Listen To This: Utada "Exodus"

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Hikaru Utada
- "Exodus" album cover
- Stills from the "Easy Breezy" video
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This is Hikaru Utada, better known as Utada and even better known by fans in her native Japan as "Hikki". You Americans and Europeans have probably never heard of her but she's huge in Asia, having sold 36 million records in Japan alone. Utada is a multi-talented artist, vocalist, writer, producer, and guitar player. One of the most amazing things about Utada is that even though she is full blooded Japanese she sings with no accent. Listening to her music a mix of pop, R&B, dance, rock, and soul without ever seeing her you'd never know what her nationality was.

Though Utada was born in New York she speaks fluent English and Japanese. Virtually all of Utada's recordings are in Japanese. The "Exodus" album (pictured above) is Utada's first large scale English-language album release. It was released in 2004 on Island/Def Jam Records and was penned by Utada and has tracks co-produced by Timbaland. Though the album received virtually no promotion from Def Jam and peaked at only #160 on the US pop charts the album remains a Japanese fan favorite (despite the fact that the album is in English) and a cult classic for hard core English speaking pop music fans (such as myself). She also contributed a track, "Blow My Whistle" featuring rapper Foxy Brown to Def Jam's "Rush Hour 2" soundtrack. R&B artist Ne-Yo recently released a remix of his song "Do You" in Asia as a duet with Utada.

In my opinion "Exodus" is one of the hottest pop records since the turn of the century, featuring some of Timbaland's best and most unobtrusive work and would have definitely produced hits in the US with some promotion. "Exodus" was the pre-cursor of Timbaland's recent reinvention in his work with artists such as Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado and Madonna.

There is speculation of a new, still untitled, English language Utada album to be released on Island/Def Jam in 2008 with rumored production by herself, Ne-Yo, Stargate, Timbaland, Danja, Just Blaze, Kanye West, Justin Timberlake, will.i.am, Bryan Michael Cox, Akon, Pharrell Williams, Diddy, The Neptunes. I can't wait for that. For right now, let's enjoy "Exodus".

"Blow My Whistle" feat. Foxy Brown

"Hotel Lobby"

"Wonder 'Bout"

"You Make Me Want To Be A Man"

"About Me"

"The Workout"

"Easy Breezy"

For more info on Utada:
- Check out her Official Website @ Island Records where you can view the "Easy Breezy" video.
- Watch the "You Make Me Want To Be A Man" video courtesy of Island Records
- Check out her Wikipedia entry

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Playing In The Background...
"Hotel Lobby"
by Utada
from the album "Exodus"
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