“It’s like… as if ‘Hikari’ was the dawn, and ‘Passion’ has a concluding or ‘dusk’ feeling to it. The lyrics of ‘Passion’ show how phases of the past, present and future of the character in my song relate to each other.” – Utada Hikaru

I wanted this song to be my very first review, but I just couldn’t as soon as I read that quotation.

So I’ve decided to make Hikari the ‘dawn’ and Passion the ‘dusk’ and do a review about Hikari first, as you can see. And why not, Hikari got me interested in Japanese music and Passion got me into Japanese music.

Passion

Tracklist

1. Passion ~single version~
2. Passion ~after the battle~

Passion ~single version~

Starting out with some very soothing and ballad like ‘Ah’s. The guitar cuts in, and the bass starts to play. Followed by a short pause and the pause is broken by the guitar. The beat starts and Utada sings the first words, with lovely vocals I must say. Amazing drums throughout the whole song, it makes you want to take drumming lessons.

The song has some high background vocals singing ‘Aaah’. That combined with the combination of notes played on the guitar gives the song a rather futuristic and ancient feel at the same time.

And often you hear ‘Won asteno ina’ or something like that. ‘I need more affection than you know’. Hikki always puts English lyrics into her song, and this time, she did it very original.

The underlying piano is gorgeously combined with the guitar.

The near end of the song is lovely: singing the first part of the sentence quite high and the rest of the sentence quite low. The end is quite soothing and nostalgic, yes nostalgic. She starts with a high ‘ooh’ followed by ‘my fears, my lies’, ‘aozora no shita’ and finally ‘I need more affection than you know’ reversed. Followed by last soft ‘aa’ and the bass playing the same as in the beginning, the song ends. The song certainly does not waste 4 minutes of your life.

9/10

Passion ~after the battle~

This Passion version, starts of with soft ‘aa’s and the piano, on which someone is playing some high notes. Hikki sings very soft and nostalgic. Yes she’s singing nostalgic, like she’s trying to tell us her story of the past and her wishes for the future. She ends her singing with soft ‘aa’s.

Then there’s a small pause, broken by the guitar, followed by amazing drum work. You can hear high piano chords. The song ends at 5.40 by the same bass melody you hear at the beginning and end of the single version.

I first heard this version when finishing Kingdom Hearts 2.

Guess what, I cried.

9/10

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Overall: 9/10

“Passion is probably one of my favourite songs that I’ve written; I especially like my lyrics. It’s not really like anything I’ve done in the past.”