The new album shows the Japanese superstar taking on a very different sound. In an interview with GossipGirls, she discribed her first American album as very "experimental" and this time around she wanted to do something more mainstream, in this case R&B. She teamed up with super production Duo's Stargate and The-Dream/Tricky Stewart for the entire album, and created a project that was eclectic and refreshing. She manages to delivers a solid effort, and although it has some holes in it its a strong album all around.

She finds her strength in the albums mid-tempo tracks, where her voice stands out beautifully against piano driven beats like lead single "Come back to Me" and my favorite song off the album "This One (Crying like a Child)", both produced by stargate.

Tricky Stewart contributes to the more "swagged out" side of the album with tracks like "On and On", "Automatic Part II", and "Dirty Desire".P&A favorite The-Dream even guest stars on the track "Taking my Money Back", another favorite of mine.

All songs are written or co-written by Utada whose unique writing style brings a new vibe to a production style thats all to common from some of today's biggest stars; it helps distinguish this projects from others that both Stargate and Tricky have worked on. All and all a strong effort, and something i will be listening to for awhile : )

Check out this cool interview she did recently, you get a good vibe for her personality.