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First Love 15th Anniversary - Reviews
Hikki Fanatic
Joined: 2012/8/5
A/S/L 22 / Male / Marseille
Posts: 103
Hello everyone.
I just received my copy of Utada's First Love 15th anniversary. Something was weird in the singing and found out why: She re-sings the songs. Am I right? I was expecting a remastering was just about the instrumental, the way they dynamics and so on... She actually sings the song with her actual voice! I mean, the one she has right now! It probably means she had some times spent in studio for this item! lol
That's cool. I put the tracks together and noticed a remarkable difference between 15-year-old Hikki and 30-year-old Hikaru's singing... Actually, I like it! - as you'd have guessed anyway -

I did not watched the Luv Life tour, but it's because I did not finish my listening yet! That's only a matter of time!

How do you like it? How did you enjoy about the tunes?
Let me know, I'm so interested in what you, 15000 fans who got the first copies and had it sold out in a couple of hours! You crazy fans xD I wanted to buy mine when I desperately saw the "sold out" mention! xDD
Posted on: 2014/3/12 12:32
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  •  shuyin_zer0
      shuyin_zer0
Re: First Love 15th Anniversary - Reviews
UtadaNet Regular
Joined: 2008/1/23
A/S/L 18/m/Canada
Posts: 29
The vocals haven't been rerecorded, they just sound clearer from the remastering. That's definitely still 14 year-old Hikki's voice haha. I'm still waiting on my copy, so I've only heard the main disc from streaming. I'll give my thoughts when I hear it all.
Posted on: 2014/3/13 6:37
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  •  *SongDatShinez*
      *SongDatShinez*
Re: First Love 15th Anniversary - Reviews
UtadaNet Newbie
Joined: 2014/3/13
A/S/L
Posts: 12
Tbh, the remastered version of the cd rip that I heard isn't all that spectacular for me because I've listened to First Love over & over again when it first came out.
(I haven't gotten my deluxe set yet cuz folks in the States have scooped up copies of it & [smh] been tryin to sell it on Amazon for like $200-$300! Argh...). I think the real gem is the 3rd? disc with the demos on it. I love what's on that CD or the rip of it- in my case. It's neat because starting from the "Movin on w/out u" demo you could hear Hikaru record & talk to herself taking mental notes as she either hums or sings the lyrics of the melody. For those who haven't heard the demos yet- you guys are in for some cute moments in the demo for "First Love".

I remember her first time on Music Station she said she made her music with a futon over her head at nightime on a MD. Listening to the demos, you really can hear the clicking sounds of the MD recorder when she starts & the crickets in the background and so that image kinda popped in my head - lol. It almost felt like I got to see glimpses of her recording process when she was a young teenager.

Another thing I thought of when I heard the demo for "Give me a Reason" and also the English ver. of "time will tell" (well, the Eng. ver. of TWT I heard way back b4 & granted, in GMaR she seems to be simply ad-libbing words off the top of her head) was that I always think that the lyrics in her English songs are either very generic or lacking fluidity in comparison to the lyrics in her Japanese songs. Idk, it’s just an observation of mine as a Nisei girl.

Btw, hi everyone! I'm a noob here, but a self-proclaimed veteran fan of Hikki. I've loved her since her debut and have been part of a general Jpop forum and another Utada forum before; I think it was the Island Def Jam one? Anyways, I know Hikki is on a musical sabbatical so there might not be a whole lot of new material for us to discuss, but I still hope I get to mingle with you guys on this forum and share our love and appreciation for her. I have little stuff like her early Junon interviews so I’ll try to scan that and translate it to share with you guys in a timely fashion. Although, I really can’t say when because I’m so scattered right now, both mentally and in life in general-lol. But hopefully, in the near future :)

ETA: I glanced at some of the scans of her interview in the book portion and she goes through each of the songs on First Love and kind of discusses her perspective of it when she composed them and her thoughts on it now- 15 years later. Some random tidbits: "Never Let Go" was the first Japanese song she ever wrote (The music itself was a sample of Sting's, "Shape of my heart") & "time will tell" was the 2nd Japanese song she wrote and both songs were written while she was 14 years old (probably like 14 almost turning 15; I think from other interviews I've read w/Miyake Akira & Kawano Kei "Automatic" & "Another Chance" was written a little after she had turned 15), "Never Let Go" was recorded when she was 14, but most of the songs on First Love were recorded when she was 15 y.o. and "Give me a Reason" was the last song recorded just before she turned 16 so she contemplated whether to write "Only fifteen" or "Only sixteen" to which she ultimately chose the latter because it had more significance for her as in "Sweet Sixteen" (imagine if she were Mexican, it could have remained 15 :p ). Also she had the MD demo for an English version of Automatic, but it wasn't ({I think} it's different from the Automatic part II one on her TITO album) even up to demo standards in her opinion for it to be on this project.
Posted on: 2014/3/14 18:59
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  •  Phan_D
      Phan_D
Re: First Love 15th Anniversary - Reviews
UtadaNet Newbie
Joined: 2014/3/18
A/S/L
Posts: 1
Thats cool, can't wait to listen to the album!
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IG: ODANNYB0i
Posted on: 2014/3/18 18:14
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  •  lexus91
      lexus91
Re: First Love 15th Anniversary - Reviews
Addicted to Hikki
Joined: 2010/5/15
A/S/L 19/M/Indonesia
Posts: 68
Quote:

*SongDatShinez* wrote:
Tbh, the remastered version of the cd rip that I heard isn't all that spectacular for me because I've listened to First Love over & over again when it first came out.
(I haven't gotten my deluxe set yet cuz folks in the States have scooped up copies of it & [smh] been tryin to sell it on Amazon for like $200-$300! Argh...). I think the real gem is the 3rd? disc with the demos on it. I love what's on that CD or the rip of it- in my case. It's neat because starting from the "Movin on w/out u" demo you could hear Hikaru record & talk to herself taking mental notes as she either hums or sings the lyrics of the melody. For those who haven't heard the demos yet- you guys are in for some cute moments in the demo for "First Love".

I remember her first time on Music Station she said she made her music with a futon over her head at nightime on a MD. Listening to the demos, you really can hear the clicking sounds of the MD recorder when she starts & the crickets in the background and so that image kinda popped in my head - lol. It almost felt like I got to see glimpses of her recording process when she was a young teenager.

Another thing I thought of when I heard the demo for "Give me a Reason" and also the English ver. of "time will tell" (well, the Eng. ver. of TWT I heard way back b4 & granted, in GMaR she seems to be simply ad-libbing words off the top of her head) was that I always think that the lyrics in her English songs are either very generic or lacking fluidity in comparison to the lyrics in her Japanese songs. Idk, it’s just an observation of mine as a Nisei girl.

Btw, hi everyone! I'm a noob here, but a self-proclaimed veteran fan of Hikki. I've loved her since her debut and have been part of a general Jpop forum and another Utada forum before; I think it was the Island Def Jam one? Anyways, I know Hikki is on a musical sabbatical so there might not be a whole lot of new material for us to discuss, but I still hope I get to mingle with you guys on this forum and share our love and appreciation for her. I have little stuff like her early Junon interviews so I’ll try to scan that and translate it to share with you guys in a timely fashion. Although, I really can’t say when because I’m so scattered right now, both mentally and in life in general-lol. But hopefully, in the near future :)

ETA: I glanced at some of the scans of her interview in the book portion and she goes through each of the songs on First Love and kind of discusses her perspective of it when she composed them and her thoughts on it now- 15 years later. Some random tidbits: "Never Let Go" was the first Japanese song she ever wrote (The music itself was a sample of Sting's, "Shape of my heart") & "time will tell" was the 2nd Japanese song she wrote and both songs were written while she was 14 years old (probably like 14 almost turning 15; I think from other interviews I've read w/Miyake Akira & Kawano Kei "Automatic" & "Another Chance" was written a little after she had turned 15), "Never Let Go" was recorded when she was 14, but most of the songs on First Love were recorded when she was 15 y.o. and "Give me a Reason" was the last song recorded just before she turned 16 so she contemplated whether to write "Only fifteen" or "Only sixteen" to which she ultimately chose the latter because it had more significance for her as in "Sweet Sixteen" (imagine if she were Mexican, it could have remained 15 :p ). Also she had the MD demo for an English version of Automatic, but it wasn't ({I think} it's different from the Automatic part II one on her TITO album) even up to demo standards in her opinion for it to be on this project.


Can't agree more with this. I have lossless rip of the original First Love album. Comparing it to the Platinum SHM record CD, I can pretty much say that the quality is very very extremely close. I could say up to 98% similarity?

I'm a bit of an audiophile (self proclaimed obviously :D) the remaster has a bit more depth and staging. but very very little difference its negligible.

The real gem def the demo discs. I can't stop listening to em again and again. Its very interesting to listen to Hikki during the demo session. And the way she sings just....

I hope we can get more of these demo sessions in the future :D.
Posted on: 2014/3/19 7:22
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  •  *SongDatShinez*
      *SongDatShinez*
Re: First Love 15th Anniversary - Reviews
UtadaNet Newbie
Joined: 2014/3/13
A/S/L
Posts: 12
I hope there are more demos to come too! I'm always super fascinated by behind-the-scenes stuff like demos, unseen footage, the "making of" stuff, etc. because it's like you get glimpses of the artists' creative process.

And this is totally random, but I see you're maybe from or in Indonesia...in the booklet Hikki says that she visited Indonesia about a week before the interview was conducted and when the airline worker recognized her name on her plane ticket, he/she professed how much he/she loved "First Love" & sings it at karaoke. So basically Hikki was amazed how much the song, "First Love" is really loved over there even though she knew she was somewhat known in Indonesia because she would sometimes get twitter messages from her Indonesian fans :)
Posted on: 2014/3/24 19:49
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  •  山本_passion
      山本_passion
Re: First Love 15th Anniversary - Reviews
Hikki Obsessed
Joined: 2010/1/18
A/S/L 15.
Posts: 235
Is there somewhere online where you can listen to the demo tracks?? I'm really interested in hearing them! I just didn't have the money to shell out for the anniversary edition..
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GIFSoup
Posted on: 2014/4/3 0:40
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  •  AY04
      AY04
Re: First Love 15th Anniversary - Reviews
UtadaNet Regular
Joined: 2010/9/30
A/S/L 18/M/TX
Posts: 31
so i was curious to see if there were any left of the deluxe edition and i found cdjapan only had two left so i decided to splurge and get it as a early bday present for myself i cant wait for it!!!
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BEST DAY EVER
Posted on: 2014/4/3 22:37
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Re: First Love 15th Anniversary - Reviews
Hikki Fanatic
Joined: 2012/8/5
A/S/L 22 / Male / Marseille
Posts: 103
Wow! I wasn't noticed of all of your replies, you guys, but it's very interesting to notice what you guys experience! I wish I could actually see those "behind-the-scene" scenes! I have seen some of them on YouTube, Hikki's personal channel, but not that much because she did not upload just everything. At least that's how I see it. I wanted. this deluxe edition soooooo bad, but I had the "normal" version instead. I don't have the third CD thingamagig. But I look forward to buying it anyhow.

Okay, so, the fact that the sound in First Love's re-edition sounds neater make me think it sounds like her voice now! xD Weird, huh? But I think the mastering has a huge role to do, in such manipulations.
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Watashi no omokage ga mienai ka na
Posted on: 2014/5/8 7:12
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