Precious (Cubic U album)

Precious
Studio album by Cubic U
Released	January 28, 1998
Recorded	August 5–20, 1996
Studio	Sony Music Studios (New York City, U.S.)
Genre	R&B
Length	54:42
Label	Toshiba EMI
Producer	Hikaru Utada, Teruzane Utada, Fuji Keiko, Michael C. Warner, Booker T. Jones, Bert Price
Hikaru Utada chronology
Precious (1998) First Love (1999)
Singles from Precious
"Close to You" Released: January 28, 1997

Precious is the debut English-language album by Cubic U released in Japan on January 28, 1998 by Toshiba EMI. It was recorded at Sony Music Studios in New York City in 1996.^[1] Cubic U is both Hikaru Utada's former stage name and the name of her R&B backing band. The album was never released commercially in the United States, due to internal problems with the label EMI, and was only available to music industry insiders. Although it failed to chart on the Oricon charts at the time of its release, the album was re-released on March 31, 1999 after the huge success of Utada's First Love, reaching number two with 702,060 copies sold.