Beautiful World / Kiss & Cry is Utada’s 19th Japanese single, and her 23rd including her English releases under the name Utada. It was used as the theme song for the first film in the Rebuild of Evangelion series, “Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone.” Kiss & Cry was the CM song for the Nissin Cup Noodle FREEDOM campaign. The single debuted at #3, which was also its weekly rank and weekly peak, with its daily peak being #1. It was released on the 29th of August, 2007, and has sold 235,050+ copies. It was the #19 single of the year on the Oricon charts.

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

Beautiful World opens the single with what is single handedly the most beautiful synth arrangement I have ever heard; It sounds almost like a heavenly choir of some sort. This is followed by Utada saying “It’s only love”, before we move into the actual song itself. While it’s mainly a synth affair, there are definitely drums in the background. While the song is definitely upbeat, you can tell by the tone of Utada’s voice that it’s certainly not a happy tune. The song jumps around quite a bit as well, which helps break the monotony of the track. The verses don’t seem to get boring this time around, which is rather rare in the industry lately, and the key then lowers as the bridge starts. The chorus alone makes this one of the best songs from Utada, as while it sounds like she may be straining her voice while she sings, it actually helps make the song seem a bit more melancholic, which suits it perfectly. If you were a fan of ULTRA BLUE, you’ll find a lot to love here.

This is definitely a mood swing single. Kiss & Cry is another upbeat song, but it has a DRASTICALLY different mood to it. The song grabs your attention with the sudden, blaring brass arrangement, before leading into a simple drum arrangement that leads you into Utada’s singing of the first verse. Straight away, you can tell this is going to be a totally different song. While the simple, yet interesting, music keeps the song from losing your interest, I actually thought the inclusion of the verse arrangement from her English song Hotel Lobby brought the song down in overall quality, despite how many people seem to love it. The chorus isn’t as great as Beautiful World’s, but it’s still the highlight of the song. It’s a great cheer up song after listening to the previous song, but it still sounds a bit inferior compared to it.

To be totally honest, I can’t hear anything different when it comes to the -2007 MIX- of Fly Me To The Moon. I mean, Utada sings the song well, and it’s interesting to hear this classic with an R&B arrangement, but I can’t really see any differences from the original. Maybe it’s because I haven’t listened to it in ages, but disregarding it entirely, it’s an alright song… It makes sense to include it on this single too, as while Beautiful World is the theme song for the new Evangelion movie, Fly Me To The Moon was the ending theme for the original Evangelion anime. Granted, Utada didn’t sing it for the anime, though.

Overall Grade
A-

Favorite Song
Beautiful World

While Fly Me To The Moon gets a bit boring, the other two songs make up what is probably the strongest single by Utada during the Heart Station era. Beautiful World even wins the award as being my second favorite song from Utada (With Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro winning by a mile.) Utada sounds a LOT better with synth than she does when singing an R&B song, and Beautiful World proves that. However, Kiss & Cry also proves that she can still give us a great R&B track at the same time.