Hikaru Utada's 8th studio album is coming in Spring 2022 y'all

So, in news that has shocked not a single fan, we got a fax come through that Hikaru Utada will be releasing their 8th studio album in Spring of 2022.

I had called it that if there was no album in December, then it'd be Spring 2022; which is nothing but logic, purely because we've gotten too many singles at this point for there to be no album by Spring. But the Spring 2022 release almost guarantees that we'll get one final digital single not long before the album drops.

The Hikki staff fax had December 9 as date on which we'll get more info on the album, a date of which is also the official date of Hikaru Utada's debut. So MAYBE we'll get more in store than just the album title and release date. Maybe we'll be getting something linked to Hikaru Utada's anniversary too. Re-issues or vinyl releases of all of their albums would go down a treat. Or maybe Cubic U's Precious being made available on streaming? I'm not even gonna go there with a home release of In the Flesh. Teruzane ain't ever giving that to us. Never forget that before Beyoncé said 'Ya'll ain't getting no home release for the Formation World Tour', that Hikaru did it with In the Flesh.

Speaking of tours, Hikaru Utada will also hold an online concert, which will mark her first live performance since their Laughter in the Dark tour back in 2018. The production of this is confirmed to be taking place in London, which makes sense given that she lives here, her entire band is based here and that we're still in a fucking pandemic. Full details and tickets for this gig will also go live on December 9th.

The album has been confirmed to include near enough all of the singles we've gotten from as early as 2019. As it stands "Time", "Dare ni mo Iwanai", "One Last Kiss", "Pink Blood", "Find Love" and "Kimi ni Muchuu" will all feature on the upcoming album, which leaves us with only 4 to 5 songs which are new. I'm almost certain the December 9th announcement will also come with news of another single drop in January of February, which will be a product tie in, because Teruzane ain't having his child release no song without no brand money attached to it.

Y'all. Even "Face My Fears" is being included on this shit, which is the biggest shock of ALL'A DIS.

As much of a shock as it is, "Face My Fears" does kinda fit within the sounds of the songs we've heard off this album thus far. I actually hope that the English version is included, as it's one of the only instances of a Kingdom Hearts theme where I think the English version is better than the Japanese version. The way the lyrics fit in the song give the impression that perhaps Hikaru wrote the English version first, then reworked it in to Japanese as she did "Sanctuary", which didn't have SHIT on "Passion". Like, why take out the middle 8!? I just hope that we don't get "Face My Fears" slapped onto the end of the album and that we don't get both versions of the song. I'd much rather have another song than one song twice. But watch this be what happens.

Happy to finally have news on the album. But right now, I just wanna hear "Find Love" in full.

More details on the album will drop on December 9, and "Kimi ni Muchuu" will release digitally on December 16. A rip of whole song is online already. If you're eager to hear it in full, search Twitter. It's not hard to find. Hikaru Utada also shared that they are working on an English version of the song too. So, between this and "Find Love", this upcoming album could end up being the closest thing to the English / Japanese hybrid album that fans have been asking for. And Hikaru had mentioned in their 2020 Instagram live that they'd consider the inclusion of English language songs. Although I can't see more than a couple of English songs being included on this upcoming album, given that it will still be a Japanese studio album. But it's cool to know that Hikaru is still in this place of trying to pull Hikaru Utada and Utada into one sound, and that they're open to playing around with different things at a time in their career where it would be so easy to just keep doing the same thing.

💿 Singlekaru Reviewtada: Pink Blood | One Last Kiss | Dare ni mo Iwanai | Time

💿 Albumkaru Reviewtada: Hatsukoi | Fantôme | This is the One | Heart Station | Ultra Blue | Exodus | Deep River | Distance | First Love

🎧 Spotifykaru Playlistada: Slaykaru Queentada | Hikaru Utada: R&B | Hikaru Utada: Ballads | Hikaru Utada: Bops | Hikaru Utada: Remixes