Automatic (Hikaru Utada song)

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"Automatic"
File:Utada Hikaru - Automatic time will tell.jpg
"Automatic/Time Will Tell" 12cm CD single cover.
Single by Hikaru Utada
from the album First Love
A-side "Time Will Tell"
Released 8 December 1998 (1998-12-08)
Format CD single, digital download
Recorded Studio Z'd, Wonder Station Yoyogi Studio, Studio Terra, Tokyo. August 1998.
Genre Dance, R&B, soul
Length 5:28
Label Toshiba EMI
Writer(s) Hikaru Utada
Producer(s)
Certification Million (RIAJ)
Hikaru Utada singles chronology
"Automatic/Time Will Tell"
(1998)		 "Movin' On Without You"
(1998)
Alternative cover
Alternative cover

"Automatic" is a song by Japanese recording artist Hikaru Utada from her debut studio album, First Love (1999). The song was released on 8 December 1998, as her debut A-side single with "Time Will Tell". "Automatic" was co-written and co-produced by Hikaru with her father Teruzane Utada and Akira Miyake. Backed by keyboards and electric guitars, it is an R&B track. The lyrics revolve around love and relationships.

"Automatic" was lauded from music critics, some who highlighted the track as an album stand-out and commended the lyrical, vocal and song writing delivery. Many critics have recognized "Automatic" as one of best Japanese music singles and one of Utada's best efforts. Released in Japan only, it peaked at number two and four on the Oricon Singles Chart in both 8cm and 12cm formats, respectively. "Automatic" peaked at number one on the Japanese Count Down TV chart.

Promoting the single on live TV shows in Japan, Utada performed the track on her Bohemian Summer 2000 Tour, Utada: In the Flesh 2010 and the Wild Life Tour. Tomu Izawa directed the song's music video, which features Utada sitting in a dark-lit room on an armchair and in front of a blue-and-white backdrop. Selling over 2.1 million physical units, it remains Utada's highest selling single in terms of the CD single; her highest selling single is "Flavor of Life", which sold over 5.7 million units in both digital, physical and ringtone units.[1]

Background

Hikaru Utada's track "Automatic" appears on her debut sophomore album, First Love (1999). Born and raised in Manhattan, New York City, Utada started singing at a very young age; she was a member of U3, a musical act with her mother Keiko Fuji and her father Teruzane. U3 released their debut album Star in 1993, with the hope to debut in America; the album only peaked at thirty-three in Japan.[2][3][4] Utada's mother was a Japanese enka singer and actress, while her father was a Japanese record producer who had contributed to some of Fuji's work. In 1996, the group was re-branded as Cubic U, an R&B project that focused primarily on Hikaru, resulting in the English language album Precious in 1998 with record label Toshiba EMI.[5][6] The album peaked at two on the Oricon Albums Chart and sold over 700,000 units.[7][8]

Utada moved to Tokyo in early-1997 to attend Seisen International School and American School in Japan.[9] During her studies, Utada signed as a solo artist with Toshiba EMI and begun recording her album First Love. Fluent in both English and Japanese languages, the head offices at EMI asked if she could write Japanese songs rather than English lyrics. During the process of the album, Utada desired to become a singer-songwriter and occasionally practised producing and composing her music rather than become an Japanese idol.[10] She refused to allow talent agencies to contact her at the start, which was a very common tradition for Japanese singers in the 1990s,[11] and her father started to manage her work along with producing and composing it; to this day, her father continues to manage and co-produce some of her work.

Writing and production

Written about a previous relationship, "Automatic" is a R&B and dance song.[12][13] "Automatic" was recorded in late August 1998 at Studio Z'd, Wonder Station Yoyogi Studio and Studio Terra in Tokyo, Japan.[14] Additional mixing, programming and mastering was handled by Goh Hotoda and American programmer Ted Jensen.[15] With production handled by Miyake, Hikaru and Teruzane Utada, "Automatic" was arranged by production team Taka & Speedy with additional help by Kawano Kei.[16] Bass guitars and keyboards were played by Akira Nishihira, while all other instruments were played by Tsuyoshi Kon and Nonuhiko Nakayama.[16]

Unusual dance grooves are created by the strumming of a “distorted-yet-laid-back” bass guitar.[13] Wilson and Alroy from Warr.org felt the instrumentation created a “unusual but casual” intimacy vibe.[13] Rockin' On Japan's editor and chief Kano had commented that Utada had brought a large prominence of R&B and soul music with the tracks "Automatic" and "Time Will Tell", and felt that "Automatic"'s release introduced a new R&B audience inside of Japan.[17] Utada uses the song title on her 2009 English-language album This Is the One for the song "Automatic Part II".[18] A demo cut for "Automatic" was featured on her re-release First Love: 15th Anniversary Edition.[14] An English-language version was recorded for both "Automatic" and "Time Will Tell", but the latter track was released as a bonus track for the 12cm CD Single of "Automatic/Time Will Tell"; "Automatic" still remains unreleased.[19]

Reception

Critical response

CDJournal gave the single a star of recommendation, praising Utada's vocal and song writing. They described her voice as "full of emotion", and felt the "flexible melody line" created a pleasant floating feeling.[20] David Jeffries, who had written the extended biography of Utada at Allmusic, selected the song as an album and career stand out.[21] Wilson and Alroy had highlighted the track as an album stand out from First Love.[13] Kano commented “It all began from here” when referring to "Automatic", and said the song presented “innocent energy” that was “vivid enough” to admire singers like Utada.[17] Satoshi Shimada from Yeah!! J-Pop felt that "Automatic" was the strongest single on Utada's first greatest hits compilation Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 1 (2004).[22] Jun Takama from Vibe was positive towards all tracks from the compilation, who commended Utada's vocal abilities, songwriting and production skills.[23]

"Automatic" was given the gold award at the 2000 JASRAC awards, beating her own song "Time Will Tell" and "Dango 3 Kyodai" to be the most royalty-receiving song in 1999.[24] The Japan Record Awards mentioned the song as an Honorable Mention Award.[25] In 2000, The Japan Gold Disc Awards had awarded "Automatic" along with "Movin' on Without You" and "Addicted to You" for Song(s) of the Year.[25]

Commercial response

"Automatic" is the second best selling single by a female artist, just behind Namie Amuro's (pictured) single "Can You Celebrate?"

"Automatic / Time Will Tell" charted together in Japan and was first served for their 8cm release. "Automatic / Time will tell" had peaked at number four on the Oricon Singles Chart, which became her first top five single but had missed the top spot. The singles had eventually sold over 772,000 copies during 1998 and 1999, making the release Utada's best selling single on a 8cm format.[26][27] In February 1999, the songs were re-released on compact disc format by Toshiba-EMI. The song peaked at number two on the Oricon Singles Chart, which had raised her previous position, but again, failed to peak at number one on Oricon.[28] However, the singles sold an additionally 1.3 million copies in Japan.[26][28] The single entered the Japanese Count Down TV chart at five. It reached number one on its seventh week, and stayed in the chart for twenty-five weeks.[29]

In November 2009, during the international promotion off her English-language album This Is the One, "Automatic" was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for 100,000 sold full-length ringtone units in Japan.[30] In 2014, up until Utada's 15th career anniversary off her debut album, "Automatic" debuted and peaked at number 52 on the Japan Hot Adult Contemporary chart and Japan Hot 100 at number 73.[31][32] This charting became her most recent effort to chart in Japan overall since her last release was in 2010. With total digital and physical sales, "Automatic / Time Will Tell" has sold over 2.1 million units in Japan and is one of the best selling singles in Japan. These sales were her highest up until her 2007 single "Flavor of Life", which sold over 650,000 physical units, 2.85 million digital units of the ballad version,[33][34][35] and 2.25 million digital units of the original version.[36][35][37] These sales tally up to 5.7 million units, Utada's highest selling single to date.[38]

Promotion

It was also used in a commercial for Honda Life, and was featured in beatmania GB 2 GatchaMIX for the Game Boy Color.[39] The song has been a constant feature of her live concert set lists. She performed the song during her Luv Live concerts in April 1999, as well as her Bohemian Summer 2000 concert tour and at the Utada Hikaru Unplugged event on August 10, 2001.[40] "Automatic" was a part of her Hikaru no 5 residency concerts at the Nippon Budokan in February 2004, her Japan-wide tour Utada United 2006, her overseas tour Utada: In the Flesh 2010 and her December 2010 Wild Life concert series.[41]

A music video was produced for the song, directed by Tomu Izawa,[42] and later included in her Utada Hikaru Single Clip Collection Vol. 1 (1999) music clip collection.[43] It featured Utada sitting in a darkened room, performing the song on a yellow armchair. The second section of the video features Utada performing the song in the blue and white room depicted on the 12cm cover. In 2010, Utada self-parodied the armchair scene in the music video for her song "Goodbye Happiness".[44]

Legacy

"Automatic" is often regarded as one of the best-reviewed Japanese singles in modern Japanese music history.[22] Shimada commented that not only "Automatic" was one of her strongest singles, but felt it was one of the strongest singles in Japanese music.[22] Calling it a "roaring" and "shocking" single, Hayashi from OngakuDB.com felt it was "only like yesterday" when the song was release. He felt that it was "strange how six years have flown."[45] Hayakawa Kanako from Shinko Music was also shocked how the song "was released about five years ago" and praised the longevity of the tracks production and Utada's production skills. It was highlighted as an stand out in their review.[46]

In total combination, the singles have sold over 2.063 million units in Japan, making this the nineteenth best selling single in all Japanese recent music history.[1] This remains Utada's best selling single in physical format, the second best female single behind Namie Amuro's "Can You Celebrate?" which sold 2.29 million and the third best selling double A-Side single in all of Japan's music history.[1] This also became Utada's first single to be certified and sell over one million (and her only to sell over 2 million units) in Japan. This effort was followed by "Movin' On Without You" from First Love, "Addicted to You", "Wait & See (Risk)", "For You", "Time Limit", "Can You Keep a Secret?" from Distance, "Travelling" from Deep River and "Colors" from Ultra Blue.[47][48][49][50][51][52][53] [upper-alpha 1]

Cover versions

In 1999, Hong Kong singer and actress Kelly Chen covered the song in Mandarin.[54] In 2009, Jamaican reggae group Sly and Robbie and Unitzz released an English language cover of the song.[55] A second reggae cover was produced in 2011 by DJ Sasa with Island Souls on their album Respect! J-Pop, featuring vocals by Shinobu Nakasone of OrangeClover.[56] Kyoto rock band Unchain released a cover of the song on their cover album Love & Groove Delivery (2013).[57] Swedish band Dirty Loops covered the song on their 2014 album Loopified, and in the same year singer-songwriter Yasuyuki Okamura recorded the song for Utada Hikaru no Uta, a tribute album celebrating 15 years since Utada's debut.[58]

Track listings

8cm pressing
No. Title Length
1. "Automatic"   5:12
2. "Time Will Tell"   5:30
3. "Automatic (Original Karaoke)"   5:11
Total length:
 15:53
CD Single
No. Title Length
1. "Automatic"   5:12
2. "Time Will Tell"   5:30
3. "Time Will Tell (Dub Mix)"   5:36
Total length:
 16:18
Promo CD
No. Title Length
1. "Automatic"   5:12
Total length:
 5:12

Personnel

Personnel details were sourced from First Love's liner notes booklet.[14]

Musicians and personnel

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  • Hotoda Goh – mixing
  • Kei Kawano – additional arrangement
  • Masashi Kudo – recording
  • Tsuyoshi Kon – Guitar
  • Akira Miyake – production
  • Nobuhiko Nakayama – synthesizer programming
  • Akira Nishihira – arrangement, keyboards, programming
  • Taka & Speedy – rhythm tracks arrangement, programming
  • Masaaki Ugajin – recording
  • Hikaru Utada – writing, vocals
  • Teruzane "Skingg" Utada – production

Chart rankings

Charts (1998/1999) Peak
position
Japan Weekly Chart (Oricon)[27]
  • "Automatic/Time Will Tell" 8cm
 4
Japan Weekly Chart (Oricon)[28]
  • "Automatic/Time Will Tell" 12cm
 2
Japan Count Down TV Chart (TBS)[29]
  • "Automatic/Time Will Tell" 12cm
 1
Charts (2014) Peak
position
Japan Billboard Adult Contemporary Airplay[32] 52
Japan Billboard Japan Hot 100[31] 73

Sales and certifications

Chart Amount
Oricon physical sales[26]
  • "Automatic/Time Will Tell" 8cm
 772,000
Oricon physical sales[26]
  • "Automatic/Time Will Tell" 12cm
 1,291,000
RIAJ physical certification[59]
  • "Automatic/Time Will Tell"
 4× Platinum (1,600,000)
RIAJ cellphone download certification[60] Gold (100,000)

Release history

Region Date Format Distributing Label Catalogue codes
Japan December 9, 1998 (1998-12-09)[27][28] 8cm single, 12cm single Toshiba EMI TODT-5242, TOCT-4127
February 17, 1999 (1999-02-17)[61] Vinyl record TOJT-4140
November 19, 2004 (2004-11-19)[60] Digital download

Notes

  1. ↑ According to Oricon, the songs "For You", "Time Limit", "Travelling" and "Colors" did not sell over one million units in Japan but was certified Million by Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ)

References

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External links

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