The UTADA releases.

So today, I reorganized my Jpop collection, and you know what, a thought came to my mind — why not write something about what I did today? Not really a bad idea. But that’s not what I’m gonna post now. Well, it’s kinda related to what I did but, no, I will not write something about that.

Today, I came across some of the Utada tapes me and my sister were collecting. We only have thre because as far as I know, Only three of Utada’s albums came out as casette tapes. Those three are:

“Distance“, “DEEP RIVER“, and “FIRST LOVE“

Believe me or not, these releases are still working, and they still are in good condition. That’s how much I care about Utada’s releases before. As I write this post, I’m listening to DEEP RIVER on my walkman (a.k.a. SONY casette player) Sakura DROPS just ended, and traveling just sarted playing. ^^

I first heard those 3 albums from Hikki on casette players, which was actually a factor why I adored her music before. What? How did that happen?

Well, in CDs, you get to choose the track you want to play, but in the case of these tapes, you have to rewind it,  forward it, and still have to check if you landed on the right track you want to play. Since I was lazy when I was young, which I still am now, I just let the tracks play in order of it’s tracklist, and wait no matter how long it takes for the tape to reach my favorite song. Because other songs still play before the song that I want, I just learn to love what I am hearing now, and just avoid being choosy. It’s not really hard to love the other songs of Hikki because all of them are brilliant.

I’ve been a fan of JPop for almost 9 years now, but believe me, the only great artist I knew from JPop for my first 5 years was Hikki. I knew Ayumi Hamasaki before too, but I hated her for her kinda nasally voice.

Because of Utada being the only JPop artist I respected before, and her first three albums being the only ones playing before, I am not surprised to know that sometimes, I don’t feel like listening to much of her old stuff anymore. I STILL LOVE HER TO DEATH, but I just feel like listening to her new stuff now.

But I am not just here to talk about How am I with Utada right now. I am here to compare the casette releases to the modern CD releases found in the market right now.

For example, these releases:

Okay, I am still trying to complete Utada’s albums in CD format right now that’s why I only have the single collection CD instead of the DEEP RIVER cd. Anyway..

Some people definitely wonder how would other releases look like in formats, Like me. I really wonder what Hikki’s DISTANCE vinyl looked like. But one reason why I’d like to make this post is because I’d like to show how different and lo-tech these releases were compared to the ones we have now.

Both version have the same content, tracks-wise, but of course, there are slight differences between the packaging.

When you compare the booklet of the CD and CASETTES, the CD version definitely has better quality. Why? More CD images and features. See for yourself:

Cassette:

CD:

See? But actually, despite the differences, I really don’t care about those other factors. Just as long as the music inside the release can blow my mind, I’ll buy it.

So — Hope this post gives you something cool to read! :D

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