"Letters" is a song by

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian Americans, Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 United States census, 2000 census, they have declined in ...

musician

Hikaru Utada , also known mononymously as Utada, is a Japanese and American singer, songwriter, and producer. She is considered to be one of the most influential and best-selling musical artists in Japan. She is best known by international audiences for w ...

. It was released as a double A-side single with the song " Sakura Drops" on May 9, 2002.

Background and development

Since she debuted as a musician in 1998, Utada had worked as the primary or sole songwriter for her music. Beginning with her second album ''

Distance Distance is a numerical or occasionally qualitative measurement of how far apart objects, points, people, or ideas are. In physics or everyday usage, distance may refer to a physical length or an estimation based on other criteria (e.g. "two co ...

'' (2001), Utada began to co-arrange songs, such as " Wait & See (Risk)", "Distance" and "Kettobase!" The bonus track on ''Distance'', "Hayatochi-Remix", was arranged entirely by Utada. In March 2002, Hikaru Utada released " Hikari", the theme song for the game '' Kingdom Hearts''. "Letters" was written and arranged solely by Utada. It featured six different guitarists all performing the acoustic guitar in the backing, including Char, Hisashi from

Glay Glay (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese Rock music, rock band formed in Hakodate in 1988. The core four members, vocalist Teru (singer), Teru, guitarists Takuro (musician), Takuro and Hisashi (musician), Hisashi, and bassist Jiro (musician), ...

and her own father Teruzane Utada.

Promotion and release

The song was used in commercials for NTT DoCoMo's 2002 range of

FOMA Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access (FOMA) is the brand name of the W-CDMA-based 3G telecommunications services being offered by the Japanese telecommunications service provider NTT DoCoMo. It is an implementation of the Universal Mobile Telecommu ...

cellphones. This was the third song of Utada's to be used in collaboration with DoCoMo, after " Final Distance" (2001) and " Traveling" (2002). On May 20, 2002, Utada performed the song live at '' Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ'', a week after she performed the single's other A-side "Sakura Drops". Utada performed the song during her Hikaru no 5 Budokan residency show in 2004, at her Utada United 2006 Japanese tour and at her two date concert series '' Wild Life'' in December 2010.

Covers

In 2014, "Letters" was recorded by Ringo Sheena for ''Utada Hikaru no Uta'', a tribute album celebrating 15 years since Utada's debut. It was released as a preceding download from the album on December 3, 2014.

Critical reception

Critical reception to the song was positive. Hayashi of Ongaku DB felt "Letters" was a "Latin-sounding number" with a melody that had a "high level of freedom". CDJournal reviewers described the song as having a "spicy Latin/gypsy" sound, and praised the "passionate melody", and noted how the upbeat rhythm contrasted with the lyrics, which dealt with "melancholic everyday feelings". Kanako Hanakawa of Shinko Music felt that the song had a mature mood, and that it was "sexier" than her other songs due to the guitar backing of so many older male guitarists. Akiyoshi Sekine of CD Data praised the song's "percussive rhythm", and praised the skill and sense that went into Utada's arrangement of the song.

Track listing

Personnel

Personnel details were sourced from ''Deep Rivers liner notes booklet. * Hironori Akiyama – acoustic guitar * Char – acoustic guitar * Hisashi from

– acoustic guitar * Yuichiro Larry Honda – acoustic guitar * Goh Hotoda – recording * Tsunemi Kawahide – synthesizer programming * Kei Kawano – acoustic piano, arrangement, keyboards, programming * Atsushi Matsui – recording * Akira Miyake – production * Yuji Toriyama – acoustic guitar * Masaaki Ugajin – recording * Hikaru Utada – arrangement, producer, writing, vocals * Teruzane "Sking" Utada – acoustic guitar, production

Charts

Sales and certifications

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Letters 2002 songs 2002 singles Hikaru Utada songs Songs in Japanese Oricon Weekly number-one singles Songs used as jingles Songs written by Hikaru Utada