Sound Desicion-Last Exodus?<br><br>
by Jonathan Mays
Today's a bittersweet day for Utada lovers like me. Island Records is giving her another chance to find an American audience, and that's definitely a good thing. Problem is, they're doing this with a 12" vinyl record of Utada's Exodus '04 song, another remnant of her October disaster.

After following the highs and lows of Utada's American adventure for two years now, I can conclude only that she or her management is out of touch with her fans. Utada's handlers will not grant interviews to any publication that is related to Japanese pop culture; her publicist told me they were aiming to be "more mainstream." My own disappointment aside, I believe this is a very poor decision for her career.

The numbers back me up: Exodus sold just 7,105 copies in its first week in America, this with MTV plugs and favorable reviews in USA Today, The Washington Post, and several other national newspapers, not to mention unprecedented online hype. (To be fair, the same Exodus became the fastest English album to sell a million copies in Japan, though I'd credit her superstar status over there.)

Of course this is about more than interviews?they're just a prime example of the attitude problem that's dragging Utada down. I can also point to her "NYC Showcase," which limited its tickets to an incomprehensible 25 lucky fans. I did not attend, but I saw video of her performance, and she looked quite uncomfortable in a fluffy black dress with an epilepsy-inducing computer lightshow behind her.

And finally, there's Exodus itself, which has some of the most abrasive and unnatural music I've ever heard from Utada. "Devil Inside" is a decent if uninspiring song, "Kremlin Dusk" is catchy but poorly mixed, and "Exodus '04" would be fine if not for those stratospheric notes in the melody. The rest sounds closer to midnight Electronica experiments in the basement than the polished work of Japan's all time best-selling music artist.

All of this leads me to believe that Utada's career in America is in serious trouble. Now, she could be on the cover of next month's Rolling Stone and "Exodus '04" could become the next Top 40 radio hit, and I'll look like a fool for writing this, but recent history is not on Utada's side.

The way I see it, Utada has one good path remaining: she must be true to herself, ignore the marketers who think they can guide her to stardom, and brush off anybody who says she should "reinvent" herself. Otherwise, Utada's fans will make an exodus of their own.

From: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/columns/SoundDecision.php?id=115

Sound Decision - Exodus Revisited

Last week's commentary on Utada's floundering career in America sparked some strong reactions and a number of good points. One reader complained that Exodus's first-week sales "mean nothing." That's definitely an overstatement, but I'd agree that they give a snapshot and not the full picture. So here are the Nielsen Soundscan numbers for Exodus's first four weeks:

Oct 5-11: 7,105 (#160 on Billboard 200)
Oct 12-18: 5,034
Oct 19-25: 4,164
Oct 26-Nov 17: 3,178

For comparison, Japanese star Cibo Matto sold about 150,000 copies of Viva la Woman in America, and indie hits Pizzicato Five and Cornelius sold about 75,000 each. It's also worth nothing that Billboard ranked Exodus #1 on the Hot Dance Song/Club Play Singles chart for the week of October 19, and #15 on the year end list. But keep in mind that these charts are not based on sales. (Food for thought: Kumi Koda's Trust Your Love single, released under the name "Koda," topped the same list in 2001.)

Another important point is that Utada may not be stuck with Island for much longer. Zoe pointed out that Utada's original deal with them was for one album only. Thanks, I missed that one.

Speaking of record labels, a few people have e-mailed with questions about who exactly is working with Utada these days. Exodus and its singles, Devil Inside and Easy Breezy, are released by Island Records, which is part of the Island Def Jam Music Group. Island Def Jam, in turn, is owned by Universal Music Group. And if it goes any higher than that, we probably don't want to know.

What about Toshiba EMI, you ask? This is where it gets a little strange. Although Utada signed with Universal in February 2002, she didn't leave the label that has been with her since she debuted in 1998. And even as Exodus and the Easy Breezy DVD single sold briskly in Japan, Toshiba was releasing other Utada works, including a DVD of her 2004 concert at Nippon Budokan.

The bottom line: Utada is releasing CDs in Japan under both the Toshiba and Universal International labels. I think she manages this by going by two different names, "Hikaru Utada" under Toshiba and "Utada" under Universal. There may also be a requirement in her Universal contract that she sing in English.

Why should you care? Because the inner workings of Utada's record contracts explain a lot of the strange choices she's made over the last two years. Next week I'll put the pieces together and show how a shrewd move by Universal and a gullible press may have taken advantage of Utada, her Japanese label, and her fans.