The beautiful and bilingual Utada released her US debut album Exodus
last October. Utada grew up partly in New York and partly in Tokyo.
Both of her parents are musicians, and she released her first album
when she was 12- which unfortunately did not make it out of the gates
because of record company issues. Her proper debut album was "First
Love" (1998), which sold an extraordinary 12 million copies in Japan.
Her current album Exodus takes her out of Japan and into the US and
European markets. Already the lead single "Devil Inside" from the
album has rocked up the charts (#1 Billboard Club Hit) with the help
of hard hitting remixes from Scumfrog and Richard Vission. But a #1 on
Billboard Club in America doesn't necessarily mean a single is getting
radio play at the mainstream level. And Utada has got what it takes to
be a huge mainstream pop artist. (I heard a radio (NPR) interview with
The Scissor Sisters where they said they couldn't get arrested in the
US, and so they took refuge in the UK, where they built their initial
fan base; which in turn led them to gain major fans in the US).
Since then, Utada has been busy with a global assault setting up her
album and preparing for a release in the UK. The second single from
her album Exodus is scheduled for release June 21, 2005. With a wide
variety of styles, the "Exodus 04" single caters to chill-out, house,
trance, electro fans alike. Particularly noticeable is the inclusion
of mixes that are radio-friendly right out of the gate. Josh Harris
surprises us with a tasty downtempo treat and when he teams up on the
MPC radio mix, he nails down an ultrapop sound, showing his diverse
talents in the remix field. For this single, all his mixes range the
low BPMs. The Double J mix is a chilled house affair. Peter Bailey
delivers a trademark muscular house dub. Kriya vs Velez get into some
cool blippy techno with their electro remix. Finally, the most
slamming remix of the batch has got to be the JJ Flores Dub #2. It
will rock the floor. The Josh Harris vs MPC mix will rock the radio if
given the chance. The remixes here give a little something for
everybody. Utada is definitely an up and comer; she's beautiful,
writes good songs with intelligent lyrics, and has a keen electronic
sensibility.
