Sanctuary (Utada Hikaru)

This Is The One Cover

Digital Single Cover

Artist

Utada

Song

Sanctuary

Lyrics

Utada Hikaru

Music

Utada Hikaru

Other Information

(Note: These are the Passion details, and these may differ from the actual details)

Arrangement: Utada Hikaru

Keyboards and Programming: Utada Hikaru and Matt Rohde

Additional Programming: Alexis Smith

Guitar: Ben Mauro

Acoustic Piano: Matt Rohde

Drums: Forrest Robinson

All Vocals: Utada Hikaru

Mixing: Goetz B. for 365 Artists at Bunkamura Studio, Tokyo

Recording: Pat Woodward and Matsui Atsushi at Westlake Audio, L.A., and Bunkamura Studio, Tokyo

Pro-Tools Operation: Glenn Erwin

Mastering: Tom Coyne at Sterling Sound, NYC

Sanctuary is the Kingdom Hearts II theme song for the US/Global release and theme song for all regions for Kingdom Hearts 358/2. This was written and completed before its Japanese counterpart, Passion. The arrangement, for the most part, is the same as Passion's, except for the complex background vocals that featured in Passion. Unlike Simple And Clean before it, Sanctuary is accredited to Utada, Utada Hikaru's western release name. In July of 2009, Sanctuary was released in Japan as a digital single.

Lyrics

In Sanctuary, much like Passion, there are several layers of English lyrics. At one point, "My fears, my lies" is audible. There are also many parts of the song with reversed lyrics. A magazine interview confirmed that the lyrics were, "I need more affection than you know"; though there originally was much dispute over this. However, if recorded with a program as simple as Sound Recorder and played in reverse, these words are clearly heard.

Disambiguation

There are two known versions of Sanctuary to be found in Utada's discography (listed chronologically). Note that these do not include versions of Passion. These different versions are:

Sanctuary (Opening)

Found on This Is The One US edition album as track 12.

Sanctuary (Closing)

Found on This Is The One US edition album as track 13.