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Old 2010.09.12, 07:36 AM   #45
so_cold
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You'd need to post Marunouchi Sadistic on the Utada fansite with a poll that said "do you like this?" yes or no. And then for a controlled test repeat on a forum that listens to white noise.

When I was in Japan I remember First Love being everywhere, orgel style (played with a music box, just like this) in department store, and I kind of greeted it as a guilty pleasure I really liked without knowing who it was, but then I also like music boxes in general. That makes me sound like I have the music taste of a two-month old infant, but those kind of sounds sort of turn up on SR demos and the Stem single as well… And they’re a nice crystal blue / white colour synesthesically.

Automatic was also the first Japanese song I ever sung at karaoke after first hearing it in my ex’s car. So I’m kind of a natural somewhat random fan of Utada’s melodies, because I would always have to get past a “this is too mainstream music for me to really like” barrier. But actually a lot of SR was like that as well to start with. Exodus was the other big one when posters of it came out over here, like a piece of Japan memory, and Easy Breezy is a tuuune, so for those reason in particular I wished it were more successful. Living in Japan without being able to read or speak very well, the most visible and easy to understand parts of my generation’s culture had a lot of meaning and I remember Utada, Ayumi Hamasaki and Namie Amuro very well (didn’t know SR at all though!!)

I don’t know why but SR and Utada do kind of seem to compare to each other, there’s probably quite a strong 90s indie and R&B influence to both of their earlier albums, but while I’m very, very into SS or KZK, SR is very complicated melodically. That’s a good thing and her melodies are why I’m a fan, but you can’t exactly chill to them. Comparing to SR, something like this jazzy Acoustic version of Automatic feels like “breathing” again, if that makes sense.

So anyway, I like this theory. And I miss the days when I thought of SR as an “experimental” artist…
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