Heart Station
| Heart Station | ||||
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| Studio album by Hikaru Utada | ||||
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| Label (s) | EMI Music Japan | |||
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CD |
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Title (number) |
13 |
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running time |
56:54 |
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Studio (s) |
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Heart Station is the fifth Japanese studio album by Hikaru Utada and was released on March 19, 2008 .
Emergence
With the title Heart Station , Utada continued the tradition of naming their studio albums after a title found on them. This was the first album that took its name from a previously released single and not from singles that were released afterwards such as the albums First Love , Distance , Exodus or from pieces that were never released as a single such as the albums Ultra Blue with the Track Blue or the album Deep River . Utada stated on her public blog that she has been working on her next English studio album since October 23, 2007, alongside her Japanese studio album. According to her information from January 16, 2008, two pieces on the album will contain string elements. It later turned out that these were supposed to be Flavor of Life -Ballad Version- and Prisoner of Love . On February 1, 2008, the last song was recorded under the code name Desperation . Work on the album was completed on February 6th at SterlingSound Studios in New York. On Utada's official website it was announced that the normal version of Flavor of Life was added to the announced twelve songs as a bonus track . So it is Utada's third album with a bonus track. A B2 poster from Utada was added to all pre-orders of the album . The album reached number 1 in pre-orders on Amazon Japan . On February 15, two more song titles were announced: Celebrate (previously known as Desperation ) and Niji-Iro Basu ( Japanese虹 色 バ ス) . The full track list was released on Utada's official website on February 19th, the day before their twentieth single Heart Station / Stay Gold was released , the title of which the album was ultimately named after.
According to reports from Shop EMI and Capitol Music on March 1st, Utada's Japanese album will also be released in Canada on April 8th. Like their previous releases of the Ultra Blue and Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol.1 albums , Heart Station will also be available in Canada at a reduced price compared to the original Japanese version. Emi Music set the release date to March 28 for Taiwan and Hong Kong and March 29 for South Korea.
Track list
- "Fight The Blues" - 4:10
- "Heart Station" - 4:36
- "Beautiful World" - 5:17
- "Flavor of Life -Ballad Version-" - 5:25
- "Stay Gold" - 5:14
- "Kiss & Cry" - 5:06
- "Gentle Beast Interlude" - 1:13
- "Celebrate" - 4:26
- "Prisoner Of Love" - 4:46
- "テ イ ク 5" (Teiku 5) - 3:42
- "ぼ く は く ま" (Boku wa Kuma) - 2:23
- "虹 色 バ ス" (Niji-iro Basu) - 5:50
- "Flavor of Life" (Bonus Title) - 4:46
Singles
| publication | title | Single type |
|---|---|---|
| November 22, 2006 | Boku wa Kuma | 17. Single |
| February 28, 2007 | Flavor Of Life | 18. Single |
| August 29, 2007 | Beautiful World / Kiss & Cry | 19. Single |
| February 20, 2008 | Heart Station / Stay Gold | 20th single |
| March 27, 2008 | Fight the blues | Download single |
| May 21, 2008 | Prisoner of Love | 21. Single |
Album promotion
For the first time on January 21, 2008, Utada's fifth Japanese album was reported on the E-hon.com site . It was announced that all singles from Boku wa Kuma ( Japanese:ぼ く は く ま) will be represented and that new songs will also be worked on and that several TV commercials and billboards will be shown in many major Japanese cities for the release. On January 24th, the title on E-hon.com was changed from Unknown to Heart Station . The EMI label confirmed this speculation two days later and it will be the first album whose title is derived from a previously released single.
Two weeks later, on February 7th, 2008, Utada announced in her blog that she had already completed a photoshoot and an interview for the new album for the well-known Japanese music magazine ROCKIN 'ON JAPAN and that they will appear in the April 20th issue . Your last collaboration with the magazine was six years ago. On February 19, 2008, Space Shower TV announced a 60-minute program entitled -VIP Utada- which will air on March 8, and which will include new interview excerpts for the upcoming release of the album. On the same day it was announced that the Fuji TV channel would continue to report on the album on the show Domoto Kyoudai , which is directed by the successful pop duo Kinki Kids . Utada's Japanese website was updated on February 21, 2008 with all television events for the coming weeks. The album's opening track, Fight the Blues , was broadcast on the radio for promotional purposes prior to release and was available for download on the USEN platform from March 3rd. On March 1, 2008, a list of 30 magazines was published in which the album was advertised and four magazines, each containing interviews with exclusive photos, such as ROCKIN 'ON JAPAN , which also contained 20 pages of information about the album . On March 2, EMI Japan released a 45-second promotional video for the song Fight the Blues .
In a new article, which also appeared on March 2nd, it was announced that EMI had the digital version and the normal physical version of the album mixed differently in order to do justice to both formats in terms of quality and special features. Both formats were mixed by Ted Jensen and Tom Cohen at Sterling Sound Studios in New York . It was also announced that snippets of each song would be available for iTunes and other platforms in time for digital release on March 26, 2008 . It was announced that Utada will be performing at HEY! HEY! HEY! On March 31st . Music Champ 's Spring Live Special on April 4 at the Music Station Special from the transmitter TV Asahi will occur. In her long career, these were the first unscheduled special live broadcasts of large music shows in which she participated. In addition to these two appearances, she appeared on eight other television shows, 34 magazines, and a few online blogs and websites, making the Heart Station advertising campaign the largest in Utada's entire music career. She sang the song Flavor of Life on the CX Domoto Kyoudai Special Show, which aired on March 4, 2008 . In an article from March 4th in Gyao Magazine the new songs Celebrate and Prisoner of Love were described on the one hand as a hot dance melody and on the other hand as a sad ballad and the album was described as the warmest album - with the reference to the title Heart Station - by Utada Hikaru. When Music Station Special of TV Asahi Utada appeared with the new song Prisoner of Love and her first appearance on the show NTV Music Lovers , which aired on March 22, she sang the songs Fight The Blues , Flavor Of Life -Ballad Version , Celebrate and Boku wa Kuma ( Japaneseく は く ま) from their album. The section was recorded in Utada's recording studio in Shibuya .
Utada appeared on SSTV's Chart Cobain Show on March 8th and shared more about her album Heart Station . She mentioned the particular softness of the music on the album and describes how her feminine identity is reflected in this album. She also stated that it is important to understand what role she plays as an interpreter. She especially mentioned the song Flavor of Life -Ballad Version- which is structured like a teenage drama and the simplicity of which represents her minor role as an artist but high role as a musician. Another article in Gyao Magazine on March 9th described the song Teiku 5 ( Japaneseテ イ ク 5) as the most unusual of the album, while the song Niji-iro Bus ( Japanese虹 色 バ ス) was the last normal track, a sweet and shiny one Own melody. On March 10, Utada's official website posted a list of other websites containing articles about the album and other promotions and radio interviews.
According to an article by Yahoo! Japan , the very well-known Japanese social network called Mixi , which is comparable to Facebook, is working together with Utada Hikaru and EMI Music Japan on their tenth anniversary of their music career, thereby also supporting the advertising campaign for their album. As a result of this collaboration, the normal logo on all Mixi phones was replaced by Utada Hikaru 10th Anniversary from March 10th to March 17th . In addition, links to free ringtones from their first album First Love were sent. More than 700,000 downloads were registered within four days. In addition, customers were able to tell about their first great love, which resulted in small giveaways from Mixi and Utada to be won.
Sales information
Oricon Style reported first week sales of Utada's fifth Japanese album, Heart Station, on March 24, 2008 at approximately 480,081 units in Japan, making it the 2008 first week sales of an album in Japan. This brought Utada currently five studio albums and one best-of album in a row to position 1 in the charts. Apart from her, only Checkers , Hikaru Genji , Kinki Kids and Ayumi Hamasaki achieved this .
In the first week of sales, it easily reached number 1 on the charts, as only Shibasaki Kou's album single Best sold more than 100,000 copies from March 18, 2008 to March 24, and Utada surpassed this value more than four times. In the first two days the album reached a sales index of more than 224,000 units and this rose to 357,554 in the next two days by March 22nd. In the second week it fell to position 2 in the charts on the first day and lost the top position to EXILE's new best-of album entitled Catchy Best . Utada's album Heart Station sold 135,857 times in the second week and stayed in the weekly charts at number 2. It prevailed against Aoyama Thelmas with her debut album Diary and against two remix albums by the successful J-Pop singer Ayumi Hamasaki . On March 27, 2008, it reached No. 1 on the United World Charts as Utada's fourth album , making her the Asian singer with the most number 1 albums in these charts. It also became the best-selling album by a female singer in 2008, ahead of Kingdom by Koda Kumi and Guilty by Ayumi Hamasaki.
On March 25th, Heart Station reached # 1 on the iTunes Top Album Charts. As of March 31, Utada was ranked number 1 on Billboard Japan's Hot 100 charts, which combine downloads and airplays, and the Hot 100 airplay charts, which show only airplays. In the iTunes download charts for songs, sixteen songs by Utada made it into the top 100 this week , with Prisoner of Love taking first place followed by Fight the Blues at number 7. Also in the iTunes album charts , next to Heart Station, came first three more of her albums back into the top 100 . The album was number 1 on the Taiwan G-Music Combo Charts . Heart Station accounted for 19.17% of all Japanese album imports that week . In the week of March 30th, the album entered the Hong Kong charts at number 4 and in the second week of April 6th reached number 2. On April 4th, 2008 it reached position 8 in the Korean Hanteo Weekly Pop Album Charts . The album was available on iTunes USA from April 10th , where it was number 56 in the album charts. On May 13, Barks.jp announced that Heart Station had been legally downloaded over 15 million times.
Chart positions
Japanese chart trend
| Oricon charts Japan | Top position | Sales figures |
|---|---|---|
| Oricon Daily Albums Chart | #1 | 115.087 |
| Oricon Weekly Albums Chart | #1 | 480,081 |
| Oricon Monthly Albums Chart | #1 | 480,081 |
| Oricon Yearly Albums Chart | # 5 | 1,011,373 |
| Oricon charts Japan | Sales figures | total |
| 1 week | 480,081 | 480,081 |
| 2 weeks | 135.857 | 615.938 |
| 3 week | 59,935 | 675.873 |
| 4th week | 41,792 | 717.665 |
| 5th week | 40,539 | 758.204 |
| 6th week | 30,226 | 788.430 |
| 7th week | 29,905 | 818.335 |
| 8th week | 23,581 | 841.916 |
| 9th week | 25,138 | 867.054 |
| 10th week | 24,069 | 891.123 |
| 11th week | 19,767 | 910.890 |
| 12th week | 14,327 | 925.217 |
| 13th week | 11,559 | 936.776 |
| 14th week | 10,428 | 947.204 |
| 15th week | 9,429 | 956.633 |
| 16th week | 6,861 | 963.494 |
| 17th week | 4,337 | 967.831 |
| 18th week | 3,476 | 971.307 |
| 19th week | 3,010 | 974.317 |
| 20th week | 2,473 | 976.790 |
| 21st week | 2,090 | 978.880 |
| 22nd week | 2,254 | 981.134 |
| 23rd week | 1,740 | 982.874 |
| 24th week | 1,419 | 984.293 |
| 25th week | 1,099 | 985.392 |
| 26th week | 1.014 | 986.406 |
| 27th week | 1,055 | 987.461 |
| 28th week | 1,115 | 988.576 |
| 29th week | 947 | 989.523 |
| 30th week | 917 | 990,440 |
| 31st week | 889 | 991.329 |
| 32nd week | 902 | 992.231 |
| 33rd week | 731 | 992.962 |
| 34th week | 904 | 993.866 |
Worldwide chart
| Chart | Top position |
|---|---|
| United World Chart (Albums) | #1 |
| Oricon Daily Albums Chart | #1 |
| Oricon Weekly Albums Chart | #1 |
| Oricon Monthly Albums Chart | #1 |
| Oricon Yearly Albums Chart 2008 | TBA |
| Itunes Japan Top 100 Albums | #1 |
| Billboard Japan Top Albums | #1 |
| G-Music Combo Chart (Taiwan) | # 2 |
| G-Music J-POP Chart (Taiwan) | #1 |
| Taiwanese International Albums Chart | TBA |
| HMV Asian Chart (Singapore) | TBA |
| HMV Hong Kong Album Chart (Japan) | #1 |
| HMV Hong Kong Top 40 Album Chart (Asia) | #1 |
| HMV Hong Kong Top 40 Album Chart (Worldwide) | # 7 |
| Soundscan Albums Chart | #1 |
| Weekly Hanteo Pop Albums Chart (Korea) | # 5 |
| Daily Hanteo Pop Albums Chart (Korea) | # 4 |
| Itunes US Top 100 Pop Albums | # 56 |