Somewhere Between Honshu and Provence

I wanted to write about new albums released today, but I ran out of steam. So, instead, you’re getting a fantastic 12-minute house song from one of Japan’s most enduring pop stars.

Hikaru Utada became Japan’s first bona fide R&B star in the late 1990s, working with such American luminaries as Rodney Jerkins (Darkchild).

Amassing 11 studio albums since 1998, all but two of which have topped the Japanese Oricon album charts (and the other two peaked at 2 and 3), Utada has become one of Japan’s most enduring musicians. They are so popular that they have broad discretion over what types of music they write and record. Utada’s voice is soothing, delicate, yet powerful. 

Utada is getting ready to release album number twelve, but their last album was Bad Mode in 2022. 

My favorite song from Bad Mode was “Somewhere Near Marseilles,” a meandering, gorgeous Balearic House track. The song is relatively simple upon first glance: Utada sings about them being in London and their lover being Paris, and them meeting in some third location—Marseilles, perhaps. Most of the song is sung in English, but there are several Japanese lines, as well. Balearic House, popularized in the Spanish island of Ibiza, is slower than most other electronic music. The instrumentation also tends to be relatively uniform. How, then, does Utada make a compelling Balearic House track last for twelve minutes? You’d think it might get boring, but let me dissuade you. The song doesn’t grow or even develop much, it stays remarkably consistent throughout, but the raw power provided from one of the leading J-Pop artists making a lengthy, hypnotic, downtempo electronic track makes this song super exciting.

The music video is super fun too. It’s shot in portrait mode, in an aquarium in Yokohama. It is a suitable live video for this great song. 

Enjoy, and I’ll write a longer post tomorrow!