Album Review: Hikaru Utada – Science Fiction

I wasn’t planning on reviewing this. But as time went on, it just made more sense to. So, here we go. A review of a Best album from Hikaru Utada. Touted as their first, because apparently Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 1 aka The Himmakulate Collection and Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 2 didn’t count.

Chances are that if you’re reading this, then you are a Utada fan. Which means that you listen to Japanese music. Which means you know what a Best album is. But for those for whom Science Fiction is their first foray into Japanese music, let’s refresh what a Best album is—which I feel is relevant for what I’m about to get into, and why Science Fiction is special and could mark the start of a revival.

So, what is a Best album?

A Best album is basically the Japanese music equivalent of a Greatest Hits album. But the title grants far more flexibility in terms of which songs make the cut. Traditionally, Greatest Hits albums are a compilation of…hits. But the rules of this are often bent, resulting in Greatest Hits albums which feature a flop or two, a song which was only a single in some random country, or a song the album artist featured on which was a moderate hit. And because of this, we have seen the term ‘Greatest Hits’ be dropped in favour of more conceptual titles and be referred to as simply ‘compilations’. There are also negative connotations attached to the term ‘Greatest Hits’ for many artists, as it implies a golden age of a career is over. Traditionally these albums used to release YEARS in an artist’s career, or to bookend a chapter of it—such as when an artist moves to another record label. In Japan, a Best album is treated the same way, but not exclusively so. Best albums are released whenever, and are often curated around a theme. We may get a Best album which is themed around ballads. A Best album which features songs chosen by fans. A Best album based on songs which are themed around a season. Or a Best album which exclusively features collaborations. And sometimes we get Best albums which are pretty much a studio album, i.e. Koda Kumi’s Best ~Second Session~ and Perfume’s Complete Best—a best album Perfume had released before their first studio album.

Hikaru Utada – Science Fiction | Sony Music Labels Inc. / Universal Music LLC

Best albums have been criticised over the years, because there was a period in J-pop where they were very frequent. Artists would release one album, then release a Best album. A couple of albums and then a Best album. Some acts have more Best albums than studio albums. And a reason for this is that Best albums were a very easy sell, which led to the trend of the frequency. It is not uncommon for some artist’s best selling albums to be their Best albums, given that they were usually promoted extensively and had whole tours to support them. But over time, this slowly started to shift, as fans caught onto the scam of it all. And then something else came along and threatened the existence of both Best albums and Greatest Hits albums. The digital music age.

As more and more people downloaded music, streamed music, playlisted their music and listened to it on their portable mp3 players—compilation albums just made less and less sense. Fans were already making compilations of songs from their favourite artists and including everything. And when streaming took off, we got the likes of Essential and This is… playlists on Apple Music and Spotify respectively, in addition to fans being able to make their own playlists and share them with everyone. And even if a Best album had a couple of extra songs, these extra songs tend to be released as singles before the album anyway, so you can just add them to your playlist.

But something cool that some artists would do for their Best albums, was to not only include new songs, but re-record old ones and revise the mixes of older ones—all things Hikaru Utada did for their Science Fiction. And in an age of streaming and what was the irrelevance of the Best album, Utada releasing a Best album in 2024 which features new material, re-recorded material and revised mixes of older material presents a solid solution to validating the place a Best album can have in music right now. And in an age where so many acts of the Heisei era are struggling with having new material catch on and are constantly fighting with the ghosts of their previous hits—repackaging old songs via re-recordings and new mixes, and cashing in nostalgia is a winning approach.

Hikaru Utada – Science Fiction | Sony Music Labels Inc. / Universal Music LLC

Science Fiction is a great example of how you do a Best album in this current age of music. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. But I respect that this is more than just a selection of Utada’s songs thrown together on a couple of discs. Hikaru Utada even took time out of posting about rubbish on pavements to post about this album, and said clearly ‘It’s not a compilation of past songs’. The effort taken to make this album something more than just that is admirable, because Utada is still at a level of popularity where they could have done nothing and Science Fiction still would have topped the charts.

The insistence to re-record classic songs and change mixes is also an interesting approach to a Best album, because you aren’t giving fans the versions of the songs they’ve always known, which means that when fans play this album, they aren’t just listening to the songs, they’re re-experiencing them.

Science Fiction’s approach of taking old songs and re-framing them to be re-experienced also factors into the sequencing. The songs are not sequenced chronologically in order of release. They are sequenced in a way which makes sense sonically, and it’s a welcomed choice. So often Best albums are sequenced chronologically by date of release. And whilst sequencing songs in this manner makes sense on paper, it doesn’t provide the best listening experience, and you end up with songs sequenced together which shouldn’t be, and then the new songs just dumped at the end of the album. But the sequencing of Science Fiction feels considerate of each of the songs and how the album will play from top to bottom. Placing “Prisoner of Love” in between “Michi” and the re-recording of “Hikari” was an odd choice. As was putting “Colors” in-between “Bad Mode” and “Nijikan Dake no Vacance”. But other than that, everything else here makes sense and flows nicely.

This consideration of placement is also evident in the new songs: “Gold ~Mata au hi Made~”, “Nani Iro Demo Nai Hana” and “Electricity”, the sounds of which feel like deliberate choices to make them sit within existing songs. “Gold ~Mata au hi Made~” sounds like it could be a song on Heart Station. “Nani Iro Demo Nai Hana” sounds like it could be a song on Ultra Blue or Fantôme. “Electricity” sounds like it could be a song on Deep River, Ultra Blue or Bad Mode. They’re a mixed bag of songs, but they do work better within the context of the album than they do on their own. And I appreciate how they all meld past, present and future.

Hikaru Utada – Science Fiction | Sony Music Labels Inc. / Universal Music LLC

I won’t get into “Gold ~Mata au hi Made~” and “Nani Iro Demo Nai Hana” as I reviewed these songs already. But the TL;DR of it all, is that both songs felt flat. Didn’t go anywhere. And both featured two distinct vibes which weren’t committed to, resulting in one song featuring two halves of a song which somehow didn’t feel whole. “Electricity” on the other hand? It delivers. “Electricity” is produced by Floating Points, who also produced the Bad Mode highlights “Bad Mode”, “Kibun Ja Nai no” and “Pound Me Near Marseille”, and you can hear it. Floating Points’ productions for Hikaru Utada have a distinct flavour. Each song feels like a movement—the shifts within each song feel natural and make sense, as opposed to ‘This is one vibe and, OH. Something new now.’ The songs feel alive and whole, as opposed to a static sum of parts as was the case with “Gold ~Mata au hi Made~”, something which was addressed in ★Taku Takahashi’s Twice Upon a Time Remix. Now, whilst the production of “Electricity” is great, the chorus is terrible. A shocking revelation, given that Utada knows how to write a great hook, even if they do feature questionable lyrics such as ‘You’re easy breezy and I’m Japanesey’. But it’s not the lack of lyrics that hurt the hook, but the way in which Utada sings it—which leads into my other issue with the song. Utada’s vocals. They don’t sound great on this song. It’s as though Utada woke up with a microphone beside them and just started recording whilst their voice was still morning crusty, and it lets the song down. The vocals aren’t enough to dampen Floating Point’s gorgeous production of, but they certainly don’t compliment it as well as it should have. It’s a shame “Electricity” wasn’t released as a single EP as “Gold ~Mata au hi Made~” was, so we could get an instrumental of it.

The re-recordings are as much of a mixed bag as the new songs—running a gamut of approaches, with no real consistency.

Hikaru Utada – Science Fiction | Sony Music Labels Inc. / Universal Music LLC

The re-recording of “Addicted to You” chose to stick very closely to the original, to such a point that I wonder why Utada even bothered recording it. The original version is far superior, because barely-a-teentada brings this fraught and tense energy to the song, versus the cool and calm demeanour that oldertada brings to the song—the latter of which doesn’t work with the music of the original. If cool and collected was the performance Utada was going to go with, then re-working the song around that performance would have been better. Utada’s vocals also get worse as the song progresses. The vocals on the original version weren’t particularly great. But at least Utada was going for it and really feeling the song. Also, they were also super young and still figuring their voice out, so it’s easier to forgive some of the vocal shortcomings. But Utada being older and more experienced, yet still not being able to find their vocal comfort zone in an old song is a bit concerning. And also strange, considering that “Traveling” is the complete opposite.

“Traveling” is one of my favourite Utada songs, so I was nervous about it being re-recorded.

“Traveling” was produced by ★Taku Takahashi of M-Flo, who is experiencing a bit of a resurgence lately, having also produced Crystal Kay’s single “That Girl”, a couple of Faky’s songs in 2023 and some songs for one of them Exile Tribe Groups that LDH and Avex keep rolling out like Sith clones. ★Taku Takahashi has a history with Utada that fans are very aware of, with him having remixed several of Utada’s songs over the years, including the ever popular M-Flo remix of “Distance”. He does a really great job of keeping the arrangement of “Traveling” similar enough to the original in a way which honours it, whilst pushing it in new directions to make it feel new. And Utada is not only able to match the energy of their initial performance, but they add new twists to it—making their performance feel far more reflective of who they are now. It’s a great re-recording which doesn’t try to replace the original, but act as an alternate and re-imagining version of it. There is a place for this version of the song alongside the original, which is great. The only thing I wish the re-recording featured more of is richer vocal arrangements and production. Utada sounds really good on this song. “Traveling” was the one re-recording I thought Utada would struggle most on, but they sing through this shit just fine. However, the harmonies aren’t as prominent on this version as they were on the original, and the harmonies were one of my favourite things about it. But Utada’s vocal arrangements have felt nerfed on every release which came after Ultra Blue, so it’s to be expected.

The re-recording of “Hikari” completely changes the original, and I don’t like it at all. But as per the new songs, it feels like it pulls from other albums Utada has done, which some may like. The sonics of the song remind me a fair bit of “Take 5” and I feel that this version of “Hikari” would sit nicely on Heart Station and would work better there than it does on Science Fiction. As per the re-recording of “Traveling”, this version of “Hikari” feels more reflective of who Utada is now, and I like that. And I like that Utada wasn’t precious over completely changing a song that they know many people hold dear. It’s just a shame the song sounds like shit. Given the vibe Utada was going for, I think Floating Points’ production would have served the song far better than A.G. Cook’s did.

When I first saw that “Hikari” was being re-recorded, I was torn. Now, lemme be clear. “Hikari” is not a song I hold in such reverence that I am against it being re-worked and re-recorded. My favourite version of “Hikari” isn’t even the dishwashing mix. It’s the Kingdom Hearts intro mix. But I do get why Utada re-recorded this song of all songs. Kingdom Hearts. Teruzane Utada had to make sure that if an album was being released with “Hikari” on it, that there would be a Square Enix cheque in place for his child. And the easy way to do that, is to re-work the song. And with Kingdom Hearts 4 not set for release until 2039, a new version of “Hikari” gives Square Enix something they can put in trailers for the countless Kingdom Hearts re-releases we’ll get before then. Kingdom Hearts 1.75 Re-Re-Re-Re-Mix, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Disney+, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep ~Coma Edition~ and Kingdom Hearts III-2—because they have truly run the original versions of “Hikari” / “Simple & Clean” into the ground.

Hikaru Utada – Science Fiction | Sony Music Labels Inc. / Universal Music LLC

Science Fiction also features 2024 mixes of some of the older songs. Much like the re-recordings, these 2024 mixes are a mixed bag, with no consistent approach. An important thing to note is that these 2024 mixes are not just remasters. They are genuinely new mixes, with arrangement changes to the original songs, which is really cool in theory. But less so in practice, when some of these mixes are so bad and ruin the magic of the original versions and previous remasters.

One thing about Hikaru Utada’s music that I don’t think people consider or think about, is how well mixed it has always been. And I guess this is a sign of good mixing—you don’t think about it or consider it unless it’s bad. I didn’t realise how much the original mix of “Automatic” contributed to what I liked about that song, until I heard the 2024 mix, which makes all sorts of mixing choices which fuck up the song. The 2024 mix not only pushes Utada’s vocals further back into the song, but it takes so much of the warmth and cosiness out of the original mix. A general theme with the 2024 mixes is that they whack the treble up, boost the bass and raise the volume on every single track within a song, enabling you to hear things which were either hidden, tucked away or muted on the original mixes. There are some instances where this is cool, such as the tail end of “Letters”, which features vocals that aren’t on the original mix. But I don’t think it’s necessary to be able to so clearly hear every single music layer of a song. Because whilst you may not be able to hear every nuance of every instrument and every layer, they are still contributing to the sound. So pulling all of these elements out results in everything fighting for dominance, and Hikaru’s vocals fighting to be heard in the midst of it all.

Hikaru Utada – Science Fiction | Sony Music Labels Inc. / Universal Music LLC

The 2024 mixes miss far more often than they hit. But they do present a cool listening experience for fans—testing their knowledge of the originals, by finding all of the differences to the original mixes. Some are more obvious than others. And some mixes feature more changes than others. The additional timpani hits on the chorus of “Colors”. The unmuted vocals at the end of “Letters”. The filters on Utada’s vocals in the opening and the bridge of “Prisoner of Love”. The bridge of “Flavor of Life” muting the strings, making the whole thing sounds like the song is being played from a room next door, and the additional percussion during the final runs of the chorus. “Can You Keep a Secret?” probably features the most changes. The 2:19 mark, where the music drops out, punctuating the song with silence. The spoken bridge featuring additional background vocals. And the song ending with Utada’s harmonies in a capella, instead of in a fade with the music.

These 2024 mixes feature A LOT of choices that don’t necessarily enhance the listening experience, aside from everything being sharper and louder, which doesn’t always equals better. The vocals at the end of “Sakura Drops” sound like they’re all competing instead of blending now. Being able to hear every little blip and pieces of percussion in “Beautiful World” is distracting to me. As is having the electric guitars on the chorus of “Can You Keep a Secret?” whacked up, which over powers the flamenco inspired guitar, which is supposed to be the centrepiece of the song. Some may like how much crisper some of the 2024 mixes sound, but the disregard of balance doesn’t do it for me. I think it’s a shame that Utada’s willingness to not be precious over changing the mixes to their older material wasn’t met with better arrangement and mixing choices. I also think it’s a shame that the 2024 mixes weren’t extended to every song, because “Michi” coulda done with some tweaks.

There is no 2024 mix on this album which I will play over the originals. But I don’t think the point of these mixes were for them to ever replace the originals. They’re just slightly different takes on them. But it does feel like a case of things being changed for the sake of being changed.

Hikaru Utada – Science Fiction | Sony Music Labels Inc. / Universal Music LLC

Where I stand with Science Fiction, is that I like what it attempted to do, more than I like the end result. I really do wish that we got three great new songs, three great re-recordings and every 2024 mix hitting so good that they made me say ‘Bitch. I ain’t ever listening to the original versions again.’ But this isn’t what I got. And it’s a shame, because none of these things are a reach. It’s not like we’re talking about Koda Kumi’s inconsistent ass. This is Hikaru Utada.

Science Fiction not including any of Utada’s English language material was also severely unfortunate. If there were ever songs in Utada’s discography which warranted re-recordings or 2024 mixes, it’s some of these songs. Utada’s music has finally reached a point where their Japanese material and some of the things they explored for their English material are as one. That separation isn’t there anymore sonically—reinforced to a further degree when Utada performed two of these songs for their Live Sessions from Air Studios gig. So putting some of their English language songs on Science Fiction would have made sense.

I can already foresee that when the tour kicks off, we’re going to get great renditions of some of these songs, which are gonna make me say ‘Why didn’t we get a studio recording of this for Science Fiction?’. So maybe the tour will make me feel differently about this package.

Science Fiction is a definitive example of the bare minimum a Best album in this era of music should feature, but the execution wasn’t as great as the intent.