I preordered Hikki's "Heart Station" last January. It's been around 10 days since the release but I still haven't gotten the album yet (It could take around 14 days for YesAsia's shipment to arrive). Anyhow, I couldn't wait anymore so I downloaded the whole thing. I'm in the mddle of work so I can't post in-depth reviews of the tracks, but here are my unbiased initial reactions to each:

1. Fight the Blues

When the intro began, I had to check the calendar and make sure I was in the right era. It sounded like music from the 80's.

2. Heart Station

Heard this one when it came out as a single. Mid-tempo, light-hearted, catchy, and feel-good tune. Reminded me of Keep Tryin'.

3. Beautiful World

Nice mid-tempo song. Very simple, yet unfortunately, very easy to forget. A filler track.

4. Flavor of Life

Who doesn't know this song? Anyways, I think I didn't like this song when it came out long ago. It grew on me when I watched HYD2 though.

5. Stay Gold

Ah...VERY beautiful piano background. Not the best in terms of vocals, but it's the kind of song that relaxes you. Some people might get TOO relaxed and fall asleep halfway, but as for me, I LOVE it.

6. Kiss & Cry

When I first heard Kiss & Cry last year, I listened to it on loop for 12 hours straight while at work; no kidding. I love the tempo, the beat, the Hotel Lobby-ish part. I just love the song.

7. Gentle Beast Interlude

I LOVE this interlude. This has to be my favorite among ALL the interludes in all her albums.

8. Celebrate

When Celebrate started playing, I had to check whether I was really listening to Hikki. Granted, I know Hikki sings songs from the whole genre spectrum, but this really surprised me. It sounded so.......HOUSE. But kudos to her for this track, I rather liked it.

9. Prisoner of Love

Me: *listening to Prisoner of Love*
sister: *starts gyrating her hips*
Me: LOL! Wtf are you doing?
Sister: It sounds like a strip club song.

Anyway, when I first heard Prisoner of Love, my first thought was that it was TOO mainstream. To be fair, it had the trappings of a Hikki song: the vocal acrobatics, slow verse yet fast chorus feature (like Blue), fading ending. BUT, it sounds like something someone like say, Rihanna, would sing. In fact, I'm inclined to send the song to Perez Hilton and see how he'd like it (Perez Hilton often features foreign-language artists he likes in his gossip web site).

Of course, I first liked Hikki for her more commercial songs like First Love and Automatic. But I've been so used to her being so artsy-fartsy over the recent years, this threw me off balance. Nevertheless, I love the song for its strong bass. It's a LSS (Last Song Syndrome) kind of track and it's been haunting me for the last two days.

10. Take 5

A paradigm of Hikki's artsy-fartsy music. Like Kairo in Ultra Blue.

11. Boku wa Kuma

*headdesks*

12. Nijiro no Bus

The verses and bridge sounded okay, the chorus sounded funny.

13. Flavor of Life upbeat version

Ugh. I hated it before, I hate it now.