Distance (Utada Hikaru album)

Distance is the second Japanese album (third overall) released by Japanese-American J-pop singer Utada Hikaru, released on March 28, 2001 in direct "competition" with A Best by Ayumi Hamasaki (see 2001 in music).

Distance is the fourth-best-selling album in Japan of all time with over 4.47 million copies sold,^[1] and sold over 3 million copies in its debut week, setting Japan's one-week sales record and the world's highest one week sales in a single territory, Hamasaki's album having the second highest ever,^[2] a record held by the two albums until 2015, when Adele's third album 25 sold 3.4 million copies in its first week in the United States. According to Oricon, Distance is the highest selling Japanese album of the decade.^[3]

Globally, the album was one of the best-selling of 2001, being listed at #10 on the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's Top 50 Global Best Selling Albums for 2001.^[4]

Production

For this album, Utada worked with American producers for a few tracks: Rodney Jerkins, who has worked with the likes of Toni Braxton, produced (and performed rap vocals on) the track "Time Limit", while songwriters Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis produced both "Wait & See: Risk" and the Up-in-Heaven mix of "Addicted to You".

The melody of "Kotoba ni Naranai Kimochi" was originally introduced in the track "Interlude" found on the First Love album. Due to time constraints, the song couldn't be finished on time for release in full on First Love, and was carried over to this album. The title of the track "Hayatochi-remix" is a portmanteau Utada created of "Hayatochiri", the name of the original song on the "Wait & See: Risk" single, and the word "remix".

The song "Distance" was originally planned to be a single without any alterations, but it was instead released in a rearranged ballad form called "Final Distance" in memory of a fan who died in the June 2001 Osaka school massacre; this new version would appear in her next album, Deep River.

The cover art for the album, as well as the whole album photography, was done by her now-former husband and director Kazuaki Kiriya.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Utada Hikaru, except for "Time Limit" and "Drama", composed by Utada Hikaru and Takuro Kubo of Glay.

No.	Title	Arranger	Length
1.	"Wait & See (Risk)"	Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis Utada Hikaru	4:48
2.	"Can You Keep a Secret?"	Akira Nishihira Yuichiro Honda	5:08
3.	"Distance"	Kei Kawano Utada Hikaru	5:30
4.	"Sangurasu (サングラス)"	Shin'ichiro Murayama	4:46
5.	"Dorama (ドラマ)"	Yu'ichiro Honda	4:36
6.	"Eternally"	Shin'ichiro Murayama Kei Kawano (strings arrangement)	4:45
7.	"Addicted to You (Up-in-Heaven Mix)"	Jam and Lewis Jeff Taylor (mix)	5:19
8.	"For You"	Kei Kawano	5:22
9.	"Kettobase! (蹴っ飛ばせ!)"	Akira Nishihira Utada Hikaru	4:31
10.	"Parody"	Kei Kawano	5:25
11.	"Time Limit (タイム・リミット)"	Rodney Jerkins	4:55
12.	"Kotoba ni Naranai Kimochi (言葉にならない気持ち)"	Shin'ichiro Murayama	5:03
13.	"Hayatochi-Remix (早とちリミックス)" (bonus track)	Utada Hikaru	4:10

Singles

The singles released from Distance would become the biggest hits of Utada's career in terms of physical sales. Three of the four singles sold at least a million units, earning a million certification from the RIAJ and making the Top 100 listing of best-selling singles in Japan, while "For You" / "Time Limit" fell just short of that mark, selling just a little over 900K (909,000).

Date	Title	Peak position	Weeks	Sales
November 10, 1999	"Addicted to You"	1	16	1,784,050
April 19, 2000	"Wait & See (Risk)"	1	21	1,662,060
June 30, 2000	"For You" / "Time Limit"	1	13	909,000
February 16, 2001	"Can You Keep a Secret?"	1	11	1,485,000

Personnel

Miyake Akira – producer
Nishihira Akira – arranger, keyboards, programming
David Barry – guitar
John Blackwell – drums
Darnell Davis – keyboards
Paul Foley – editing
Steve Hodge – engineer, mixing
Goh Hotoda – engineer, shaker, mixing
Jimmy Jam – arranger, producer, musician
Ted Jensen – mastering
Rodney Jerkins – arranger, programming, producer, engineer, rap
Terry Lewis – arranger, producer, musician
Harvey Mason, Jr. – engineer, editing
Michael McCoy – assistant engineer
Alexander Richbourg – producer, drum programming
Philippe Saisse – keyboards
Dexter Simmons – mixing
Xavier Smith – drum programming, assistant engineer
Mike Tocci – assistant engineer
Sanada Yoshiaki – executive producer
Honda Yuichiro – guitar, arranger, keyboards, programming, pre-production arranger
Toriyama Yuji – guitar

Charts

Distance – Oricon Sales Chart (Japan)

Release	Chart	Peak Position	Debut Sales	Sales Total	Chart Run
March 28, 2001	Oricon Daily Albums Chart	1
March 28, 2001	Oricon Weekly Albums Chart	1	3,002,720	4,472,343	51*
March 28, 2001	Oricon Yearly Albums Chart	1

Notes and references

↑ List of million-selling CD albums in Japan
↑ ORICON STYLE - Weekly album chart : 2nd week of April 2001
↑ http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fm20091218a1.html
↑ "Top 50 Global Best Selling Albums for 2001" (PDF). International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-12-19. Retrieved 2011-04-08.

Utada Hikaru

Discography Songs Awards

Japanese-language studio albums	First Love Distance Deep River Ultra Blue Heart Station

English-language studio albums	Precious Exodus This Is the One

Compilation albums	Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 1 Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 2 Utada the Best

Other albums	Utada Hikaru no Uta

Tours	Bohemian Summer 2000 Utada Hikaru In Budokan 2004 Utada United 2006 Utada: In the Flesh 2010 Wild Life

Related articles	Teruzane Utada Keiko Fuji

Utada Hikaru songs

Discography

First Love	"Automatic" "First Love" "Movin' On Without You" "Time Will Tell"

Distance	"Addicted to You" "Can You Keep a Secret?" "Eternally" "For You" "Time Limit" "Wait & See (Risk)"

Deep River	"Final Distance" "Hikari" "Letters" "Sakura Drops" "Traveling"

Exodus	"Devil Inside" "Easy Breezy" "Exodus '04" "You Make Me Want to Be a Man"

Ultra Blue	"Be My Last" "Colors" "Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro" "Keep Tryin'" "Passion" "This Is Love"

Heart Station	"Beautiful World" "Boku wa Kuma" "Fight the Blues" "Flavor of Life" "Heart Station" "Kiss & Cry" "Prisoner of Love" "Stay Gold"

This Is the One	"Come Back to Me" "Dirty Desire"

Single Collection Vol. 2	"Can't Wait 'Til Christmas" "Hymne à l'amour (Ai no Anthem)" "Goodbye Happiness" "Show Me Love (Not a Dream)"

Collaborations	"Do You"

Other songs	"Sakura Nagashi"

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