I thought it was excellent! It does feel like a sequel to Fantôme, but that in my book is her best album by leaps and bounds, so that was not a disappointment to me. "Shittosarerubeki Jinsei" actually makes for a nice coda to the Fantôme songs, so I think she'll be moving on sonically.
Unless she doesn't and has entered her Ringo phase
Edit: who here speaks Japanese? On second thought, I do find the lyrics to be hugely important in Utada's music, perhaps I would enjoy Hatsukoi less purely on musical terms.