Hoku

Hoku is the eponymous debut album by Hoku, released on April 18, 2000. The album attained modest commercial success, peaking at number 151 on the US Billboard 200 album chart and within the top 10 of the Heatseekers Albums chart. The album had sold more than 230,000 copies in the United States within three years of its release. The album elicited generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised the album's lightheartedness and compared Hoku's music to that of Jewel and Liz Phair, although some took issue with the lyrics. The album spawned two singles. The lead single, "Another Dumb Blonde", was featured in the motion picture Snow Day and became a top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Follow-up single "How Do I Feel (The Burrito Song)" was less successful, failing to chart but yielding positive feedback from critics. Hoku remains Hoku's only full-length, major label album to date, and one of only two releases (the other being her 2008 EP Listen Up). Composition The album is generally classified as teen pop or Euro-pop. The lyrics of lead single "Another Dumb Blonde" discuss the fact that Hoku's boyfriend "isn't after her heart or mind". The lyrics were noted for being "innocent", with many noting that the songs bear little resemblance to those of Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera. On "How Do I Feel (The Burrito Song)", Hoku describes her crush on a boy working at a burrito stand. Hoku was involved in writing two of the songs on the album: "We Will Follow the Sun", which she co-wrote with Antonina Armato and Ron Harris, and "You First Believed", which she wrote alone. Reception