Listen to Hikaru Utada & Skrillex's Kingdom Hearts III theme "Face my fears" in full

Song previews be damned. Sometimes they show the full ass of a song and sometimes they be hiding it. In the instance of Hikaru Utada & Skrillex's "Face my fears", this song showed its full ass in preview form when it debuted in Kingdom Hearts III's opening movie trailer in December.

The full song probably isn't going to change the opinion that anybody had of it when they heard the preview. There are no twists, no turns, no crazy melody changes, no key changes. Just an oddly flat and anti climatic bridge section. But the second verse is nice. It has me so mad though, because its the one part of the song where I feel everything sits together nicely. Elsewhere, the song just feels flat, uninspired and a bit monotonous. And even though Hikaru's vocals swing about a bit, they still sound flat and she legit sounds like somebody stabbed a bitch with a keyblade and took her heart. If that's what she was going for, then props to her. Because she's selling it.

The cinematic intro to Kingdom Hearts III also includes the full version of the song, as opposed to an edit, as was the case with the PlanitB remix of "Simple and clean" in the original Kingdom Hearts.

I never like Hikaru's Kingdom Hearts themes on a first listen, and find myself not liking them until years after their initial release. So maybe by this time next year I'll like "Face my fears". But for now, it's just okay. I don't hate it. I don't love it. But it does grow on me each time I listen to it. I just wish it gave a little more than it does. The Japanese version is my version as preference, as it always is with Kingdom Hearts themes. But I must say, that of all of the English versions of Hikaru's Kingdom Hearts themes thus far, "Face my fears" is one of the better ones. I find "Simple and clean", "Don't think twice" and especially "Sanctuary" to be completely inferior to their Japanese counterparts. An effort seemed to have been taken to keep the English and Japanese versions as similar as possible arrangement wise.

The full intro to Kingdom Hearts III doesn't help sell the song any better. The opening movie trailer is edited to match the song far better than the full intro. (Google it if you want to find it. You won't have to look too hard).