After being discovered in North America by Island CEO Lyon Cohen when she contributed to the Rush Hour 2 soundtrack, he was very interested in signing Utada to his record label and she eventually accepted the offer.

However, critics were divided towards the lyrical content and felt the production and album was only trying to attract a wider audience through the Western market.

Exodus was a commercial success in Japan, peaking at number one and sold over one million units in the country, making it Utada's highest-selling English studio album there.

"Devil Inside" incorporates several electronic dance genres including progressive house and dark pop.

The song features drum machines and synthesizers and Rob Carolan from Stylus Magazine compared it to Super Mario games during their intro sequences.

[11][10] Carolan had originally labelled the album's musical composition as "strange" and exemplified "Hotel Lobby" as an example for incorporating J-pop.

[11] "The Workout" was compared to Gwen Stefani's 2005 track "Hollaback Girl" for its instrumentation of colossal drums and horn parts but was often criticized for being "darker" and "demented.

"[11] The Timbaland co-written[8] single "Exodus 04" takes homage towards the album title and was compared to the composition by American rapper and singer Aaliyah, with instrumentation of string samples and piano, while "Let Me Give You My Love" incorporates more fast forward "future funk music" that was also compared to Aaliyah.

Throughout the track, "it synthesized mournful choirs and oppressive alien electronics, pushes pop to its most avant garde extremes.

[13] In the song "Animato", the track references several music genres including dance, hip-hop and pop; it also comments about a woman having an extra-marital affair.

Exodus was re-released on September 20, 2006, in Japan, under Universal International, parent company of Island Def Jam.

[19] In an interview, Elton John stated that: In terms of surprises, there's an interesting girl, Utada, who's a pop star in Japan and who released an album late last year called Exodus [Island].

"[26] Isaac McCalla from Dancemusic on About.com gave it a positive review, complimenting the album's process, calling some songs "radio-friendly" and then the rest more "chilled-out".

He later concluded saying "[...] Utada is definitely an up and comer; she's beautiful, writes good songs with intelligent lyrics, and has a keen electronic sensibility.

She said "Utada Hikaru crafts slick, electronically fueled tracks that could, on their surface, pass as background music for nightclubs and loft parties.

She compared Utada to an early stage of Madonna saying she is "girlish yearning that transcends her vocal limitations and melts the cool sheen of her arrangements."

JPop-Go gave the album a positive review saying "This is Utada's 'Exodus' from overly-polished, commercial pop; her two fingers up at the music industry.

[29] On September 8, 2004, Universal Music Japan shipped 1 million copies of the album, breaking a record that was previously held by Mariah Carey (she had sold 500,000).

[30] However, the album did not achieve a lot of success in the US, reaching number 160 on the US Billboard 200 chart, and has sold in excess of 55,000 units in the territory according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The second single of the album, "Devil Inside", was released on September 14, 2004, and received generally mixed reviews from music critics.

The song remained Utada's biggest hit in the United States, as it peaked at number one on the Hot Dance Club Play chart.