Music / ULTRA BLUE

Questions make me blue. Tell me something good...

ULTRA BLUE is the 4th Japanese studio album (6th in total) by Hikaru Utada, released in 2006. This is their first album release since their English-language crossover effort, Exodus, and features all their Japanese singles from 2003 to 2006 in addition to new material.

Like Exodus before it, ULTRA BLUE is predominantly up-tempo electronica, but with a brighter, more ethereal atmosphere. The second half of the album features some acoustic ballads, while many of the tracks have elements of orchestral music as well. Unlike Exodus, the album features almost none of Utada's early R&B style. As with most of their work, ULTRA BLUE was written, composed and arranged entirely by Utada themself, other than "Colors" which also had arrangement work by longtime collaborator Kawano Kei.

Six singles were released for the album: "Colors", "Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro" (誰かの願いが叶う頃, "When Someone's Wish Comes True"), "Be My Last", "Keep Tryin'", "This is Love", and "Passion", the last of which served as the theme song for Kingdom Hearts II after "Hikari" served as the theme for the first game. The music videos from this album continue the trend of more elaborate music videos started with Deep River (though not all of them were directed by Kiriya Kazuaki), notably the major Scenery Porn in "Passion" and the self-referencing costumes in "Keep Tryin'".

"Passion" also has an English version, "Sanctuary", that served as the theme for the international release of Kingdom Hearts II, becoming just as popular as "Simple and Clean" did with the fanbase.

ULTRA BLUE under-performed somewhat in comparison to their first three Japanese albums, but was still a major success, debuting at #1 on the Japanese charts and selling over 900,000 physical copies, in addition to strong digital sales, and was the #7 best-selling album in Japan for 2006.

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Tracklist:

1. "This is Love" (4:58)
2. "Keep Tryin'" (4:53)
3. "Blue" (5:15)
4. "Nichiyou no Asa" (日曜の朝) (4:44) ^note "Sunday Morning"
5. "Making Love" (4:25)
6. "Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro" (誰かの願いが叶う頃) (4:27) ^note "When Someone's Wish Comes True"
7. "Colors" (3:59)
8. "One Night Magic" (4:39)
9. "Kairo" (海路) (3:34) ^note "Ocean Route"
10. "Wings" (4:52)
11. "Be My Last" (4:30)
12. "Eclipse (Interlude)" (1:32)
13. "Passion" (4:42)

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Keep Tropin'...

• Face on the Cover: A close-up, as usual for their studio albums.
• Genre Shift: A less obvious one than their last two albums. The album is very electronica-oriented, like Exodus, but is brighter, more polished and more pop-oriented overall. It also features a lot more orchestral strings, a trend that continues for the rest of their later work.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In the "Be My Last" music video, Hikaru does this to save their friend from being hit by a car.
• Incredibly Long Note: The vocal run in the second pre-chorus of "Be My Last" goes on for about 12 seconds. Not as impressive as some other artists, but it's by far the longest note she's held in a song of hers.

• No Romantic Resolution: "Nichiyou no Asa" is all about this. It could be interpreted as a Will They or Won't They? situation, just Friends with Benefits, or possibly a full relationship that Utada just doesn't want to put a label on.
  I like it better if we don't call each other "boyfriend" and "girlfriend"^note 彼氏だとか彼女だとか　呼び合わない方が僕は好きだ
  It was always more interesting when the mysteries remained unsolved^note なぞなぞは解けないまま　ずっとずっと魅力的だった
  [...]
  We don't call each other "boyfriend" and "girlfriend", but I still like you^note 彼氏だとか彼女だとか　呼び合わないけれど君が好きだ
  It was always more interesting when the mysteries remained unsolved^note なぞなぞは解けないまま　ずっとずっと魅力的だった
• Plucky Girl: "Keep Tryin'" has Utada sing from this perspective and encourage everyone to... keep trying!
  I don't care about anything
  Even if I'm a little late this morning, from now on, I'll work harder!^note ちょっと遅刻した朝も、ここから頑張ろうよ
  It's not stupid to keep on hoping every time^note 何度でも期待するのバカみたいなんかじゃない
  So keep trying^note だから keep trying
  [...]
  Dad, keep trying, trying! Mom, keep trying, trying!^note お父さん、keep trying, trying, お母さん、keep trying, trying
  Older brother, Mr. Train Conductor, Ms. Bride, keep trying, trying!^note お兄ちゃん、車掌さん、お嫁さん、keep trying, trying
• Scenery Porn: The music videos for "Colors", "Keep Tryin'" and especially "Passion" all count, with some very vibrant and beautiful sets and costuming.
• Self-Backing Vocalist: Prominently seen in "This is Love", "One Night Magic", and "Passion".
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: "This is Love" has shades of this:
  I'll give you cold words and warm kisses ^note 冷たい言葉と暖かいキスあげるよ
  This is love, this is love
• Telegraph Gag STOP: "Making Love" uses a Japanese language variant of this in the lyric booklet - the middle eight is written entirely in katakana, based on the old way of sending telegrams in Japanese.
• Title Track: "Blue" is a partial one. invokedWord of God is that the album itself was originally to be titled Blue, but Utada thought it sounded too depressing and added "Ultra" to it.
• Translated Cover Version: "Sanctuary" is the English version of "Passion". It wasn't included on the album, but was used as the theme song to Kingdom Hearts II and is a good contender for their invokedSignature Song in English-speaking countries.^note The other contender would be "Simple and Clean", which was also used for Kingdom Hearts, and was itself a English translation of "Hikari".

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