Tracklist

1. Beautiful World
2. Kiss & Cry
3. Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words) -2007 MIX-
4. Beautiful World (Instrumental)
5. Kiss & Cry (Instrumental)
6. Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words) -2007 Mix- (Instrumental)

This is Utada Hikarus 19^th Japanese single and was released on August 29, 2007. It reached #1 on the Oricon charts and has sold 235,050 copies. Beautiful World was used as theme song of the first of the Rebuild of Evangelion films called Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone. Kiss & Cry was used as the Nissin Cup Noodle FREEDOM commercial song.

Beautiful World starts off with ethereal and ghostly instrumental (kinda like Keep Trying but now as quirky) until Utada comes in singing “It’s only love” along an upbeat piano. After, the first comes in with improved vocals by Utada. She follows the trend of sad lyrics along an upbeat arrangement . Personally, my favorite part of the song is during the chorus where she just sings “Beautiful world!” and “Beautiful Boy!” and her voice is only slightly strained reaching those high notes. The only problem I had with this song is that it felt too long and it bothered me how Utada took an entire minute just to make the song fade away.

Kiss & Cry opens up with the sounds of horns, like it came straight from an old black & white movie or that Viewtiful Joe game (or whatever it’s called). However, the quickly goes away and the real arrangement comes in. It consists of a lot of bass beats that makes you think of Utadas older R&B work (like in Distance). Utada sings with a lot of attitude here, and I loved how she sampled the melody of Hotel Lobby (from Exodus) for the pre-chorus. I also enjoy the “natural high” part in the end.

Overall Rating:

4.5 out of 5