| 2004-10-28 - "Stick it in your ear" - The Des Moines Register "Stick it in your ear" By KYLE MUNSON (kmunson@dmreg.com) - REGISTER MUSIC CRITIC The Des Moines Register - Thursday, October 28, 2004 http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041028/ENT04/41027014/1046/ENT If we consider Utada Hikaru the Japanese answer to America’s Britney Spears, then the Far East is far above and beyond us in the pop-diva game. This 21-year-old singer-songwriter-producer has sold more than 17 million albums in Japan in the last five years, and her 1999 debut is the best-selling album in Japanese history. Now the excellent “Exodus” is Utada’s English-language introduction to the rest of the world, but she’s no stranger to America. She was born in New York to Japanese parents before she became a teen sensation in Tokyo, and she returned in recent years to study at Columbia University. Musically, Utada has much more in common with Iceland’s Bj?rk than Britney — an angelic voice that floats atop a complex, dense storm of everything from synthesized beats to delicate strings. Famed American hip-hop producer Timbaland adds his rhythmic midas touch to two songs, but Utada’s own impeccable programming fares even better. “Easy Breezy” is the brightly melodic and radio-friendly pop gem of the album, while tracks such as “Hotel Lobby” (about a prostitute) take on a more atmospheric and chilling tone. “Kremlin Dusk” is the rich stunner of the CD, featuring rippling drums contributed by Jon Theodore of Texas rock band the Mars Volta. Utada is a sharp lyricist as well as a musical firestorm. She touches on Edgar Allan Poe, Led Zeppelin and Freddie Mercury as influences but then also does occasionally lapse into standard pop-diva sex-kitten mode; one of her Timbaland-produced tracks, “Let Me Give You My Love,” finds Utada cooing, “Buckle up boy, I know you’re gonna like what I got.” (Britney, eat your heart out.) But the balance of “Exodus” proves that Utada’s unique musical voice doesn’t get lost in translation. Utada, “Exodus” (Island) FOUR STARS out of FIVE
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