Utada - This Is The One (2009)

Written while they were finishing their 2008 Japanese-language album Heart Station, This Is the One is singer, songwriter, producer, and Japanese megastar Utada's second attempt to cross over to the English-speaking market, and a much more reasonable one at that. While the English-language album Exodus tried to be everything at once, Utada the performer is clearly defined here with slick, polished production supporting their songs rather than dominating them. The opening ballad, "Come Back to Me," is everything good about Utada all in one, with simple, precious lyrics and a delicate melody sharing space with a clever idea, which in this case is the bombastic piano intro that's straight out of classical music. Clever ideas are Utada's secret weapon as "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence FYI" combines the classic Ryuichi Sakamoto movie theme it's half-named after with contemporary R&B-flavored come-ons, as in "FYI: We're gonna be up all night." The sexually charged "Poppin'" would be a much lesser song without the smart arrangement that wonderfully re-creates the spy movie sound of the '60s rather than becoming a James Bond-biting cliché. Describing a couple's compatibility as "Apple and Cinnamon" makes the Tori Amos-like cut a standout, but most of their lyrics are riddled with clichés with plenty of "whispers in the dark" and whatnot. This means the epic, emotional "Sanctuary" suite that closes the album has to rely on arrangement and delivery, and Utada nails both, combining the grandness of a Disney song like "A Whole New World" with the angst of, remarkably, Nine Inch Nails. Big behind-the-scenes names like Chris "Tricky" Stewart and Antonio "LA" Reid point to the urban-meets-pop attitude of the record, but Utada will not be overshadowed. This album is theirs alone and when placed next to Exodus, it's aptly titled.