Thoughts on “Americanized” Utada Hikaru

I just saw Utada Hikaru’s music video for “Come Back to Me” last night. The song itself is just…ugh. It’s pretty much standard American R&B coupled with her bad English lyrics that are reminiscent of the horrible songs from her Exodus album. Don’t get me wrong, the song sounds okay – heck, for me almost all her songs sound great – but the lyrics…oh man, the lyrics! “I wish that I could photoshop / All our bad memories / Cuz the flashbacks, oh the flashbacks / Won’t leave me alone”, and “Anything from A to Z / Call me what you wanna babe / I open my heart to thee / You are my priority”? Come on. It’s “You’re easy-breezy while I’m Japaneesy” all over again. It’s like she’s trying too hard to get into the American music industry. Hikki, so many people love you already; please stop trying so hard when it’s obvious that this really isn’t your thing.

While I really hate the song (and the rest of her attempts at English songs), I still love Hikki overall and I think she looks really beautiful in this video. It looks like she’s been taking better care of her body  (as opposed to how she let herself go around the time this Nintendo DS commercial was shot), and that bobcut does wonders for her. Her look here reminds me of how she pretty was in her Wait and See video, only she’s more classy/glamorous in this one.