Deep River (Hikaru Utada album)

Deep River
Studio album by Hikaru Utada
Released	June 19, 2002
Recorded	2001–2002
Studio	Studio Terra Bunkamura Studio
Genre	J-pop R&B alt-rock techno ethereal pop
Length	54:54
Label	Toshiba EMI
Producer	Hikaru Utada Akira Miyake Teruzane Sking
Hikaru Utada chronology
Distance (2001) Deep River (2002) Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 1 (2004)
Singles from Deep River
"Final Distance" Released: July 25, 2001 "Traveling" Released: November 28, 2001 "Hikari" Released: March 20, 2002 "Sakura Drops / Letters" Released: May 9, 2002

Deep River is the fourth studio album by Japanese-American singer Hikaru Utada. It was released via Toshiba EMI on June 19, 2002. The title of the album, as well as its title track, was inspired by the novel Deep River by Shusaku Endo. Utada wrote and co-produced the majority of the record, and unlike her previous album Distance (2001), she worked primarily with Japanese collaborator Akira Miyake and her father Teruzane Utada. Musically, Deep River is widely noted by fans and critics as the transition state from Utada's earlier style, R&B, to ethereal pop.

Music critics praised Deep River's production and Utada's experimental approach to her sound. Because of its glowing critical reviews, Deep River and its content received numerous awards and accolades. Commercially, the album attained meteoric success. In Japan, it debuted at number one on the Oricon Albums Chart and was certified triple million by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for selling over three million copies. The album is listed as the eighth highest-selling album in Japanese music history.

To promote the album, Utada released four singles: "Final Distance," "Traveling," "Hikari" and "Sakura Drops / Letters." All four of them performed well in Japan, with the second single "Traveling" becoming the album's most commercially successful track. The album's third single "Hikari" and its English-language version "Simple & Clean" served as the theme song for Square's action role-playing video game Kingdom Hearts (2002), and is her most well-known single in the west. Along with the four singles, the song "Play Ball" was used as a radio single to promote the album, and the album's title track received a music video. To promote the album, Utada went on promotional tours throughout Japan, and a video collection titled Utada Hikaru Single Clip Collection Vol. 3 was released, which included all of the album's music videos.