Graves Posted January 17 Author Posted January 17 4 minutes ago, Suilen said: Maybe someone gave Easy Breezy an 11 Oh. Hehe. 11 x 1 (Reverie) HIGHEST SCORE: 10 x 3 (Take Me Apart, gingguu, Ewan Chaos) LOWEST SCORE: 2 x 3 (Curaga, willmcclure9, Suilen) MY SCORE: 6 Whew! This one... there's a lot of history with Easy Breezy. The single that attempted to launch Utada as a pop star in the US market. Also the single that sunk said crossover before it even began! Alright, that's maybe a little too harsh. There was a lot at play contributing to the overall failure of Exodus. More than anything else, was the US ever going to take to a Japanese pop star in 2004? Easy Breezy has its own failures as a song, but to put the entire fate of Utada's stateside success on its shoulders is a tad unfair. So, let's start at the beginning. Hikaru Utada is a superstar in Japan, First Love sold a hundred billion copies, every song she ever released went to number one, she ended Ayumi Hamasaki, yada yada... you know the gist of it: Utada was massive. US record labels clearly had their eye on her and were trying to court her from essentially the very beginning. Hikaru held back for a couple years, mostly to focus on finishing high school and making more music, but it was pretty clear that a crossover was going to happen at some point soon. Eventually, 2004 was chosen as the long-awaited year of English Utada. The lead single for Exodus, Easy Breezy dropped in August of 2004 to... muted reception. It got a cute little music video (look at Hikki driving like a bad *****!), but mostly people responded by mocking the hell out of that chorus. It is a little naff. Hikki's gone on record to say that it was meant to be a very silly song that tried to capture her sense of humor, but it's a joke that didn't land for most people. I still think it's catchy! I just... turn my brain off a little bit when I stream. The song failed to chart, but really... what were its prospects? A digital single in 2004 was still a novelty, and I don't see any promo performances for it on YouTube. It kind of feels like the label dropped the ball on promoting this album that they'd spent years convincing Hikki to make. Ironically, the western debut of Utada found most of its success back in Japan, where it soundtracked Hikaru's commercial tie-ins for the newly released Nintendo DS, and even charted decently when it got a DVD release over there. A misstep in Utada's pretty good singles run up until this point, sure. But I don't think it's an irredeemable song at all. Curaga always finds a way to savage poor Exodus: "Finally a catchy hook, but, holy ****, these lyrics and chintzy instrumental. This makes The Fame sound expensive. She’s so off-key at the end 💀". AMIT also finds charm in this bop: "infamous hook, but it's a cute song and pretty enjoyable if we're being serious (which she definitely wasn't when she wrote it)." Ewan Chaos pays tribute to one of the most iconic choruses of our time: ""You're easy breezy and I'm Japanesey" I mean she's taking it!" She's got a new microphone! She doesn't need you any more! 1 1 1
Suilen Posted January 17 Posted January 17 Well if we had to rate songs by their meme potential then it's certainly an 11 1
poki Posted January 17 Posted January 17 This makes The Fame sound expensive I almost spit pepsi on my screen 2
poki Posted January 17 Posted January 17 Just now, Suilen said: Well if we had to rate songs by their meme potential then it's certainly an 11 I'm surprised Tiktok isn't all over this album
Ewan Chaos Posted January 17 Posted January 17 Oh Reverie would be the one to give ha 11 to this song sdifhsiohdioshdioshdos. If I'm honest... I probably would have given this a 8 without any bias. But I felt like I needed to give at least one English song a 10 and this one's easily my favorite, so Some other shitty English songs are still in too, so smh. The label missteps for all of Utada's attempts at hitting the US market are kinda baffling, true. I think they just heard the music she was going to release and gave up LMFAO. But I agree, even if she had, like, idk released Say It Right instead of Nelly and was promoted everywhere she probably wasn't going to have that much success. 2
Graves Posted January 17 Author Posted January 17 Miss Reverie really came in late with her ballot, dropped an 11 on Easy Breezy, and peaced out Anyway, the next track is in my personal top forty and y'all are DEAD WRONG for cutting it so early. 1
Taste of Honey Posted January 17 Posted January 17 My life has been in turmoil so I didn't have time to do this. BUT I do have time to comment now. And, obviously, the majority of artists don't have discographies as strong as hers there will be some interesting results. But some of these results, umm... 3
Graves Posted January 17 Author Posted January 17 1 minute ago, Taste of Honey said: My life has been in turmoil so I didn't have time to do this. BUT I do have time to comment now. And, obviously, the majority of artists don't have discographies as strong as hers there will be some interesting results. But some of these results, umm... Happy to have you on-board even as just a commenter!
poki Posted January 17 Posted January 17 3 minutes ago, Ewan Chaos said: Oh Reverie would be the one to give ha 11 to this song sdifhsiohdioshdioshdos. If I'm honest... I probably would have given this a 8 without any bias. But I felt like I needed to give at least one English song a 10 and this one's easily my favorite, so Some other shitty English songs are still in too, so smh. The label missteps for all of Utada's attempts at hitting the US market are kinda baffling, true. I think they just heard the music she was going to release and gave up LMFAO. But I agree, even if she had, like, idk released Say It Right instead of Nelly and was promoted everywhere she probably wasn't going to have that much success. Just yesterday I thought to myself "there is a multiverse where Exodus has Loose's success" haha 1
Graves Posted January 17 Author Posted January 17 HIGHEST SCORE: 10 x 1 (Reverie) KING! LOWEST SCORE: 3 x 2 (Aria0327, Hey Dude) FLOPS! MY SCORE: 9.5 A bit of a mystery to this day, Animato was actually the very first song written for Exodus. It dates back quite early, coming into existence during the period that Hikaru was bedridden following her surgery to remove a tumor back in mid-2002. The lyrics pour out in a stream-of-conscious manner that sees Utada sharing all kinds of scattered thoughts relating to the impending English album. It's a really interesting track that I didn't appreciate much on my early listens. I really like the way it bounces between staggering confidence with certain lines and deep insecurity in others. It's interesting to see the doubts they had about the English project even from the start. ...It's quite haunting, honestly. Oh, and I'd be remiss to not mention that ending. I told y'all Mx. Utada loves some old white rockers. Elvis, Led Zeppelin, Freddy Mercury... I'll let it slide on this track, seeing as none of them are being directly sampled this time, but maybe I would've been more inclined to give this a 10 had that bridge been singing the praises of Namie Amuro and Double instead! I'm just saying! Entirely too low! Y'all should be ashamed for not realizing the greatness on display here! Didn't you hear? This is music for ALL HUMANITY! From Hikki. I really treasure those rare moments that Curaga talks about Exodus without being so scathing: "Strange, but pretty good honestly. Love the sparkly sounds. Outro is catchy, but too long." 3
Curaga Posted January 17 Posted January 17 (edited) 4 minutes ago, Subomie said: LOWEST SCORE: 3 x 2 (Aria0327, Hey Dude) FLOPS! “FLOPS!” Edited January 17 by Curaga 1 1
Cruel Summer Posted January 17 Posted January 17 Oh thank god it was just Easy Breezy Love her and all but that placement tracks
Graves Posted January 17 Author Posted January 17 And one more for this evening - it's from an early album.
AMIT Posted January 17 Posted January 17 (edited) noooooooooooo ugh, I love Animato. How can y'all love fantome but not appreciate a track like that? weird hoes Edited January 17 by AMIT 3
Graves Posted January 17 Author Posted January 17 HIGHEST SCORE: 10 x 1 (willmcclure9) LOWEST SCORE: 4 x 2 (AMIT, Suilen) MY SCORE: 7 I'm a little bit surprised to see this one so low. While I'm not too keen on the latter half of First Love, I do think this closing song is one of the better offerings we get. Even from the opening line, Hikki reminds us that they were only sixteen at the time. I can't undersell how impressive it is that this entire album was penned entirely by a teenager. The talent way always there, even if it took a little bit for the creativity to really bloom too. Give Me A Reason is quite a mature track for this album, and it even comes across as a less-sassy, more collected sort of take on the same subject matter as Movin' on without you. Yeah, things are a little rocky right now but all they need is for their partner to just give them a reason (oop, accidental P!nk promo) to keep sharing the love and trying their best. Reciprocation is important! Curaga always has to spoil my nice write-ups with a drag: "This vocal performance is much better than some of the others, but the instrumental is fuzzy/scratchy and lame to me." Meloetta Carey is also here to echo: ""control it! control!""
AMIT Posted January 17 Posted January 17 I appreciate the commentary, but this track has always sounded boring to my ears. I don't dislike it, though, it's just... there.
Curaga Posted January 17 Posted January 17 16 minutes ago, Subomie said: Curaga always has to spoil my nice write-ups with a drag They are really nice write-ups! Way better than my two-cent comments lol 1
Graves Posted January 17 Author Posted January 17 (edited) Thanks for tuning in girlies Took a little longer than I expected but I'll try and work on that for future instances. Most likely giving you all another round tomorrow! Deep River and Fantome remain untouched, but for how long? What tracks do we need to see gone? Edited January 17 by Subomie 3 2
Graves Posted January 17 Author Posted January 17 6 minutes ago, Curaga said: They are really nice write-ups! Way better than my two-cent comments lol When I shade your commentary, it's always done with love 1
Cruel Summer Posted January 17 Posted January 17 9 minutes ago, Subomie said: Thanks for tuning in girlies Took a little longer than I expected but I'll try and work on that for future instances. Most likely giving you all another round tomorrow! Deep River and Fantome remain untouched, but for how long? What tracks do we need to see gone? Thank you for all your hard work! The answer is that Tokyo Nights can go and the rest from those two albums should stay 1 1
Curaga Posted January 17 Posted January 17 9 minutes ago, Subomie said: Thanks for tuning in girlies Took a little longer than I expected but I'll try and work on that for future instances. Most likely giving you all another round tomorrow! Deep River and Fantome remain untouched, but for how long? What tracks do we need to see gone? Maybe this will make a pariah of me, but I am honestly shocked that Drama is still in the running. After looking back over my comments, I think that’s my least favorite Utada song out of them all. I didn’t give any songs a 1 because I don’t think any of Utada’s music is truly that horrible, but Drama was close.
Ewan Chaos Posted January 17 Posted January 17 Fantome can lose most of its second half at any time tbh and Deep River can remain untouched until the top 50 1 1
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