This Is the One is the third English studio album by Japanese American pop singer-songwriter Utada, released by Island Records in the United States digitally on March 24, 2009 and physically on May 12, 2009.

On January 9, her subject-exclusive blog indicated that she was nearing completion of the album, and said of the work involved, "If this were a live show, I'm at the painful part about two songs before the break for the encore."

[9] Official Japanese and English press releases posted online January 22 confirmed that Utada had worked with producers Stargate and C. "Tricky" Stewart, and that the album's recording had taken place in New York, Atlanta, and Tokyo, and 10 songs were written (by her) for the project.

[12] Later, in an issue of Japanese magazine WHAT'S IN?, two more track titles were revealed ("Poppin'" and "Automatic Part II") as well as other significant tidbits of information regarding the upcoming release.

It was reported that Utada was in the studio with Stargate for roughly one hour, while the majority of the rest of the album's production was completed separately by transfer of data between Japan, New York, and Norway.

Adam Benjamin Irby of Bleu Magazine wrote "This Is the One is an exceptional album that will with the right promotion definitely breathe some life into what's becoming a stale pop music scene in America".

[21] Daniel Robson of The Japan Times panned the album, saying that by hiring the superproducers behind other successful acts, Utada "basically make her music as bland, accessible and predictable as possible".

He said the main issue with the album was its obvious influence from American R&B, commenting "[...]we were half expecting Fat Man Scoop to intercept the music and demand we put our hands in the air".

[22] David Jeffries of AllMusic gave This Is the One a positive review, stating that "Utada the performer is clearly defined here with slick, polished production supporting her songs rather than dominating them", but that "most of her lyrics are riddled with clichés with plenty of 'whispers in the dark'".

Jeffries also mentioned that "Big, behind-the-scene names like Chris "Tricky" Stewart and Antonio "LA" Reid point to the urban meets pop attitude of the album, but Utada will not be overshadowed.