宇多田ヒカル* – First Love

Sadly, I’ve experienced some major skipping on three tracks :(

Adding another 5 star here. These pressings are super super nice. Quiet, no skips, no warps and sound super nice from a mastering perspective to my ears.

From a slightly OCD perspective, these are also some of the nicest feeling records I’ve had whatever factory is pressing these has great QC and attention to detail

I feel like this pressing is much more bassy but also less punchy than the 1999 version That's a bit lacking at bass

What a gorgeous sounding record. Quality is immaculate. Clean and quiet pressing, packaging is great. Very happy with the purchase.

Looks like there is going to be a wide release for this album in the US soon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B4B6C5C6/?coliid=I3KWPVOM4JNOOA&colid=1FJB09WKTOPFE&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it_im

Absolutely beautiful pressing! It sounds incredible! I was so amazed with the sound of this record.

Like others I did hope for a bit more out of the packaging, since the CD booklet has so many great photos. Regardless, the packaging was still quite nice. I'm so extremely happy to own an affordable and excellent pressing of this lovely album.

[Note: this is a review on the PACKAGING and presentation of all 3 Utada records, not the pressing or sound quality of the records themselves. This exact review will be posted on all 3 pressing pages of the first Utada LP wave]

Overall, the presentation of the packaging for the first batch of Utada records (First Love, Distance, Deep River) is rather disappointing. Starting with the positives, the quality of the gatefolds are REALLY good: sturdy, glossy and the artwork on them all is clear. The sleeves used to store and protect the vinyl is typical of Japanese vinyl and digipak CD pressings: the clear plastic sleeves that are known to be great for record preservation (so I hear!). As for the negatives: Unfortunately, ALL of the artwork is absent. The pictures on the covers are the only ones present. The contents on the gatefold themselves are the lyrics to all the songs (including the bonus tracks not found on the first pressings!), and the records are the only thing present inside the gatefolds. If you plan on getting the extremely rare original pressings of these records: No need to! All of the first pressings of these records had the EXACT same layout (clear inner sleeves, lyrics on gatefold, absence of artwork, etc.). However, it's unfortunate that you have to spend At least 4600 yen to purchase these records. Hopefully the second wave (Ultra Blue, Heart Station, Fantome) + Hatsukoi (which had all the artwork present on the vinyl pressing) and Bad Mode will have the original artwork present since it's their first pressings!