Music / Distance (Hikaru Utada album)

aka: Distance

I wanna be with you now...

Distance is the 2nd Japanese studio album by Hikaru Utada, released in 2001. Following their debut album, First Love, which became the best-selling album in Japanese history, Distance was a similarly massive success, becoming the 4th highest-selling Japanese album of all time and 2nd highest-selling original album, with over 4.5 million copies sold in Japan. This solidified their position as one of the most successful and influential artists in Japanese music history.

Like its predecessor, Distance is an R&B-pop album, influenced by American R&B, hip-hop and soul music. From a production standpoint, the American influence is arguably greater than on First Love, as Utada collaborated with US producers like Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins on some of the tracks. The album also shows more incorporation of rock influence on tracks like "Drama" and "Kettobase!". This was also the first album where Utada was involved in the arrangements for some of the tracks.

The album is also notable for selling a whopping 3 million copies in its first week, making it the fastest-selling album in Japanese music history. It also held the global record for fastest-selling album of all time for 14 years before being surpassed by Adele's 25 in 2015. This was in part due to its release date, which it shared with the fellow J-pop superstar Ayumi Hamasaki's first compilation album A BEST, attracting media attention and fuelling speculations of rivalry between the two singers, which they both denied. Regardless, there was a perceived "competition" to see which album would outsell the other, and Distance won, outselling A BEST in its first week and overall. ^note (Though to be clear, both albums sold a lot - A BEST is #6 on Japan's all-time bestseller list.)

Four singles were released from the album: "Addicted to You", "Wait & See (Risk)", "For You" / "Time Limit" and "Can You Keep a Secret?". All 4 reached #1 on the charts and were massive hits, with "Can You Keep a Secret?" becoming the #1 single of the year for 2001. The album track "Distance" was going to be released as a single following the album's release, but these plans were changed after the Osaka school massacre in June of that year. In commemoration of one of the victims - a fan of Utada who had written an essay about wanting to become like their - the song was re-recorded as a sombre ballad and released under the name "Final Distance". This new version later appeared on their following album, Deep River.

Not to be confused with the 2018 racing game or the Gaia Online roleplay of the same name.

Tracklist:

1. "Wait & See (Risk)" (5:28)
2. "Can You Keep A Secret?" (5:08)
3. "DISTANCE" (5:30)
4. "Sunglasses" (4:46)
5. "Drama" (4:36)
6. "Eternally" (4:45)
7. "Addicted to You" (5:19)
8. "For You" (5:22)
9. "Kettobase!" (4:31)^note "Kick it off!" or "Reject it!"
10. "Parody" (5:25)
11. "Time Limit" (4:55)
12. "Kotoba ni Naranai Kimochi" (5:03)^note "Feelings That Can't Be Put Into Words"
13. "HAYATOCHI-REMIX" (4:10)^note Portmanteau of "Hayatochiri" ("jumping to conclusions", and the name of the original song) and "remix"

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You said my tropes don't mean a thing...

• Album Title Drop: In the Title Track:
  Itsu no hi ka distance mo dakishimerareru you ni nareru yo^note One day we'll be able to embrace this distance as well
• Face on the Cover: A close-up, as with most of their albums. Notably, this is their only album cover to show their not looking at the camera.
• Love Is a Drug: "Addicted to You", as the name suggests.
• Melismatic Vocals: As with First Love, Utada's vocals are a lot more showy here than on their later albums.
• Obsession Song: "Addicted to You". The chorus' lyrics are an example of the Passive type:
  Dakedo sore ja kurushikute^note But it's so painful that way [not being with you]
  Mainichi aitakute^note I want to see you everyday
  Kono kimochi dou sureba ii no?^note What should I do about this feeling?
  [...]
  Aenai hi no koishisa mo soba ni iru itoshisa mo^note The longing for you when you're gone, and the love I feel when I'm with you
  Onaji kurai kuse ni narunda^note They're becoming the same thing
  Kisu yori dakishimete, ikinari yamenaide^note Hold me instead of kissing me, don't just stop right away
• Poirot Speak: From "Can You Keep A Secret?"
  Can you keep a secret, or kono mama secret? ^note Can you keep a secret, or shall I keep this a secret?
  • This is also possibly the only real example of Gratuitous English in their music, as the above line doesn't quite make grammatical sense.^note "Kono mama" means "at this rate", "like this" or "at it is". It's not hard to parse the meaning of "Or kono mama secret", especially in context - "Or [will this remain] a secret, the way it has been?" but literally speaking, the lyric is just "Can you keep a secret, or as it is, secret?"
• Questioning Title?: "Can You Keep A Secret?"
• Rhyming with Itself: From "HAYATOCHI-REMIX":
  You said my love don't mean a thing, how much I love you
  That's 'cause you don't know, how much I love you
• Robosexual: Subverted in the music video Can You Keep A Secret, where Utada is having a romantic relationship with a robot but by the last scene is revealed to be a Robot Girl themself.
• Spoken Word in Music: In "Can You Keep a Secret?":
  Hey, can I take a time out to... tell you something? And say, can you keep it a secret? 'Cause this guitar is... making me warm... come on
• Studio Chatter: Does this with Darkchild at the beginning of "Time Limit".
• Teen Pregnancy: "Kettobase!" has the repeated line "I want your baby". Utada was 18 when the album was released and would have been 16 or 17 when writing the song.

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