Review: Hikaru Utada - Passion

Released: Dec 14, 2005

Artist: Hikaru Utada

Though she was very active in the West as Utada in 2005, Japanese pop powerhouse Utada Hikaru left fans of her Japanese career in limbo for the better half of the year. Her only other offering, Be My Last, left some people wondering if the twinkle in the eye of one of their favorite idols had begun to fade.

Passion was released in December of 2005, and was revealed as the theme song of Kingdom Hearts II, the follow up to the immensely popular game Kingdom Hearts. The song itself carries a mood that is much darker than the theme to the previous game. In contrast to the mid tempo, upbeat melodies of Hikari, (Light) Passion is driven by layers of hard percussion and emotional vocals. The seemingly experimental rock guitars, piano melodies and assorted sounds add to the feeling, leaving you in a somewhat sad, yet empowering mood.

Also included on the single is the “after the battle” version of Passion. It’s really just a watered down version of the original. The percussion, guitars and other random sounds are removed, leaving you with just the piano, pads, and backing vocals. The third verse is also removed from the song as it cuts straight to the ending line, aozora no shita de. (under the blue sky) An instrumental to the original version comes in to finish off the song.

Overall this is an excellent single. Although it’s been met with mixed emotions, I find it a huge improvement over Be My Last. Passion definitely combines with familiar with the unknown and has a nice balance of the two. If Kingdom Hearts II is anywhere as good as the single, then you can expect to see me first in line to swipe it up upon its release.