About This Site

Each month I select 20 songs (10 songs twice a month) that I am either hooked on or am curious about. Most of the music I select are rock, hip-hop, R&B and pop songs.

My song selection comes from 20-30 CDs I get from various sources each month, as well as recommendations from iTunes and Amazon. I also check out the charts in US, UK and Japan.

January 29, 2010

Utada - Dirty Desire [Mike Rizzo Radio Edit]

Album: Dirty Desire (The Remixes)

I had a chance to see Utada (or “Hikki” as she’s referred to from her hardcore fans) perform live to US audience recently. With two English albums under her belt, two-thirds of her setlist consisted of English songs, and the other third was her Japanese mega hit songs such as “Automatic”, “First Love” and “Can You Keep A Secret.” It was my first time seeing her live, but I couldn’t help but to notice that she didn’t have much stage presence. She sounded great, and she interacted well with the audience (speaking 95% of the time in English), but if I hadn’t known, I wouldn’t believe someone telling me that she is the biggest pop star of Japan. I’ve only had a chance to listen to her latest album, This Is The One, a couple of times, but I was surprised to hear that she chose this track as her second US single. I sort of cringed with lyrics like “And in my fantasies, I love you long time”, “Doing my nine to five, I’m thinking six and nines” but at least the beat is catchy, especially when it is remixed for club release. I’m not sure if this track will reach the mainstream America’s ear, but at least she is trying to be different.

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