Heart Station (Japan Version)

Following her previous album Ultra Blue, Hikki continues to leave behind the R&B genre for a more electronic-dance sound as songwriter/co-producer/arranger. After a tumultuous 2007 for her personal life, Heart Station is also a considerably more upbeat album than her previous efforts. The opening track Fight the Blues (Track 1) says it all: "We fight the blues/I had days when I almost gave into depression/The tears that have been shed are my freedom". With its thumping bass, electronic sound, and a repetitive melody, Fight the Blues sets up Heart Station to be the closest Hikki will ever get to a dance album. Those looking for something as intense as Be My Last will likely be disappointed, as the tone this time is light and breezy, with a unified dance-pop sound for most of the album.

Hikki decided to place the ballad version of hit single Flavor of Life (Track 4) as part of the album, leaving the original, more upbeat version to the end as a bonus track. The ballad version is better, smoothing out the rougher sections of the original, but the Karaoke-friendly ballad still suffers from weakly written verse and bridge sections. In both versions, they sound underwritten and only serve to fill the gaps between the catchy choruses. For an artist who has avoided releasing pop fodder over the years, Flavor of Life is Hikki's most mediocre single to date, despite its status as a fan favorite.

While the album's overall tone is light and upbeat, Hikki avoids turning Heart Station into the usual cutesy bubble gum pop that many may associate upbeat J-pop with. Instead, she turns in a slew of dance tracks that may stir up memories of her American album Exodus. In fact, the section between the verse and the chorus in Kiss & Cry (Track 6) is directly lifted from the verse of Hotel Lobby from said album. Its intro even recalls back to Amai Wana from debut album First Love. More so than ever, the tracks here refer to her previous works, building on the styles of those tracks with newfound maturity (though the singer is only 25 this year) and energy. That energy is also carried in Beautiful World (Track 3), another dance track that is fittingly used as the theme for one of 2007's most popular Japanese sci-fi animated film.

Hikki doesn't abandon the R&B genre completely in Heart Station. Stay Gold (Track 5) shows her going back to the basics, combining a smooth R&B arrangement with Hikki's usual fluent English delivery and romantic lyrics, and proving that Hikki can still make solid Japanese R&B when she chooses to. The melancholy mid-beat track Prisoner of Love (Track 9) wanders somewhere between R&B and typical J-pop without finding a sure genre footing. While its composition is on the darker side, the arrangement is in the rhythm of a dance song. As a result, the track doesn't quite generate any real emotional effect because of the clash in styles. Nevertheless, Hikki's vocal performance is solid as always, and her arrangement is similarly engaging. A more effective song with clashing style is titular track Heart Station (Track 2). It combines Hikki's bittersweet lyrics with an atmospheric arrangement for a spacey electronic ballad that can provoke a melancholic emotion without losing its cool futuristic edge.

Unlike Ultra Blue, the tracks in Heart Station manage to connect musically, creating one coherent album. The album starts energetically, displaying its electronic/dance influence in full force. It brings up the energy again mid-way with the Gentle Beast Interlude (Track 7), which recalls back to Heart Station before segueing smoothly into the fun Celebrate (Track 8). Hikki then offers the album's most controversial track Take 5 (Track 10), which concludes abruptly without any transition into the kids song Boku wa Kuma (Track 11). Hikki impressively follows the catchy children's song with concluding song Nijiro Bus (track 12), a sunny and relaxing pop track that brings Heart Station to a pleasant finish. With mostly smooth transitions most of the way, this marks the first Hikki album that doesn't simply feel like a compilation of previously singles and similarly engaging side tracks. With Hikki more in control than ever, Heart Station shows the ever-maturing artist constantly changing her game plan by delving into unexplored genres. The longtime fan in me may be slightly disappointed that she has turned away from the genre that attracted me to her nearly a decade ago, but the music fan in me is happy that Hikaru Utada's music is still as fresh and engaging as ever.

Recommended Tracks: Fight the Blues (Track 1), Heart Station (Track 2), Stay Gold (Track 5), Gentle Beast Interlude (Track 7), Celebrate (Track 8), Nijiro Bus (Track 12)

by Kevin Ma