Background and Release
After being approached by Island Def Jam to appear in a song for the soundtrack to action-comedy film Rush Hour 2, Utada was then asked by the label to record an album. The track, "Blow My Whistle" was written by Utada herself, along with Pharrel Willams, Chad Hugo and featured American rapper Foxy Brown. The track was produced by The Neptunes. Exodus was written, produced and mainly composed by Utada herself, with Timbaland acting as producer and remixer. She also received help from Danja and Sking U, her father. Exodus was the first release by Utada under the Island Def Jam and Universal Music label. The tracks "Opening" and "Crossover Interlude" contain exactly the same lyrics, but are mixed differently. Even though "Opening" has vocals in the song, the lyrics aren't provided in the lyric booklet. The Hong Kong and Taiwan versions of the album contain lyrics for "Opening" in Chinese. Only two Japanese words were used on the whole album: the words "konnichiwa" (こんにちは?) and "sayōnara" (さようなら?) are found in "Easy Breezy". Additionally, the words "Thank you for praying for my success" (成功祈ってくれてありがとう, Seikou inotte kurete arigatou?) are written in the lyric booklet. All of the Japanese translations in the lyric booklet were done by Hiroko Shintani (新谷洋子, Shintani Hirōko?), except for the song "Animato" which was translated by Utada herself. Utada stated that it had a certain feel to it that she wanted to bring across to her Japanese audience.
During an interview in the United States whilst promoting This Is the One in 2009, when asked about Exodus, Utada said that Exodus was "a very experimental album. I was like a mad scientist working away in an underground laboratory", going on to say "I had the time of my life but it was a very intense, introverted process". Utada has said in numerous follow-up interviews that Exodus is an introverted album.
Read more about this topic: Exodus (Hikaru Utada album)
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