Single Review: Hikaru Utada - Mine or Yours

Hikaru Utada is an artist for whom I do not expect anything. Ever since their hiatus I’ve been in a constant state of ‘They could just call it quits tomorrow’. So every release feels like a gift and a surprise to me. But it’s not just the releases on their own which surprise me, but the consistency and also the steady stream of releases we have gotten for the past decade. Every time I think Hikaru Utada may pause and take a break, they drop something.

I figured after the release of Science Fiction and its tour that Hikaru would disappear for a minute, but nope. We got remixes of “Electricity” and a brand new song, which also has a bunch of remixes on the way. And despite the close proximity to Science Fiction and the song featuring the very same band that Hikaru toured with — “Mine or Yours” doesn’t feel like something which should have just been on Science Fiction, despite the song carrying vibes from other songs Hikaru has recorded over the years — specifically from Hatsukoi — and even using a kinda-similar-maybe melody from a song on Fantôme.

“Mine or Yours” doesn’t sound like something which could have been on Science Fiction, even though the song carries vibes from other songs Hikaru has recorded over the years — specifically those from Hatsukoi. I’m sure some fans reading this just threw up in their mouths at me mentioning that album. Hatsukoi might just be tied with This Is the One and as the Hikaru Utada album a whole bunch of fans tend to like the least.

“Mine or Yours” feels like the happier other half to “Kibun ja nai no (Not In The Mood)”. “Kibun ja nai no (Not in the Mood)” is ‘I just wanna be alone right now’. Where-as “Mine or Yours” is ‘I want to be with you’. It’s a really nice contrast.

I was relieved to hear that the production of “Mine or Yours” was that warm, fuzzy and rich production, and not the ‘My first Garageband beat’ type shit that Hikaru occasionally gives us. And I was delighted to see that Harry Bowers-Broadbent was credited as a producer alongside Hikaru. Harry became a part of the Kuma Power Posse on the Laughter in the Dark Tour, as a keyboardist. He was also a part of the Hikaru Utada Live Sessions from Air Studios, in support of the Bad Mode album. Then he went back on tour again with Hikaru a second time for their Science Fiction Tour as their musical director. So it’s really nice to see Harry credited as a producer on a Hikaru Utada song. Given that Harry was Hikaru’s musical director for a tour, it makes sense for him to produce some music for them too, because he was kinda doing that anyway for the tour. And the musical director to producer pipeline is a common one. One of the most notable I can think of being Stuart Price — who was Madonna’s musical director for her Drowned World Tour and then went on to produce one of Madonna’s most beloved comeback albums, Confessions On a Dance Floor.

Much like the case with the A. G. Cook’s productions for Hikaru, “Mine or Yours” doesn’t have a different flavour than we’re used to hearing from Hikaru. There is no signature sound that really defines the producer in any way. But regardless, it’s a beautiful sounding song which is pristinely put together. So hopefully we’ll see Harry listed as a producer on more of Hikaru’s songs. Harry doesn’t have an extensive production credit list for other artists, so maybe through his work with Hikaru he will build that up and develop a sound. Because whilst I am all for the comfort and familiarity of Hikaru’s music, it would be great to see it move into a new space sonically — which I feel it did with Bad Mode, especially on the Floating Points joints. Floating Points is still in the fold, so producing for Hikaru’s next album seems like a lock. But hopefully Harry is put into the mix too. They would actually make for cool partnerships for Hikaru — Floating Points being the one to push Hikaru’s sound in new spaces and Harry being the anchor to a more familiar sound.

HENNYWAY.

Back to this song.

Hikaru Utada - Mine or Yours | Sony Music Labels Inc.

One thing Hikaru is great at is writing songs which connect and feel true to life. Hikaru will write a verse about doing very simple, mundane things, then out of nowhere — a really random, existential line just thrown in the midst of it. Like ‘I’m just at home, doing my laundry. I WONDER WHAT IT’S LIKE WHEN YOU DIE.’ And it seems random and out of nowhere, but I identify with this, because sometimes my thoughts are like this. Just these really big and powerful thoughts in the midst of wondering what I’m going to cook for dinner and whether I should do laundry tonight or tomorrow. And in this age of social media, news also hits us the same way. In one scroll we see news on a Sabrina Carpenter song, a Pepe the frog meme, news on Palestinian children being murdered and then box office figures for The Fantastic Four. It’s not normal, but it’s normal and it’s life for many of us. “Mine or Yours” is a song about lazing around and feeling comfortable enough with somebody to just do nothing. But the bombshell of ‘Will it ever be legal in this damn country for women to marry and keep their last names?’ comes outta nowhere.

In Japan — by law, married couples have to share a family name. The law doesn’t state that a woman has to be the one to take their husband’s family name, but they frequently do between tradition and men refusing to give up their name. With Hikaru having come out as non-binary in 2021 and questioning certain ‘gender norms’ before then’ — talking about gender equality and societal norms not being normal is very on brand for Hikaru Utada. And there is also their relationship with their mother and seeing how she navigated marriage. Hikaru’s mother divorced and re-married Hikaru Utada’s father multiple times and was also married once before him. So, perhaps traditional viewpoints on marriage, the expectations of a wife from a legal and societal perspective and how a woman is ‘supposed to be’ didn’t fully jive with Hikaru’s mother either. And it’s things like this which make Hikaru Utada’s music so cool, because it makes each song feel very personal to them and uniquely them, whilst also being relatable to many of us. Even if we’re not affected by this very specific thing Hikaru is speaking of, we know the feeling of pondering a question about life to ourselves out of nowhere. And in this specific instance, Hikaru’s question is an educational moment, because I had no idea that by law married couples had to share a family name and that double-barrelling was not an option.

Hikaru including a line in “Mine or Yours” about the legalities of marriage in Japan and it robbing women of their name and a choice adds a bit of spice and bite to what sounds like a very cosy and pedestrian song. But it’s also what makes the choice for this song to be entirely in Japanese feel extremely intentional. It’s incredibly cool, even if it is something that some may not catch. It’s Hikaru just being Hikaru.

But much like most of Hikaru’s singles as of late, as nice as “Mine or Yours” is, it doesn’t scream ‘single’. As a nice song in a TV commercial where Hikaru is wandering around Portugal with her bottle of green tea, it works beautifully. And I can imagine it working well when sequenced within an album. But as a stand alone single, it doesn’t really do much. I feel that part of what made Hikaru’s team even release it is the shift that has occurred in Japanese music, where acts now drop their tie-in songs as digital singles soon after they appear in the things. Where-as pre streaming and pre digital singles, some of these songs wouldn’t release as singles for months, if at all. And I kinda think we might need to go back to some version of that. Not every tie-in song needs to be a single. But at least Hikaru bothered to give the song a music video, which is more than what can be said for Perfume and their tie-in digital singles. But that’s a whole other post.

Hikaru Utada - Mine or Yours | Sony Music Labels Inc.

“Mine or Yours” is a really nice song. But I don’t think it’s a Hikaru single which will stick in people’s minds. But as aforementioned, I can imagine getting a new lease of life when put on an album. And I can tell you now, that I wouldn’t skip it. It’s too nice and cosy of a song to skip. I’m keen to hear the ways in which the remixes flip the song. Hopefully they turn out better than the ones for “Electricity”.

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

💿 Singlekaru Reviewtada: Time | Dare ni mo Iwanai | One Last Kiss | Pink Blood | Gold ~Mata au hi Made~ | Nani Iro Demo Nai Hana (A Flower of No Color)

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