Kingdom Hearts II: Passion – Hikaru Utada

	Album Title: Kingdom Hearts II: Passion – Hikaru Utada
	Record Label: Toshiba EMI
	Catalog No.: TOCT-5003
	Release Date: December 14, 2005
	Purchase: Buy at CDJapan

Overview

Hikaru Utada, queen of the vocal tracks due to the general success of “Hikari” / “Simple and Clean” returns to the Kingdom Hearts and VGM fray with a brand new song to appertise us for the upcoming Kingdom Hearts II soundtrack. The offering is a two track single entitled “Passion” which is available with just the tracks or with an additional DVD containing the music video.

Body

“Passion” is frankly one of the most captivating vocal songs I have heard in an extremely long time. Starting with soft backing vocals and electronic pulses, the song rip roars into a mass drum fest — almost verging on pop tribal. It beats out a stomping stadium anthem chorus to Utada’s sublime vocals, which are in both Japanese, and, if you reverse it, you’ll catch many lines of English too. The verses are equally rocky and edgy; the whole sound is a much more mature and darker mood which seems to suit the overall look and feel of the Kingdom Hearts game too. The song then finally reaches up a notch for a climax of guitars, drums, electronics, and bleeding vocals to return to its very soft beginnings. Amazing. While I must admit I am a huge follower of Hikaru Utada’s previous works since hearing “Hikari” and going on to hear “Colors”, I must state that I have rarely had my breath taken away by a song so easily.

That’s the single version. Also on the single we have “Passion ~after the Battle~”, which takes away every element of the single version except the vocals and then adds a soft and simplistic piano backing. Beautiful. Although the warped vocals can distract at times, it really takes the same song and adds a completely different spin. Once the song has gone through its paces, it then strikes up the guitar and carefully goes through a karaoke version of half the song again to finish off which I believe is quite unique — almost like the tune you’d get after you hear the victory fanfare in a game and you’re adding up your exp. points! Clever stuff if you look at the title me thinks!

Now if you have bought the CD+DVD version (as I did) you’ll also get a separate DVD with the music video on which involves anime Utada, lots of drum banging, even more horses, and even more dancing kachinas! A visual spectacular but those of you after Kingdom Hearts footage will be left dissapointed.

Summary

I’d recommend this single to absolutely anyone without hesitation. Far deeper than “Simple and Clean”, while still fitting the Kingdom Hearts universe, it’s a masterpiece!

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