Utada Hikaru ¡°Fantome¡± (Universal Music Japan)
Earlier this month, my colleague Ryotaro Aoki wrote that he hoped pop star Hikaru Utada¡¯s highly anticipated return to the music scene via her album ¡°Fantome¡± would ¡°save¡± the Japanese music scene. But did it really need saving?
Sure, record executives must miss the days of enormous profits and can¡¯t seem to see beyond whatever tops the Oricon charts, but if the suits would just dig a little deeper they¡¯d find that the music scene is actually quite robust. Utada knows this, she drafted three fantastic artists to help on ¡°Fantome¡± (two of whom are relative newcomers). In fact ¡ª and I know fans will hate me for the suggestion ¡ª the trio of guests might just outshine her on her own album.
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