Maybe it’s her funky new selection of sounds, or the fact that she’s singing in a whole other language. Whatever the reason, Utada, aka Hikaru Utada’s newest release may not cater to the expectations you have of this crossover j-pop princess. There’s no denying the fact that Utada’s style has undergone some transformation since the days of her more R&B-ish First Love, but this new album proves that the 21-year-old-singer-song-writer is still right smack in mid-evolution. The songs that make up EXODUS are different – different from what people may be familiar with as "Utada music," and different from what other young artists are delivering via radio these days. Some may find this difference difficult to embrace, and others may be excited to discover this entirely new side of Utada.

You might have thought that no matter what she rhymes in, Utada will still be Utada; but apparently this is not the case. Whether it be that she has decided to reveal a side of her that she’d been withholding, or that her expressions just sound different when filtered through the English Language, there is an obvious gap between Utada Hikaru and UTADA (even though she does insist that her new alias is simply her name made more English-friendly). Now, I don’t know about all of the other Utada fans out there, but I never saw her as any sort of sex symbol. More of an "artist,": intelligent, deep and playful. I expected the same from EXODUS. "Utada in English" was as far as I went in considering the contents of this album, and thus I was caught off guard when I took my first listen.

First there’s the afore mentioned "funky new selection of sounds" that add a strange edge to her new music. And then there’s the lyrics, which are a whole other story.

Take, for example, the song that Utada claimed to be most "me" in her Oricon Style interview: Animato. A blend of marching band drum sequences and what is reminiscent of the "crystal" sound particular to keyboards, this song has a unique composition that is at once simple and chaotic. Chaotic may be a useful adjective in describing a number of selections from EXODUS: You Make me Want to be a Man, Hotel Lobby and The Workout are only some examples that feature a very electrical mess of fast paced beats. Track 14, About Me, is perhaps the only song that has an acoustic sound to it, giving the bustling album a relaxing finale.

While her new sound works to give a pop, electric edge to her style, her lyrics seem to bring out a more playful side of her, to put it mildly. Many have probably heard Easy Breezy already, and know that there is nothing very philosophical about the contents of that song. “You’re Easy Breezy and I’m Japaneesy” she sings, lamenting of how JapanEasy she had been in a world full of pressure and stupid boys. The Workout, as well, is simply a danceable song about dancing and nothing more: "Push it up, push it down/ Pull it up, pull it down/ Keep it up, keep it down, Now put me down/ ... what a workout!" These two songs, as well as Tippy Toe definitely bring out a more youthful, seductive Utada left unexploited in her Japanese career. The great shocker for me, however, came in Let me Give you my Love, wherein Utada sings the following line: "Can you and I start mixing gene pools/ Eastern, Western people/ Get naughty multilingual". Did I just hear Utada say "get naughty"? Utada? Naughty? Although I had a little difficulty associating the two words, I came to the realization that Utada can, in fact, be sexy. Perhaps she always was, and I failed to see it, but I never felt that her lyrics were very sexually charged. None of Utada’s lyrics are vulgar in any way, but her lyrics definitely have a more seductive air about them in EXODUS.

If you’re into upbeat, pop music this album is worth a shot. I’m sure there are many that are simply curious as to what she has conjured up for an American audience, and while opinions are bound to vary on this new turn she has taken, it’s inevitable that people will take a listen. How will she fare in the U.S. of A? There’s nothing we can do but to wait and see.

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