Graves Posted January 16 Author Posted January 16 (edited) HIGHEST SCORE: 8.8 x 1 (scenekiller) LOWEST SCORE: 1 x 1 (gingguu) MY SCORE: 7 While I'm really happy that Hikki found a place away from Japan to live a somewhat normal life - unfortunately this now means she has to live among Br*tish people Jokes aside, this track is pretty much made or broken by how much you enjoy/tolerate the rap verse, seeing as it takes up almost half of the runtime. The featured artist, Jevon, is a London-based rapper who gets the relatively rare honor of featuring on an Utada album, so kudos to him! ...I hate to say it but I don't really like his verse that much, and I selfishly think that it's down to his accent. That accent kind of makes my skin crawl. Sorry! Sorry! And that sucks for me, cus I dig what the rest of the song is going for. The ascending plinks and plonks that repeat through the track? Camp! The spoken intro? Even more camp! Now, Too Proud did get a semi-single release. And by that I mean that a remix was thrown on streaming a few months after the album came out. It's pretty neat. Instead of Jevon, it features Chinese rapper XZT, Vietnamese rapper Suboi, and Korean rapper EK. It's also titled the 'L1 Remix' because all of the artists perform their verses in their first language, or their L1s. A cool concept, and I actually dig these verses more than the one on the album track version. Now maybe it's because I don't understand most of what they're saying so I'm being less critical, but still... Only issue with this remix being that it just has a lot less Hikaru! Ugh! There's no winning! The worst part of the Too Proud saga? Hikaru actually has performed a solo version of Too Proud on the Laughter in the Dark Tour in 2018, including her own little rap! She was spitting bars! Now why ain't that one available in a studio version?? Curaga places the blame on poor Jevon: "Love this song, but Jevon is the worst feature by a mile. I know I don’t listen to a lot of hip hop, but this guy’s flow/meter/whatever you wanna call it is so awkward and terrible to me. It’s an 8 without the feature, a 6 with." But Ewan Chaos thinks that we should be blaming Hikki instead! "I'm sure people are gonna rate this lower for the rapper, but honestly the song would still be crap solo..." What do you think, audience? Are we Jevonites? Do we swear by Suboi's verse on the remix? ...do we even care about this track? Edited January 16 by Subomie 1 1
Graves Posted January 16 Author Posted January 16 That's all I got for you today. Apologies for the lack of a proper cull, but it probably will happen again The good news is that I'll be able to do some more traditional eliminations tomorrow, so tune in for those. And while I'm on it, this is how the bottom tracks changed as a result of the last ballot. Dirty Desirers rejoice. PREVIOUS NEW 118. Poppin' 118. Poppin' 117. Boku wa Kuma 117. Boku wa Kuma 116. Wonder 'Bout 116. Wonder 'Bout 115. Face My Fears 115. Face My Fears 114. Taking My Money Back 114. Taking My Money Back 113. Automatic Part II 113. Eternally 112. Dirty Desire 112. Automatic Part II 111. Eternally 111. Phakchi no Uta 110. Phakchi no Uta 110. Dirty Desire
Reverie Posted January 17 Posted January 17 The instrumental is pretty great but that's about it and having some guy say where's my hug on a Utada song is funny 2 hours ago, Subomie said: Yeah, and after all of that it didn't even make a particularly good workout song Well actually the dissonance represents the physical discomfort of aerobic exercise... or something 1
AMIT Posted January 17 Posted January 17 all this time I had no idea that Never Let Go even sampled another song altogether 1
Aria0327 Posted January 17 Posted January 17 Yeah the rap ruined the song and the remix featuring khias didn’t help the situation 1
Suilen Posted January 17 Posted January 17 When I listened to Too Proud for the first time I felt a bit homophobic and even thought that if I gave it a low score my ballot would be discarded but then I revisited the song for the rate... and while it remains mediocre (I did hear something still, and worse songs were discovered), maybe it was Hikki who was homophobic with the album 1
Cruel Summer Posted January 17 Posted January 17 Oh thank god I logged in and only trash was taken out, I was worried! I have this lingering feeling my 11 will be the first 11 ejected even though I chose it honestly and not as a meme Hatsukoi starting to get shredded earlier than all the other Japanese albums is my favorite thing 2
willmcclure9 Posted January 17 Posted January 17 Too Proud is good aside from that rap, the remix is miles better. The spoken word moments are a collapse. 2
willmcclure9 Posted January 17 Posted January 17 The Workout is also kinda crazy in a good way, like idk if i hate it or i stan
Graves Posted January 17 Author Posted January 17 Today's game plan: I'm going to drop a few more stray eliminations to bring us to the top 100. After that, I'll be doing a proper slew of ten eliminations this evening that should bring us to the top 90 HIGHEST SCORE: 9.4 x 1 (scenekiller) LOWEST SCORE: 2 x 1 (Aria0327) MY SCORE: 6 The choice to end an album as eclectic and electronic as Exodus with a guitar-driven ballad was... inspired? Expected? Both, perhaps? About Me is a confessional from Hikaru in which they confide many of their insecurities with a partner and urges for them to do the same. While not my favorite Exodus deep cut, I can appreciate it a lot after the shitshow of tracks that precede it. That, and I love moments when Hikki tries to reconcile their true self with their reputation back in Japan ("Is it okay if I'm not cute and naive?"). We get a very ominous take on the topic when the album starts with Devil Inside, and more introverted and quiet look at it here. So yeah, not a track I'd seek out on its own... and I probably skip it when it comes up on shuffle (I'm sorry!), but I do think it's cute. And I like it in the context of a full album listening. Exodus starts with a bang and ends with a bit of a whimper. Curaga delivers some backhanded complements: "Not a bad song, but the performance is shaky; I quite like this song on the live BAD MODE album. Bogged down by the instrumental choices from the time period. The whole album just sounds dated." Oh yeah, About Me got a first live outing almost twenty years after release in 2022 for the Live Sessions from Air Studios release. You can tell Hikaru has a lot of pride and love for the work they did on Exodus.
Graves Posted January 17 Author Posted January 17 Y'all did a bit much on this album for my liking... HIGHEST SCORE: 9.5 x 1 (scenekiller) LOWEST SCORE: 2 x 2 (Ewan Chaos, Cruel Summer) MY SCORE: 7.5 Funky as hell. Tippy Toe is the exact type of song that Utada wouldn't have been able to make on any of the previous albums, if only for the lyrical content it explores. Playing the other woman, homewrecking icon Utada recounts the thrill of sneaking around with a married family man and yearning for more than their secret affair. I think the song does a better job with this sort of storyline than the triteness of Come Back To Me, mostly due to the overly-earnest delivery. Hikki plays the young ingenue a little too well, it must be said. "When the thrill subsides, will you still be mine? Worry infiltrates my head 'til I kill it, I fill it instead with improper visions of you..." I mean, that's kind of a banger lyric right there. They were on some next level **** when writing this album. Personally, I think this song is way too low. I find that the suite of songs from Tippy Toe all the way through to You Make Me Want To Be A Man is some top tier stuff. When people talk about how underrated Exodus is, I assume these are the songs they mean. The album was a melting pot of different influences and directions, some amazing and some whack, but songs like this? This stuff was putting Hikaru in interesting new directions. Curaga has some faint praise, which is more than they can say for the rest of the record: "Cool instrumental around 0:45. Melody is intangible for me, not something I can sing along with. Still not my favorite thing ever, but the instrumental here is the best so far." bestfiction is here to serve sex positivity: "Love how a good bunch of songs on Exodus are just about engaging in dubious sexual interactions. She was really horny!" 1
Aria0327 Posted January 17 Posted January 17 i would say most of exodus have interesting instrumentals/melodies but her vocal delivery on them seems off and can be jarring at times 1
Suilen Posted January 17 Posted January 17 Surprised that the 6-minute long attempt to be Shiina is still in, the payola by @AMIT 1
Meloetta Carey Posted January 17 Posted January 17 1 hour ago, Suilen said: Surprised that the 6-minute long attempt to be Shiina is still in, the payola by @AMIT Is this "Kremlin Dusk" shade?
Graves Posted January 17 Author Posted January 17 12 minutes ago, Meloetta Carey said: Is this "Kremlin Dusk" shade? nn the way I went back to re-read their ballot to try and figure out which song they were shading I still don't know
Suilen Posted January 17 Posted January 17 (edited) 30 minutes ago, Meloetta Carey said: Is this "Kremlin Dusk" shade? 18 minutes ago, Subomie said: nn the way I went back to re-read their ballot to try and figure out which song they were shading I still don't know I meant the French song since Shiina has been doing jazz for the bigger part of her career at this point And if Kremlin Dusk isn't in the top 50 at least then the rate will have to be cancelled I'm afraid Edited January 17 by Suilen
Graves Posted January 17 Author Posted January 17 3 minutes ago, Suilen said: I meant the French song since Shiina has been doing jazz for the bigger part of her career at this point Oh, hehe... What a coincidence... HIGHEST SCORE: 10 x 1 (Curaga) LOWEST SCORE: 1 x 1 (Hey Dude) MY SCORE: 7 Hymne à l'amour is a famed French love song, penned by none other than the legendary Édith Piaf in 1950. The song has been translated to many languages over the years, and in 2010 Hikaru took an attempt at translating it too. Now, Hymne à l'amour already had a very popular Japanese translation: Ai no Sanka, initially performed by Fubuki Koshiji in 1951. Most other Japanese cover versions used this as their lyrical origin, but Utada put their own mark on it by melding the original French with their own Japanese lyrics. It's worthy of praise for that alone, imo. The song makes for an interesting experiment - a very jazz-infused Utada track. I don't speak French so the intricacies are lost on me, but I've heard other people absolutely SLATE Hikki for their French on this track nnnnn. Can we get a third opinion? Any French girls in the rate want to weigh in? Apparently according to reddit Hikaru's French had improved leagues by the time she came back in 2016, so let's celebrate that! ...Anybody want to take bets on when that song will get eliminated? Curaga stans, while reminding us all of much better songs: "Yeeeeees. Love their voice for jazz (Anata, Bad Mode, etc.)." Meanwhile, AMIT is serving Francophobe: "not for me." 1 2
AMIT Posted January 17 Posted January 17 3 hours ago, Suilen said: Surprised that the 6-minute long attempt to be Shiina is still in, the payola by @AMIT I forgot that **** was even in still I should have given it a ZERO 1
Cruel Summer Posted January 17 Posted January 17 2 hours ago, Subomie said: Apparently according to reddit Hikaru's French had improved leagues by the time she came back in 2016, so let's celebrate that! ...Anybody want to take bets on when that song will get eliminated? Wait no I’m scared, if these sentences were supposed to be connected the only song I can think of deserves to be in the top five
AMIT Posted January 17 Posted January 17 2 minutes ago, Suilen said: Gift of prophecy teas you did some public good by punching it OUT of the Top 100
Curaga Posted January 17 Posted January 17 Oh damn, I didn’t know Hymne was so hated Even as someone who studied French all through middle school and high school, I can’t tell that the French is bad asffajdkfjaah oops
Recommended Posts