News at ten: Hikaru Utada wants your baby.

Like fellow Japanese chart-topper Ayumi Hamasaki, there's not much that one can write about Hikaru Utada that hasn't already been tackled by music critics around the globe: along with having the highest-selling Japanese album ever (over ten million copies sold to date), Utada's also enjoyed an illustrious career that includes several number one singles, two more high-selling number one albums (along with a chart-topping single collection), and a globe-spanning fanbase that would make most American Idol contestants jealous.

So, with all that musical ability and exposure (it runs in the family!), one would assume that her releases are all top quality material, correct?

While her earlier material (including this particular single) may sound like cliché, typical R&B-influenced pop, Utada's expressive voice and musical talent make each release much more than average, run-of-the-mill music.

... though that doesn't stop me from continually changing my opinion of Can You Keep A Secret?. The bad? From the opening, which features Utada over a synthesized keyboard line and flamenco guitar, to the overly repetitive "hit it off like this, hit it off like this, oh baby" that intrude immediately after, and the oh-so-tired R&B backbeat that underscores the chorus, the song just sounds like it's trying to rip off every other slightly Latin-infused R&B-light track on the market.

The good? Regardless of the repetitive nature of the song (yes, Utada, I'm sure we can keep your secret -- now would you please quit asking?), Utada delivers a decent vocal performance in which her oft-whine-infused upper register and vibrato rarely surface, emoting at all the right points; she even turns in an almost "sexy"-sounding spoken interlude during the bridge. In addition, while the instrumentation wears thin after a bit, it manages to at least give the song some life and lift it from the plain R&B that was some of Utada's previous material.

The B-side track, kettobase!, despite containing one of the strangest and most out-of-place lines in Japanese music, is where the single truly gains steam. It's a typical-sounding pop-rock song that utilizes the standard pop-rock instruments: crunchy electric guitars, rapidly-paced drums (and/or drum machines), and Fun Synthesized Effects!, while adding in some bells, strings, and randomly-generated keyboard noises for effect. Utada's performance here is good, once again, as she delivers her lines at near Chimpunk speed (though, thankfully, not anywhere near the Chimpmunk vocal range) and manages to sound convincing doing it. It's just as cliché-ridden as the title track, but there's something here that makes me like it more.

... oh, and Utada wants my baby.

I'm on the fence about this single. Both tracks sound like so many other songs that it's hard to maintain any sort of objectivity when reviewing them; however, while there are moments when each track has its merits, neither song leaves much of a lasting impression. This is average pop music at its best: catchy, decent, but otherwise throwaway and slightly forgettable. Utada's done much better.

Recommended: