*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.