Maps of Music

Precious (1998)

Where the lyrics of Precious take you, and where it was really made.

The album failed to chart when it was first released in Japan, but after a 1999 re-release it reached number two on the Oricon chart.

Key places

Where Precious was recorded (1998)

Recording site Sony Music Studios — The album was recorded at Sony Music Studios in New York City in 1996. This point marks that studio. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Precious: debut English-language album by Cubic U
• Released in Japan on 28 January 1998 by Toshiba EMI
• Cubic U is both Hikaru Utada's former stage name and the name of their R&B backing band
• Failed to chart on the Oricon charts at the time of its release
• Re-released on 31 March 1999
• Sold 702,060 copies after the re-release

Background

• Cubic U: Utada's former stage name, also the name of the R&B backing band
• The album was never released commercially in the United States
• Re-release came after the huge success of Utada's First Love

Recording

• Recorded at Sony Music Studios in New York City in 1996
• Recording took place about a year and a half before the Japanese release

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born January 19, 1983 in New York City to Japanese parents; mother Keiko Fuji was an enka singer, father Teruzane Utada a record producer.
• Began writing songs at age 10 and moved to Tokyo at age 11; performed as Cubic U from 1996.
• Signed with Toshiba-EMI; English debut album Precious (1998) under Cubic U.

Members

• Solo artist, known mononymously as Utada; later performed under the name Hikaru Utada.

Career

• Japanese debut First Love (1999), Japan's best-selling album of all time.
• Distance (2001) sold three million copies in its first week; Deep River (2002) followed.
• Exodus (2004) marked an English-language push in North America under the name Utada.
• Returned to Japan with Ultra Blue (2006) and Heart Station (2008); This Is the One (2009) followed.
• Long hiatus after 2010 Wild Life tour; returned with Fantôme (2016) and Hatsukoi (2018).
• Wrote theme songs for the Kingdom Hearts series, including Face My Fears with Skrillex.
• Bad Mode (2022) was the first bilingual album; Science Fiction (2024) celebrated 25 years since debut.
• Over 40 million records sold; came out as non-binary in 2021.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Released in Japan on 28 January 1998 by Toshiba EMI as the debut English-language album by Cubic U
• Failed to chart on the Oricon charts at the time of its release
• Never released commercially in the United States, owing to internal problems at the label EMI
• In the United States the album was only available to music industry insiders
• No critic reviews of the album were found in the source material, so this section records release-era outcomes

Reappraisal

• Re-released on 31 March 1999 after the huge success of Utada's First Love
• The re-release reached number two on the Oricon chart
• Several promo copies carried 'Here and There and Back Again' as track 5, but this track was not released physically
• The album's later standing rests on the re-release's chart and sales results rather than on critical assessment

Records

• Oricon sales chart: number two after the 1999 re-release
• Sales after the re-release: 702,060 copies
• No chart entry at the original 1998 release
• Commercial release in Japan only; not commercially released in the United States

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album was never released commercially in the United States, and only music industry insiders could obtain it there.
• Several promo copies carried 'Here and There and Back Again' as track 5, but this track was not released physically.
• Cubic U is both Hikaru Utada's former stage name and the name of their R&B backing band.
• The 1999 re-release came after the huge success of Utada's First Love.
• The album was recorded at Sony Music Studios in New York City in 1996.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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