This album has been submitted by a user and is not included in any edition of the book.
Ultra Blue (stylized in all caps) is the sixth album by Japanese–American singer Hikaru Utada, released on June 14, 2006, by EMI Music Japan. It is the first original Japanese language album under Hikaru Utada's name in four years since her third album Deep River (2002). Ultra Blue contains thirteen songs, including six singles released between 2003 and 2006. While the arrangements for her album Deep River were done collaboratively, all but one of the songs on Ultra Blue were written, composed, and arranged solely by Utada, who also did the programming herself. In this album, the R&B elements that have been present since her debut are further diminished, and the majority of the songs have an electronic flavor with an emphasis on synth sounds. Ultra Blue received mostly positive reception from music critics. The album was a commercial success in Japan, selling over 500,000 copies in its first week and debuting at number one on the Oricon Albums Chart. By the end of the fiscal year, it became 2006's best-selling original album by a Japanese female soloist. It was also the fourth most downloaded album of the year on iTunes Japan, and was certified as a million-seller by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ). During summer 2006, Utada held a nationwide concert tour to help support the album titled Utada United 2006.
Love her work on Kingdom Hearts, and this was a great first full album to hear!
There is an incredible lack of j-pop (and other east Asian music in general) so this was a fabulous add.
Rating: 7/10 Best songs: This is live, Blue
I have very little familiarity with J-Pop or music from this part of the world. I was happy someone promoted this to the list and think a bonus star is in order for representing a whole unexplored part of the musical world. I don’t know if this is great, good or other J-Pop, but I can say that I enjoyed several songs quite a bit and the album stuck the landing ending on a high note for me.
Early 2000's sound in 2006; not my thing, but I can see why someone would dig it.
A decent (if overlong) J-Pop LP with some interesting production elements and beautiful vocals. Giving this one a bump as Japan was sorely underrepresented on the main list, great to see some international representation and different genres for once!
Very pop, with that particular Japanese flavor. Strong vibes of watching anime opening sequences, except when she switches to the English parts you can tell that she understands what she's singing. I didn't dislike this.
A nice, if overly repetitive album. Hikaru has a nice voice and this album sounds kind of like a Sonic Video game
Fun enough J-pop. Catchy dance tunes that sound pleasant, and that I'll never listen to again. Runtime a bit long, whole thing very samey. 3/5.
The original list was definitely lacking in music from Asia which has a storied music industry and is producing the biggest bands in the world right now. This J-pop album is not my thing, but I really enjoyed its use of melody.
I noticed the lack of albums from Japan (or even East Asia as a whole) in the 1001 albums project, so I was happy to have this J-pop album to listen to. That said, this one is absolutely easy to listen to, but I can't say it's super memorable for me.
The whole time I was imagining the intro of some anime or soap opera. I feel that the music has a somewhat repetitive style or sound since there are several songs that seem like a single track but in a bad way, which can end up being tiring. The ballads are nothing special and rather lower the intensity of the album, which is not very intense. Even the most played hits made me sleepy.
Not really loving this. 2 stars.
Didn't hate it 3 Got that early 2000s feel though - I don't dig it 2
Was quickly bored with this music. It's a lot of the dame to me
Shiny pop. Clear mature singing, but feels a little vacuous probably because of the language barrier. Not enough hooks to reel me in. Good clean production, slightly lacking in fun.
Started out interesting and different, soon got tiring. Like a fever dream
Apparently she sold a bunch of records.
No thanks. The Hispanic music has good instrumentals. The German music has good beats. The Asian music is just pop. 1.4/10
Other than having a mix of Japanese and English language vocals I couldn't find anything interesting about this generic, mid paced, samey, pop album. Rating: 1.5 Playlist track: COLORS Date listened: 09/09/24