Hikaru Utada throws us back to “Movin’ On Without You”, with their music video for “Electricity”

A screenshot from Hikaru Utada’s music video for “Electricity”. Featuring Utada wearing a grey dress, stood between two satellite dishes as the sun sets.

So, Hikaru Utada has released a music video for their Science Fiction cut “Electricity”. I don’t know what Utada’s rollout strategy is with their albums these days, but I have really been enjoying them. Ever since Fantôme, we’ve gotten music videos for songs releasing months after an album, which is not a common thing with Japanese album rollouts. Then again, nothing about Utada’s career is common.

The music industry has changed massively, globally. The Japanese release model of a string of singles, an album and then a tour (if you’re lucky) lost its potency quite some time ago and it needs to change. So it’s great to see an artist like Utada buck that trend by prolonging their album rollouts with music videos, tie-ins, pre-recorded gigs and live albums. Hopefully we’ll start to see album re-releases become a thing in Japan too.

HENNYWAY.

The music video.

I don’t know whether it was intentional or not, but this music video looked like a re-do of the “Movin’ On Without You” music video. It has the exact same concept. Given that “Electricity’ features on a best album — that surprisingly didn’t feature “Movin’ On Without You” — which features re-recordings of songs and that the commercial / music video for the re-recording of “Traveling” featured references to the original music video for “Traveling’, it’s hard to not think that the video for “Electricity” sharing the same concept “Movin’ On Without You” was fully intentional.

I really do admire how Utada and their team are aware of their aesthetic and brand. From the outfits, to the vibes, to the styles of the shots. There is always a consistency, despite the different directors who are involved. Even though the video for “Electricity” shares similarities with the “Movin’ On Without You” video, it still featured a lot of the visual choices and aesthetics which became signatures of Utada’s years later, from Deep River onward. And at a time where so many established artists who have been in the game for over 20 years seem unsure of their brand, when they at one point had that shit locked down, it’s nice to see an artist who still has their shit together and has a team around them who gets the brand and is always able to steer the ship in the right direction. Ayumi Hamasaki, Koda Kumi, Crystal Kay, they all need to be taking notes and recruiting new captains for their ships.

A screenshot from Hikaru Utada’s music video for “Electricity”. Featuring Utada wearing a grey dress and looking up as the sun sets.

Hikaru Utada - Electricity | Sony Music Labels Inc.

The only two times I’ve listened to “Electricity” was when Science Fiction first released and when I watched the Science Fiction tour. So it’s nice to experience it a third time. I like the song, I just find the chorus kinda jarring, which is what stops me from listening to it more. But the production on the song is great, and it’s the best of the new songs and re-recordings on Science Fiction by far. Utada and Floating Points is a great partnership that I hope continues.