Listen to... Ayumi Hamasaki - Movin' on without you (Hikaru Utada cover)

When word got our that Ayu was contributing to a cover album of Hikaru Utada's songs, everybody called the horses out and brought rope, ready to tie by the ankles, hop on a saddle and drag for miles. I bought myself some cowboy boots ready for the ho-down. But I'm going to have to walk right back to the shop with my receipt and get me a refund, because Ayu did good. She covered a Hikaru Utada song and didn't ruin it.

The one song I thought would be one of the low points of the cover album turns out to be one of the highlights. Where-as as many of her peers opted to try and revamp and transform songs (with some catastrophic results), Ayu played it safe and delivered a nice cover. Had she tried to have gone off on some grand tangent, she almost certainly would have found her back severely grazed from a marathon dragging.

Ayu's cover of "Movin' on without you" is produced and arranged by the RedOne team who helmed "XOXO" - which was one of my stand outs from her album Colours. So it comes as no surprise that they managed to have Ayu sound decent on a club jam, yet again. If Ayu hasn't already whatsapp'd her A&R to keep RedOne's team on the blower for future releases, then she damn well needs to.

If I were Ayu, I would have pulled some Voodoo pussy shit and sucked a dick at Virgin music to allow for the song to be released as a fully fledged single. That Zutto... / Last minute / Walk single of hers won't pop or have people talkin' like this.

Ayu needs to send Hikaru Utada a box of Tokyo banana, a strawberry cheesecake and a Kobe beef hamper for throwing her a lifeline.