual, booty-bouncin' album. thing is, hikki is so incredibly cute. she has an angel implanted in her throat. and my guess is in order to compensate for that and still get her ultra-RnB message across, she's made the lyrics borderline-filthy and sampled the tried-and-true song styles of past RnB greats. but she's still that darling lovesick hikki, as we are reminded of in "this one (crying like a child)".

for a serious fan of hikki like me, someone who has memorized and can sing some of her japanese classics, it's a stretch for me to hear her go in this direction. and at such a fevered pace. but i remember "let me give you my love" and "the workout" (a song i deleted because it just wasn't doing it for me. the phrase "don't stop get it get it" sounds like porn). and if i understood the japanese hit "addicted to you" correctly, she was singing about an abusive relationship. she's tackled relationship problems and hikki has hinted at her hypersexual tendencies before. she just didn't use a whole album to do it. but aren't the pretty girls the ones we think about doing all the nasty things to? i'd like to think so.

as usual i commend hikki for her lovely singing voice and flexing her vocal range for us in the studio. if this gets play on the hip-hop stations it's a platinum at least.

xx

Anyways, I’m willing to link you up on my website. Will that be alright?