Frontaal
Naakt
1 maart 2024

Hikaru Utada sings like she’s really in love

 

 

Hikaru Utada has been one of the greatest popstars in Japan for the past 24 years. Her music is ear candy; nothing profound but very well written and produced, maybe a little over produced. Catchy songs, hard to dislike, a very pleasant, light but warm voice, accompanied by invigorating doses of piano. Smooth.

Take the song in the video above. Light classical piano music to accompany a melancholic love song, lots of pathos, but Utada sings it like she means it. Too bad a drum computer sets in halfway. I would have liked a real drummer better. I wouldn’t have minded if the whole song had been just the voice with the piano.

But I sort of like the Bjorkian percussion at the end, like the cracking sounds of ice, and the sweeping violins. Well, synthetic violins, really. But still a very nice song.

There’s a list on Spotify of the songs I reviewed in this section. It’s Frontaal Naakt’s Playlist.

Music