KOKIA – REAL WORLD March 31, 2010
	1. Birth 2. Road to Glory ~ for Dragon Nest 3. U-CHA-CHA 4. REAL WORLD 5. Saishuu Jouei (最終上映) 6. Love is Us, Love is Earth 7. Dugong no Sora (ジュゴンの空) 8. Kodoku na Ikimono (孤独な生きもの) 9. single mother 10. Kimi ga Sagashite (君をさがして) 11. Oto no Tabibito (音の旅人) 12. Watashi ga Mitamono (私が見たもの) 13. Kono Chikyuu ga Marui Okage de (この地球がまるいお陰で) 14. The woman

KOKIA’s album. Promo pic includes her sitting on a donkey. Yup. (insert more creative introduction here).

BIRTH is a beautiful, calming opening with piano and strings in a highly ethereal atmosphere. KOKIA begins the track with long notes and sounding a bit thinner than usual but she maintains her pitch well despite this. It’s really amazing how much control she has over her performance despite not doing much movement on the notes. She commands the track immediately and her delivery is beautiful albeit a little bit overly airy. Beautiful, fabulous and very ~mystical~.

The transition into Road to Glory ~ for Dragon Nest is beautiful as it continues the mystical feel from the previous track, but bringing it into an entirely new territory at the same time. The opening of this track is very middle eastern influenced with the soft sounds and the flute playing. Kind of makes you feel like you’re wandering into a desert in a movie or a video game. I love the subdued feel of the entire song — it’s epic without actually being… epic, if that makes any conceivable sense at all. Lovely.

The first time I saw the title U-CHA-CHA I’ll admit I giggled. The title makes it seem all, upbeat and whatnot (…for me, anyways). It’s not. It’s a another soft piece that focuses on echoed background vocals and occasional panflute in the backgorund. I like the nice almost-acapella opening, and the light instrumentation that comes in afterwards. KOKIA’s on a roll with these landscape-like instrumentations. Definitely brings to mind lots of vast landscapes with the flutes and simple instrumentation.

We come to the first track that is actually upbeat. REAL WORLD opens with a standard drum beat with a lot of vocal filters done over KOKIA’s voice. The feel of the song is sounds really light at the same time in terms of how KOKIA’s voice is mixed into the song and how the accompaniment is arranged and played in the background. Not really an exciting or convincing track from the album, but it’s nice, as usual.

I like how the opening for this next track is light, like the previous tracks, but the song suddenly takes a slight turn before KOKIA starts singing and changes mood. The instrumentation is still light but in a different way. 最終上映 continues KOKIA’s trip to other countries with some short notes from electronic sounds. I love how KOKIA’s voice works over the slightly bouncy instrumentation and she sings mostly legato to constract the background. As usual, KOKIA shows a lot of grace with her vocals. We have some short dissonance phrases at some point, and a time signature change at some point as well, which adds a nice variety to the track.

Insert cheesy titles here. Love is Us, Love is Earth is a more standard KOKIA pop ballad, and as usual it’s a really pretty song. The instrumentation is still simple and it works really well with this particular song. I enjoy KOKIA’s beautiful, musical phrases here and how well she works with the soft dynamics on the verses. We actually get our first gllimpse (well for me) of a fuller accompaniment with the strings playing after the first chorus, which returns later on in the track. Another lovely song.

DEWGONG?! Did someone say DEWGONG?! *plays too much pokemon* With that out of my system, ジュゴンの空 is goooorrgeeousss. KOKIA got me from the first phrase she adlibs on this track. It’s just so absolutely beautiful. The song is just so incredibly haunting and very well-sung. Again, KOKIA shows her immense control of her musicality and phrases in this track despite never actually having to belt anything the entire way through. This track is very ocean-like with all the echoes and… ocean mammal-like howling in the background, which I realize later is actually a saxophone after it does it’s solo and continues with its soft notes. Oh, KOKIA, you so clever.

Oh the digital singles. 孤独な生きもの is the first and again, standard KOKIA ballad structure and arrangement. That said, KOKIA ballads are nice anyways and since it’s the first of a few, it’s not as incredibly bothersome. It fits with the light arrangement of a lot of the songs so far on this album, and KOKIA since nicely in this track. Not particularly a stand-out track but it’s has a nice melody, nice vocals and nice arrangement. … It’s nice? XD

Oh, single mother. I still don’t remember how any of these digital singles sound like from earlier, but hey. This is a soft piano ballad with soft vocals from KOKIA. If there’s anyone who can sing soft, whispery vocals well, it would be KOKIA. I like it for the first minute, then the melodic line seems to repeat itself a lot in the verse. And again. And again. And then I’m wondering where we’re going with this track. The chorus pops up about a minute later. I neither like nor dislike this track, though. I’m just indifferent to its really subtle tones. I pretty much had enough when the halfway mark came up. Then I look at the total length of the song: …SIX MINUTES?! Next, please.

More soft singing from KOKIA in 君をさがして and while I like KOKIA’s voice on it, the arrangement is bland and the delivery is nothing insteresting for me. My attention span is gone for KOKIA’s ballads after “single mother”, and while this is a nice listen by itself, it’s just starting to bore me. Yeah, was never really a fan of any of the digital singles, apparently. Next.

音の旅人 is a huge improvement on the sound of the digital singles. This track sounds like it’s being played beside a campfire with the fire crackling in the background, while KOKIA is singing her usual haunting, enchanting tune. It’s beautiful, and I especially love the harmonies she adds later on in the track. The execution is beautiful and I love how the flute adds a nice folk feel to the track.

Oh, I thought we were over the typical KOKIA ballads. At least 私が見たもの more flavour from KOKIA’s singing, and I enjoy the melody more than a few of the past typical ballads on this album. The track is supported by strings, piano and some percussion (I hear you, windchimes!). As usual, it’s a nice track with some solid singing from KOKIA. Straightforward standard ballad, but impeccably sung and lovely instrumentation.

Hello long title. この地球がまるいお陰で is another ballad. Go figure. It’s another one of those half-whispered, half-sung ballads with a simple piano accompaniment in the background. Again, pretty, but nothing particularly noteworthy about it.

Oh hum, it’s The woman, which was that track that was first released to promote this album. It’s a very minimalistic track with long, legato notes from KOKIA. It’s a very calming song, although not much happens in it, and some of the note transitions are a little shaky, especially at the beginning where she KOKIA’s smoothness of note transitions is lacking when she does that big interval jump and her voice just wavers away rather than hitting the note properly. The song becomes more interesting when she gets a little polyphonic thing happening as she sings another line above the repeated line she’s been doing for most of the song but it mostly kind of continues its uninteresting course for the rest of the song. Oh, the piano ending is a nice touch to the track.

REAL WORLD is a lovely, subdued album from KOKIA which features a lot of light instrumentation and a lot of excellent singing from KOKIA. Granted, I can entirely see why people find this album rather boring — there is not a lot of grandiose instrumentation or catchy, bouncy arrangements. It’s very much an album that focuses on the atmosphere that the instruments create without sounding “heavy”. For the most part, it succeeds in that aspect to create some rather unique music from KOKIA. On the other hand, a lot of the songs tend to blend into one another after awhile and sometimes don’t stick out. Otherwise, there’s nothing particularly horrible on this album and in general it’s a solid effort from KOKIA.

Favourites:
ジュゴンの空

KOKIA – KOKIA∞AKIKO ~balance~ March 18, 2009
	1. Hananoen (花宴) 2. Usu Momoiro no Kisetsu (うす桃色の季節) 3. +sing 4. Douke (道化) 5. usaghi 6. Yoake~rebirth (夜明け～rebirth) 7. Gematria (ゲマトリア) 8. Hoshikuzu no Vocalise (星屑のヴォカリーズ) 9. life goes on 10. Senka no Hana (戦火の花) 11. この胸の苦しみが愛おしいほどに生きて 12. INFINITY

Of the two Balance albums, I was the most looking forward to reviewing this major released over her ballad-infested indies release. Strangely enough, this major release is where she takes more compositional risks.

花宴 starts off the track with KOKIA’s beautiful high tones and the arrangement brings out a more traditional Asian arrangement with the style in which KOKIA sings and the sweeping strings in the background of the track. I remember falling in love with this opening track the very moment KOKIA opened her mouth. The melody has a rather simple progression and it’s done in a rather slow manner. Nevertheless, KOKIA delivers it with such grace and beauty. Her voice takes hold of the melody and really delivers it with a lot of control, beautiful tone and excellent phrasing. This is a perfect indication of why KOKIA is one of the strongest singers in Jpop; she makes this song sound so easy.

The album brightens up with うす桃色の季節, a mid-tempo track that begins with a bit of acordion. KOKIA’s tone of voice becomes a bit childish, but her voice still remains controlled and light to go with the bright atmosphere of the track. The song is rather acoustic and the composition is simplistic but rather calming. I especially love how KOKIA sings the “I miss you” lines in the chorus; it’s rather breathtaking despite how simplistic the structure of the melody is.

+sing is another acoustic song in a similar vein as the previous one. The opening is nice and simplistic and KOKIA’s tone is a bit more nasally and childish than usual, but she’s in tune and it sounds nice enough. Her singing gets better pass the introduction and her higher tone are really beautiful. Again, she has very good phrasing and nice, clear English pronounciation for the one line in the chorus (she has the less-common accent of pronouncing the ‘g’ in ‘singing’). It’s a nice, lovely track and KOKIA sings it impeccably well.

Past the bright tunes from the last two tracks, we get a slightly darker, folkier sound with 道化, which starts with a lovely violin and flute duet above the piano and guitar that opens the track. KOKIA starts off with lower notes; I love how she performs these notes with a slight amount of sorrow and emphasis on certain notes. By the chorus, she’s already captured my attention entirely. This is possibly one of my favourite melodies from my passive listening of this album. Her voice is beautiful as usual, and I love the fullness of her voice and vibrato in the chorus. Gorgeous, gorgeous, and did I mention gorgeous?

I absolutely love the different off-beat melodies on usaghi. This track has a slight latin feel to it at parts of the song and it has a nice haunting feeling to the track. The chorus is particularly interesting with KOKIA singing “Rain” on the off-beats of the melodies. As usual, KOKIA’s singing spot-on with the style of the track and she does phrasing beautifully to have a little bit emphasis on the main beats of the tracks. I like her use of the more emphatic verses to some of the smoother passages in the track. The ending of the chorus leaves a bit of an unresolved sound to it because of the note she ends off on, but otherwise I really enjoy this track.

夜明け～rebirth is a smoother track that never fails to leave me breathless. In contrast with the unique sound of “usahi”, this one has a strong ethereal, almost unremarkable (as in it’s been heard before) arrangement to it (I do enjoy the usage of bells in the background at parts of the song). What really makes this track is the beautiful, flowing melody in the chorus and KOKIA’s spectacular performance of it. Her voice just floats through the entire track seamlessly and I really enjoy her control and musicality throughout this track. The melody seems a little bit slow for me at times, but KOKIA makes it work.

ゲマトリア is the kind of stuff that I always REALLY love from KOKIA because she always does them so well. It contains chanting in some unidentified language at the beginning, which gives a rather interesting rhythmic opening, especially with the percussion in the background and the adlibbing following it. I can’t help but picture some kind of desert or something when I listen to the opening. KOKIA’s beautiful operatic voice is back in this track, and I rejoice. This is where KOKIA sounds the best and this song is proof of her beautiful voice and excellent song-writing skills. The layering of the chanting, the operatic singing and the percussion is excellent. The song repeats the chanting a lot, which makes it seem a bit repetitive, but the different elements around it change quite a bit, which makes it quite a fascinating track.

星屑のヴォカリーズ gives off a delicate feel with the harp playing and the sounds of waves going on in the background. The singing, like the waves, is soothing with KOKIA singing a two-part harmony in her operatic voice. The track eventually goes into a one-part melody with occasional background singing to add a little texture to the melody. This track is absolutely stunning in that it contains no lyrics and the arrangement is absolutely beautiful. I got chills from her performance here. Stunning, beautiful, gorgeous, etc.

We’re back to more poppier, accessible material with life goes on, which features beautiful English lyrics and a simple piano accompanying KOKIA. Do I really have to say that KOKIA’s performance is excellent here? Because it is, once again. Her performance is touching and far from being boring despite the simplistic structure of this track. Her singing is spot-on in this soothing, encouraging song.

We continue with the soothing songs with 戦火の花, which has a simple 5-note piano accompaniment to follow her excellent singing over it. I especially love how her voice has a slight echo in this track, which works particularly well with how simple the accompaniment is in this track. But yeah, you’ve heard me say this already: her singing is excellent, excellent phrasing, excellent musicality, beautiful tone. This song is no exception.

この胸の苦しみが愛おしいほどに生きて has the exactly same feel at the beginning as the previous song with the minimal accompaniment and the beautiful melody. However, it doesn’t mean the song isn’t pretty. The track has a strong emphasis on beat with the piano playing full chords and the guitar playing on the main beats of the track. The song eventually picks up with the full-on percussion in the chorus supporting KOKIA, making the song feel a lot more upbeat. The drums lighten up in the second verse (as in the drum set disapears, although we do still have some hand-hit drums in the background). Another beautiful melody with excellent execution from KOKIA. Oh and there’s a two-part saxophone solo in the bridge and following, which ends up with a small musical “conversation” between KOKIA and the saxophones.

INFINITY is, of course, also on her indies version of the balance albums, with a different arrangement. At first, I really did not like this arrangement, based on the introduction. The strings are far too overpowering and the lower strings are far too accented in comparison to the smooth, relaxing feel of KOKIA’s singing. Of course, I always speak too soon, and the arrangement improves past the introduction into a lusher, fuller accompaniment. The strings still bother me occasionally, but having KOKIA sing out a bit more on this track does help in the overall scheme of things. I’ve always really liked this melody from when I first listened to “infinity”, so my opinion on that really hasn’t changed. I really enjoy the harmonies in the chorus and the beauty of the bridge of the track with everything playing. Following that, we have a few stacatto strings, which add a bit of a punch to the ending of this album and a few extra vocal accompaniments in the background. This is an excellent ending for the album, even if I don’t enjoy the beginning of this track. KOKIA did an excellent job with the ending and eventual build-up of this track to the final moments.

KOKIA∞AKIKO ~balance~ is one of my favourite releases from KOKIA so far. Although it still has its share of ballads, it has a great variety of sounds. KOKIA’s singing is undoubtedly very strong throughout the entire album as she never dabbles in my oh-so-hated child voice and displays a high degree of musicality and technicality in her singing. There’s not a song that I do not dislike on this album. There’s really nothing to say other than this is an awesome album. BRB STANNING.

Favourites:
道化

KOKIA – AKIKO∞KOKIA ~balance~ March 18, 2009
	1. Wasure Mono (忘れ物) 2. Ooki na Senaka (大きな背中) 3. Obaa-chan (おばあちゃん) 4. Crape-myrtle no Yureru Koro (サルスベリの揺れる頃) 5. HOME 6. vintage love 7. bridge 8. Hajimari (はじまり) 9. infinity 10. Sekai no Owari ni (世界の終わりに) 11. Tsumihoroboshi no Uta (罪滅ぼしの歌)

AKIKO∞KOKIA ~balance~ is the indies half of KOKIA’s two-part album Balance releases which were both released on the same day. This album is the more ballad-intensive of the two albums.

忘れ物 is the opening track of this album and is an atmospheric, calming little piece. The background is mostly ethereal little synth sounds in the background. The melody of the track mostly consists of long notes held and holds occasional quick movements through the melodic progressions. Despite the faster-moving notes, the song remains really calm, and about almost halfway through the track, I feel like falling asleep. The whole song just kind of repeats like this for the entire 7 minutes of the first track. It’s a rather pretty track if you plan on falling asleep but you can’t because of insomnia, and there’s nothing particularly wrong with it musically but it’s just really sleep-inducing. At the very least, KOKIA’s vocals are outstanding as usual and her voice floats through the track with ease.

I did warn you, because there’s another ballad: 大きな背中. This has a lovely piano and acoustic guitar arrangement in the background, and the movement in the melodic progression is a bit livelier this time around. The tone of the song is a bit spring-like and the song shows a bit more variety than the last track. About a minute and a half into the track, the tone of the song changes and changes to a piano and string arrangement, so the guitar part disappears. The tempo slows down considerably before going back into the guitar sections. The sections are different, but not so much that they don’t transition nicely into each other. Are we surprised that KOKIA sounds wonderful on this track? I’m not.

Oh god, it’s KOKIA’s kid voice. *hiss* *growl* If there’s any voice I don’t like from KOKIA, it’s this one. At the very least, her attempt this time isn’t entirely out of tune all the time; it’s just very airy. おばあちゃん makes use of a simple piano accompaniment. I can’t help but be irritated by voice every single time she decides to use it, even if she has a reason to do it. In any case, this is a simple, child-like song. I’m not too fond of it, especially because of her singing but it’s not a bad track. It kind of feels like KOKIA was trying for one of those “first song a kid writes” kind of deal.

KOKIA is back to her natural voice for サルスベリの揺れる頃, and it’s another soft acoustic track. Acoustic guitar is the only instrument that accompanies KOKIA, and it works stunningly well for this track. KOKIA’s voice has a bit of an echo, which makes her voice ring beautifully on the track. Her voice complements the guitar nicely with the soft tones of her voices over the simple guitar accompaniment. I still don’t see why KOKIA has to make these songs 6 minutes in length. Any typical person would be bored by the first half of this track. I can only stand the full 6 minutes because I enjoy simplistic acoustic tracks generally. In any case, this is still a pretty track, although a bit too long for the nature of its sound.

We get a bit of pan flute for this track, which adds a bit of variety to the sound of this album for a slight decree. Too bad HOME is really boring. The melody really goes nowhere and KOKIA’s performance from the get go is bland, lacking in any life and she’s flat and not supporting her voice here. She already lost me from the first few lines she sang on the track, so the rest of the song drones on and on without being calming, pretty or inspiring. It’s just dull and six minutes in length. Uhhh… the pan flute is kind of pretty at times? Otherwise, going to go sleep now.

Raindrops and piano. vintage love definitely has a bit of a raw sound to the opening passages with the simplistic piano playing over the sound of raindrops in the background. Unlike the last track, this is actually beautifully simplistic and calming. The piano playing isn’t outstanding, but it’s nicely done so that melody line is enjoyable despite its repetitiveness. Of course, what I wasn’t expecting was KOKIA throwing in her kid voice again after 2 minutes of pretty piano introduction. This is especially painful when she reaches the high notes in the melody and she’s entirely out of tune. Thanks for ruining a perfectly good introduction, KOKIA.

This is why one can sing softly but still be in tune, KOKIA. Sheesh. bridge is entirely in English, and as usual her pronunciation is impeccably good. The arrangement for this song is a bit fuller-sounding than most of the tracks so far on the album, mostly because of the lower strings at the beginning of the track. Most of hte accompaniment otherwise is some guitar and some higher strings. This is an improvement over the melodies of the last few tracks, definitely; however, as a whole song, there’s something a bit choppy about how the song is composed in general, and the guitar seems a bit too accented at points of the track and kind of obstructs the flow of the song in the verses. However, this is still quite a nice song, but not my favourite off this album.

はじまり reintroduces us to some simplistic piano and voice arrangements. This is much like サルスベリの揺れる頃 but with piano instead of the guitar. Again, there’s an echo on her voice, and the piano and her voice work together perfectly in this track. Her voice is very well-supported and she delivers the ballad perfectly with a lot of control and beautiful phrasing. The piano plays a bit more of a role on this track as it gets a bit of a solo at parts of the track rather than just playing a supporting part. I really like how the track pulls into the key change as the piano starts playing in chords to pull a slightly stronger dynamic for the ending of the track.

More simplistic music with infinity. This time, KOKIA goes back to acoustic guitar to support her. Same old, same old for the beginning: pretty melody, pretty singing. The song changes a bit as the strings come into the track and adds a bit of variety to the sound of the track as KOKIA adlibs over the violin solo. The song goes back to the beginning structure, but this time with the strings supporting the main melody in the background. Pretty song with some really nice harmonies from the violin and I enjoy the subtle build-up in this track to the ending of the song.

Can you guess what kind of song the next track is? Yup, another ballad. 世界の終わりに sounds pretty much like a lot of KOKIA’s other ballads. The track is supported by piano and has a bit of bass supporting the track so that it’s not the only thing accompanying KOKIA’s singing. Again, pretty melody, nice singing. I’m starting not to have anything creative to say about these tracks other than they’re nice ballads and KOKIA’s singing is solid throughout the track. Oh, this song has a jazzy saxophone solo in the bridge full of grace notes. There’s your defining quality of this track on this album. But yeah, this is another solid ballad.

FINAL SONG. BALLAD. WHAT A SURPRISE. 罪滅ぼしの歌 starts with soft piano and KOKIA whispering her vocals. So yeah, another simplistic piano ballad and KOKIA stops whispering the melody but keeps her voice supported and soft through the track. Which is good because I don’t have to deal with her trying to sound like a kid once again. Good riddance. Anyways, solid ballad, nice singing, blah blah blah. I’m getting bored of hearing so many KOKIA ballads in a row. I digress, the song is nice. I have nothing else creative to say about this.

I can definitely see why this album isn’t for most people. As someone who really likes ballads when they’re done by competent singers, KOKIA doesn’t quite pull off this album effectively. A lot of the tracks end up sounding very similar in melodic structure and arrangement. Even with KOKIA’s mostly stellar singing throughout this album, it’s really hard to stay awake throughout this album. Individually, the songs aren’t bad compositions and are nice to listen to occasionally. However, as a collection of 11 ballads, this album can be really tiresome to listen through. Not even the addition of the saxophone or the pan flute can save KOKIA’s arrangements on this album. Some of the individual songs aren’t too bad to listen to individually, but as a collection of works, this is seriously lacking in variety.

Favourites:
はじまり

Artist: KOKIA
Album: Christmas Gift
Release Date: November 12, 2008

1. Amazing Grace
Although I personally have never sung “Amazing Grace” as a Christmas hymn , apparently it is traditionally one. She sings is a light head voice, and you can hear just how trained she is in classical singing. The song starts of a capella with a few bells in the background as well as background singing (sung by KOKIA). Strings come in by the second verse to create a fuller feeling. What I really like about second verse is the additional harmonies to the main melody. I especially like what she did with the “I first believed” line for the harmonies. Simply gorgeous. The bridge features a beautiful violin solo playing the melody again. The hymn is sung and played at a slightly slower tempo than I’m used to, and does feel like it drags a bit, but KOKIA does a wonderful job with it.

2. Hallelujah
The second track is a cover of Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s song, “Hallelujah”, which I’m sure many people are familiar with. It’s also not particularly associated with Christmas (but kind of magically did over the years), but whatever. The accompaniment is a beautiful solo piano, and KOKIA uses her more childish voices to sing this song. Some points of the song doesn’t really try to hit the notes of the song, which kind of bothers me, but otherwise, she does a nice rendition of the song emotionally. In terms of her style, I would of like a little more singing rather than mostly speaking through the melody of the song. A jazzy saxophone makes its appearance halfway through the song, and we have KOKIA actually singing out the notes a bit more at this point, but the lower notes aren’t as well sung. I’m not that fond of her cover of this song, but I really like what she did with the saxophone and piano lines at times. Her lack of skill in the lower range is really evident at the end where you can barely hear her sing the last note, although I’m not sure if it was intentional on her part…

3. I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
The third track is our first Christmas carol, and it begins with a beautiful, calming string and piano arrangement. Again, KOKIA uses her beautiful head voice. She a bit airier than I’m usually used to from her, and I’m not particularly fond of it, especially when she tries to hit those high notes. The arrangement, however, is absolutely beautiful. The piano and the strings really complement each other really well. The piano mostly supports the main melody with chords, while the strings play additional flourishes in the background. Beautiful instrumentation, but I’m less than impressed with KOKIA on this track.

4. We three kings of orient are
Time for another hymn, and it’s one that I’m more used to being associated with Christmas. It begins with a smooth saxophone solo, some kinds of dreamy sounds in the background. KOKIA’s singing is back to being it’s strong, classical self. An interesting thing to note on her pronunciation is that it was inflections of the Irish accent at times. She has a beautiful voice on this track, and I like the slightly mysterious accompaniment. Although there’s not much that actually strongly supports the main melody, I love the atmosphere of this song.

5. Christmas Medley
The next track is a nice mix of various different Christmas carols. It starts first of all with the music box playing the last few lines of “Silent Night”, which is really pretty and cute. then moves on to a string accompaniment (which melody I don’t really recognize” before going into KOKIA’s singing. The first thing that comes to mind when KOKIA starts singing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” is “D’awwwwwww”. This stuff is adorable. Her rendition is really cute and jazzy with syncopated chords, and the traditional jazz bass progression under it all. She then quickly moves to “Let it Snow” with jingle bells and cute little oboe accompaniment. Her singing turns to her kiddy singing, which I’m not too fond of, but she hits notes decently. “The Little Drummer Boy” comes up next, and KOKIA really brings out the poor out-of-tune singing for this next track. Not fond of her in this portion of this track, except for maybe the piano solo that comes at the end of it before she gets into “The First Noël”. I love what she did with this track because it’s played on a harpsichord, so we get a more Renaissance feel with this track. Her singing is much more solid on this portion. As usual, she sounds the best in her more classical voice and she has a beautiful control of her voice here. The funniest thing about this is the bah-ing during the oboe solo. A beautiful portion. KOKIA brings in a slightly bossa nova sound for her cover of “Jingle Bells” and does a few alterations to the melody at points of the song. It’s cute, but a little bit lacking on KOKIA’s part. She sounds really bored. The only thing cute about this is the “jingle… jinnnglle” parts of the cover. Then, we go back to “Santa CLaus is Coming to Town” with some cute keyboard programming. To be honest, this is a pretty underwhelming Medley at the end of it. Parts of it by itself is rather cute, but as a whole, it’s arranged like a poor cut-and-paste job, with nearly zero transitions between the parts.

6. Teo Torriatte (Let us cling together)
We come across our first use of Japanese on the album, but seriously, KOKIA is out of tune at the beginning and it really doesn’t sound good against the harmony in the background. The english verses are much better sung, and the harpsichord in the background adds a nice haunting touch to the track. I’m fond of her middle range voice, but her head voice is really suffering on this track, which is really weird because her head voice is usually really good. Her higher notes go flat and sound extremely thin and unsupported. The singing on this track is just really unpleasant and dull.

7. Ave Maria
We already encountered KOKIA’s cover of this track back on “The VOICE” and it’s still as stunning here as it was there. Her control is much more evident here, but her voice goes into a thinner, airy mode but still retains a lot of energy and soft piano. The accompaniment is a simple arpeggios in the background with a soft string adding a bit of harmony. It’s a highly impressive rendition of the classical opera piece.

8. It came upon a midnight clear
KOKIA does a beautiful job on this next Christmas carol. It has a beautiful acoustic sound, a little bit of strings in the background and some echoey background singing. KOKIA sounds beautiful in this track and delivers this song with a lot of grace. It’s a beautiful, almost hypnotic rendition, and probably one of my favourites off the album for its beautiful simplicity.

9. 聖なる夜に~holy night
She’s back to singing in her head voice for this next song, and it’s absolutely beautiful. I like the slight echo over the voice as it adds a bit of an extra angelic, dreamy sound to her voice. The track also features a little bit of bagpipe-sounds (although it sounds it’s from a keyboard). Her singing is spot on as her voice soars beautifully through this track and her singing is flawless.

10. 心のロウソク
The final track off KOKIA’s album is a beautiful piano piece that brings in a soothing sound to the ending of the album. it has a very heartfelt feeling to it. While KOKIA’s singing is more on the airy side again on this track, her singing is still very good, and she complements the piano perfectly on the track. The song tends to drag on for awhile (it’s around 5 and a half minutes), so the song repeats itself a lot, so I got bored of the song pretty quickly as the song went on.

Overall -
Favourite Track: It came upon a midnight clear
KOKIA’s Christmas mini album is a decent release. While there are many points of the album I didn’t particularly care for, there are still some very beautiful covers on this album that I really do like. However, there are far too many songs that I do not like for me to fully enjoy this album. The “Christmas Medley” comes as a long, unpleasant sampling of various Christmas tracks that KOKIA may or may not do well, and KOKIA does not consistently sing well on this album, unfortunately. I was really hoping that KOKIA would be one of those artists that would be able to pull off a beautiful Christmas album, but unfortunately it wasn’t really that outstanding, save for a few tracks.

Artist: KOKIA
Album: Fairy Dance ~KOKIA meets Ireland~
Release Date: September 24, 2008

1. Lydia~Fairy Dance
The opening track for KOKIA’s Irish-influenced mini-album is a gorgeous track that features acoustic guitar strumming at the beginning, mixed with light singing from KOKIA (harmonizing with herself excellently, as well). It later adds in the fiddle in the background, while adding more vocal lines over it. It’s amazing just how well she blends with herself and is in perfect tune with all the other vocal lines. The melodic melodies are fairly the same at the beginning as they mostly repeat over for awhile, while adding additional ornamentation over it, whether it’s the instrumentation, or the vocal lines. The song builds up with the flute duets. The tempo remains the same (the fiddle part in the background compared with the flute lines play at the same tempo, but relative to the vocal lines, it only seems a bit faster, especially with the flute more in the foreground, and the guitar playing more often). The flute is played immensely well with a light sound, but adding slight accents to adapt to the stronger pulse of that particular part of the song. This is an excellent opening track for the mini-album.

2. song Of Pocchong~雫の唄
I loved the original version of this song off The VOICE, but this arrangement of ths song is just as good. The flute is really well-played, like in the previous track. It really has a lot of energy, and I like the little puffs of air that the flute has at the beginning, as it adds a lot of urgency to the way that it’s played in the song. The added fiddle section is excellent as well with its upbeat sound that may make one wants to dance along to it. It’s played with an immense amount of energy. I love KOKIA’s attention to detail, whether it’s in the accompaniment or her vocals. Everything is done well and consistently in terms of accents on all sections of the song.

3. 悲しくてやりきれない
We move to a softer sound for this next track, which seems to be one of the few Japanese tracks on the album. It has a lovely guitar and woodwind opening that is immensely peaceful, and very obvious traits from Japanese folk music from the progressions and trills. The song gets slightly louder for a moment before it calms back down again for KOKIA’s singing. This particular part seems to be done in a bit more of a abrupt manner, as the dynamics aren’t done as smoothly as I would like. Other than that, the song is gorgeous. The melody is simple, but KOKIA sings it with excellence. Her voice is light, controlled and she does the trills well. This track is a gorgeous, peaceful piece that is far from being boring.

4. Black is the Colour
I’ve been a big fan of this song ever since I’ve heard “The Corrs” cover it on “Home”, so I’m happy KOKIA decided to do this track. It opens with bolder fiddle opening, but this quickly disapears when KOKIA comes in with her voice, where it reverts to mostly acoustic guitar and some flute. Her voice, as usual, is perfect: her control is excellent, her intonation is spot-on, and her interpretation far from boring. The rendition is really pretty, and I love the flute that kind of flies around in the background with its soft notes.

5. 蘇州夜曲
Put an old Japanese song in an Irish arrangement, and this is what you get here. The opening is very typical Irish sound with the fiddle, but it immensely disapears when KOKIA comes in with the melody. All that is left is the acoustic guitar here. Again, her pitch is impeccable, and her interpretation is absolutely gorgeous. The song keeps changing between the smooth melody and the slightly perky Irish interludes, and the transitions are done nicely, although the constant switching can feel a bit awkward at times.

6. Siuil a Run
I absolutely adore KOKIA’s voice in particular track. You can definitely hear the more classical influences in her singing here in terms of how she holds her voice. In any case, it might also be the fact that she actually tries an Irish English accent in this track, which is pretty interesting. At the same time, her enunciation is crisp and very clear. The song is predominantly accompanied by the guitar lines, but has a lovely flute and fiddle line that decorates the track. It’s interesting how she opens the track in a less tempo-dependant manner (the actual musical term seems to have left my mind at the moment… D: ), but then the song picks up a little bit later on. Gorgeous song and excellent singing from KOKIA.

7. そのままでいい~be as you are
KOKIA immediately comes into the song right at the beginning with a gorgeous, smooth melody. I love the simple acoustic guitar accompaniment, and even more the manner of which KOKIA sings the song. The guitar starts to play more often past the introduction. The song pretty much continues in this manner with occasional surprises, like the really dramatic strings at around half-way through the songs. The bridge becomes more festive as KOKIA sings the title of the track of the song, among other things over the light, subdued sound of the fiddles.

8. Taimse im’ Chodladh
KOKIA begins this track acapella, and needless to say she sounds fantastic. Some sounds find their way into the background, but are mostly hidden for most of the time. I especially love the line of harmony she adds into the track, which again, are perfectly tune with the main line, although the timing isn’t exactly spot on for some of the notes, but this is mostly something that most people won’t care to notice anyways, because the notes are close enough and it doesn’t distract the listener. The accompaniment mostly stays minimalist for most of the track, aside from the bagpipes playing long notes in the background. This is probably my least favourite track on the album, but it’s still pretty in a slightly uneventful way.

Overall -
Favourite Track: Hard to choose, but “Siuil a Run”
KOKIA’s Irish Music concept mini-album is excellent. Of course, I have an immense preference for Irish music (I adore, adore Irish music and Irish- influenced music *__*) but I had no doubt that KOKIA would do this style with excellence when this mini-album was announced. For some reason, I’ve always imagined KOKIA excelling at this style, and she doesn’t disappoint with this album. I enjoyed basically every track, and KOKIA’s singing is fantastic throughout.

Artist: KOKIA
Album: the VOICE
Release Date: February 20, 2008

1. 穏やかな静けさ
I absolutely love the opening to this song. KOKIA sings two different melody lines that intertwine with each other over a soft accompaniment, without actually singing any particular lyric. From there, the atmosphere of the song is really dreamy, light and kind of mysterious. KOKIA adds little “hushes”, which are rather interesting, at points of the song. I also really like the high-reed instrument playing under the melody at times. Composition-wise, I love how I can hear a whole bunch of musical lines intertwining together under the main melody. In addition, I adore the melody in general. This song is really soft, but powerful at the same time.

2. Follow the Nightingale
I’ve been obsessing over this song for months. It starts off with high, thin, long notes, with KOKIA speaking under them in her own little language. The opening is soft and kind of mysterious, but the song quickly picks up as a shaker accompanies KOKIA’s backwards language. I absolutely love how she does her ‘r’ sounds in this to make it sound foreign. The time signature is fairly complex as it changes depending on the section of the song. The part here is aggressive, bouncy and really catchy with precise, powerful string lines. Following it is a legato section with short picked harp accompaniment and a light piccolo. This song is really impressive and I cannot possibly describe it in the time it plays. Simply said, this is my favourite song from her since Cyouwa Oto. I especially like how she incorporates really high head voice notes at the end in sort of an operatic style. I especially love the string and piano bridge under it.

3. Ave Maria
The next song contrasts the second track greatly as it starts off with soft little music box-like notes before going into the main song. KOKIA’s vocals here go into a thinner, light head voice. Although there’s not much happening in the accompaniment aside from the piano, bell-like sounds and strange echoey noises, KOKIA’s vocals are awesome and pulls off this hymn excellently. I’m very impressed by how she presents this song. She mostly gets rid of all the lyrics aside from the title of the song, and sings it over and over. Nevertheless, it’s highly impressive.

4. 届きますように
KOKIA here opts for a softer, kidlike voice, and makes this acoustic guitar song magnificent. Her execution of this song is flawless from the soft whispering parts to the fuller, more powerful sound in the chorus. The simplicity of this song works well with KOKIA vocals, and never does she sound like she overpowering the song. I really enjoy the harmonies she adds in the chorus. Beautiful.

5. song of pocchong ~雫の唄
This next song really reminds me (at the beginning) some of the Japanese folk songs I’ve heard before (with a bit of a Renaissance England touch). It’s sung in mainly a playful manner, and I find it’s really unique. I really enjoy it. The vocal layering is fairly interesting. I really like the simple accompaniment and some of the complex stuff going on in this song. KOKIa plays around with the tempo of this song throughout, and it’s rather fascinating to listen to, although there are points where KOKIA gets a little lazy with her kid-like voice and just barely touches a note and ends up being a little bit flat.

6. ごめんね。
To contrast with the previous song is another beautiful, soft song. I really like the tenderness in KOKIA’s voice in this song, as well as the light accompaniment under her voice. I really enjoy the melody on the title of the song. Her high notes here sound effortless and natural. A nice change from the craziness that was Pocchong.

7. Lacrima
Lacrima opens with a nice little acoustic guitar solo, which I quite like. Unlike the previous song, this is accompanied solely by the guitar. KOKIA’s vocals, as usual, are excellent. Her voice is mostly thin on the high notes, however, but she pulls them off enough. The song does get on the boring side, and I find it a little long for its own good, although the song is rather calming.

8. 何もかもが星になって
To contrast with the light singing in the previous song, KOKIA comes back with a fuller voice on the first note of this song. It’s kind of amazing to hear the transition between the two songs as she changes vocal styles. The song is a bit more fuller in accompaniment, and upbeat, while keeping a similar tempo as some of the previous songs. KOKIA does a good job putting life in this song. I personally think the accompaniment sounds a little dead in comparison to KOKIA, though, especially the instrument that sounds like what my keyboard would sound like if I set it to jazz piano. I usually wouldn’t approve of dialogues, but the Japanese one in the bridge is a nice change from the rest of the song.

9. il mare dei suoni
I remember listening to this album before, but this never really stood out to me until I did this review. This is another epic sounding song, but this time with a light electric guitar driving this song. There’s some really awesome stuff in here, though and KOKIA’s vocals are top notch. I definitely prefer her full operatic voice in this song to a lot of other voices she likes to sing in. Her full vibrato is very impressive, and there’s something ethnic sounding about this song, especially how she presents her vocals and the melody lines. At times, the accompaniment feels kind of monotone, especially after bars and bars of the electric guitar doing the exact same thing over and over. Nevertheless, the vocals make up for some of the monotony in the accompaniment as KOKIA is excellent throughout. I absolutely adore the vocal composition throughout this song; they’re brilliant.

10. everlasting
KOKIA’s next song has KOKIA doubling her voice on the main melody (while occasionally doing harmonies), in addition to a lot of echo added to the voices in general. I personally find some of the melody kind of monotone, but it’s nice enough. I personally find the percussion beats a little tacky in such a hymn-like song, though.

11. 小さなうた
KOKIA starts off with a tiny voice at the beginning of this song as she kind of speaks lyrics in her childish voice before she starts singing. This song is gentle little piano song that is a little bit cheery, but very soft. I personally find this is another track that’s a little bit too long for its musical content. It’s nice, but tends to get on the repetitive side after awhile.

12. 「私にできること」
The final song on the Japanese version is a brighter mid-tempo song. I really enjoy this song. It’s accompanied purely by the piano, but KOKIA’s vocals are excellent and I really enjoy the melody. I also really like the harmonies she adds beside her vocals in the chorus. The harmonies are excellent additions to the song itself.

Overall -
Favourite Track: Follow the Nightingale
KOKIA’s most recent album was a little less impressive than I thought it would be; perhaps I had high expectations after listening to “Follow the Nightingale” far too many times. Nevertheless, the material on this album is pretty solid. I personally think she really needs to start varying her slower tempo songs a bit more. After five albums of these kind of songs bringing the quality of the album down (for the most part; I did enjoy some of them, though), I’m kind of disappointed that KOKIA hasn’t composed more varied and interesting ballads. Nevertheless, she’s excellent at writing the more complex songs. Follow the Nightingale falls in line next to Cyouwa Oto as my favourite KOKIA track. While I didn’t like il mare dei suoni as much as some other people because I didn’t enjoy the accompaniment, I adore the vocal performance and composition enough to forgive the vaguely monotone instruments in that song. Despite my boredom with some of her tracks, I must say that this is KOKIA with her best vocals ever. The material may not meet my expectations, but the vocals are definitely beyond impressive.

Artist: KOKIA
Album: Ai ga kikoeru (Japanese Edition)
Release Date: May 23, 2007

1. いつか誰かを愛した時 (Anthem Version) (Itsuka Dareka wo Ai Shita Toki)
This song opens with a choir-like arrangement with long notes with several different parts underneah it, and a great echo effect on the overall vocals. When KOKIA starts to sing over various vocal lines that replace the musical lines that instruments usually play. One particular line imitates the pizzicato of a string player, while other vocal lines sing long, legato lines. It’s actually quite an interesting opening piece; I absolutely love it. It kind of reminds me what I’ve heard from the Finnish acapella group Rajaton, but with KOKIA on all the vocal parts (and Rajaton’s stuff is usually more complex).

2. 宇宙が… (Uchuu ga…)
This next song starts off with an unconventional melody, and I don’t particularly like it at first, but KOKIA sings well over the acoustic guitar and harp in the background. It starts off with less accompaniment, but with a bit of power and sass in the overall presentation of the song as well. I don’t particularly enjoy the melody still as the song goes by as it doesn’t really flow that well in the verses, although I quite like the chorus melody. In addition, KOKIA shows off a lot of power in the chorus without loosing any artistry in the song. While I don’t enjoy the melody at first, I must say that the song is still rather well presented in the vocals, and the accompaniment.

3. アヒルの心 (Ahiru no Kokoro)
KOKIA opens this song amusing with quacking noises. Needless to say, I’m amused. She also adopts a lighter singing style in this next song, and I enjoy some of the things she does vocally in this song. She does these really interesting slurs in her notes that sound kind of like duck sounds, and it’s ridiculously cute. The song itself is kind of a typical, light song, but with a twist — her vocals. I quite enjoy this song because it’s a nice, calming song while holding some unique qualities.

4. 二人の娘 (Futari no Musume)
I absolutely love this song from the beginning. It starts off with soft plucking of a guitar with soft nature sounds in the background as a beautiful string line comes in. KOKIA, here, adopts a more traditional vocal sound. It’s a really calming song, and I become absolutely mesmerized by the soft tones of this song. Everything in here really blends and works well together, and it’s dripping with pure emotion. Definitely my favourite song from this album thus far. Absolutely beautiful. My only problem with the song is that it’s a bit long for its kind of style (it’s five minutes and a half) and I personally found flute (it’s from the flute family anyways XD) underwhelming at times. The flute player in me wants more vibrato D: .

5. Awakening (Open Your Eyes)
This is another song that opens beautifully with minimal instruments and KOKIA’s voice over it. I barely notice other instruments come in as she goes on as I’m totally mesmerized, again, by her vocal presentation of this song. It’s an absolutely beautiful song, and KOKIA showcases a lot of power and emotion in this song, while the accompaniment supports her beautifully. I particularly like this one piano like that follows the first chorus that alternates between two notes, and the piano lines that follow it.

6. cocoro (Heart)
cocoro has KOKIA going back to a traditional singing style, but this song is much more dramatic dynamically in this song as KOKIA has a stronger, louder voice, and she also has a chorus of background vocals accompanying her. This song is still very calming, but still very beautiful to listen to. I don’t like this song as much as Futari no Musume as the latter is much more emotional, while this one is someone more restrained. It can get a little on the boring side, however. Either way, this is still a nice song vocally and instrumentally.

7. HUMANITARIAN
This is probably the first truly upbeat song on this album, and I don’t particularly like KOKIA’s vocals in this song, although the little fade in of sound at the beginning is kind of interesting. I don’t particularly think speaking the melody sounds good at all, which is basically what she does for the main melody. I do, however, like the accompaniment as it’s very joyful and fun. The added sounds everywhere is kind of interesting in this otherwise painful song (aside from the piano).

8. so sad so bad
KOKIA starts off with soft, clear English, accompanied by a gentle harp strokes. The onslaught of sound after that is quite a unique blend of sound as the overall accompaniment remains rather calm, but KOKIA whips out more of her traditional vocal styles as well as having a really heavy, and echoed percussion. This whole song has a bit of an unreal sound to it, and I quite like it. It’s not as melodically pleasing as a lot of songs I’m used to from KOKIA, but it’s pleasant, and somewhat sinister sounding.

9. やさしくされるとやさしくなれる花 (Yasashikusareru to Yasashikunareru Hana)
The harp returns in this next song as this really legato, soothing ballad commences. I personally would have done without the percussion in the background as it kind of sounds out of place in this song at times. I personally don’t enjoy this song all that much as I find it rather uneventful and it feels as if the song is dragged on forever.

10. ぬくもり (Nukumori) (listen for the love)
As the album continues with more soft, calming songs, this one stands out more than her previous track as the accompaniment is minimalistic with the acoustic guitar as it’s only accompaniment, and I prefer the melody in this one as well. KOKIA, as usual, sings beautifully. As the title track of the album (lister for the love = ai ga kikoeru), it more or less encompasses the tender, calm songs that most of the album as presented thus far.

11. why do I sing
This next song starts off with beautiful broken chords on the piano, with occasional long string lines as KOKIA mostly sings in English. Again, this KOKIA sings excellently throughout most of the track (there are points in the song where she kind of slips out of her singing and kind of speak her melody — although not all of it is bad, just the ones where she strains for the notes while talking instead of actually singing them). My favourite stuff in this track is definitely the piano playing; it’s absolutely beautiful, and the lower string instrument that plays with it works perfectly in the song.

12. あたたかい場所 (Atatakai Basho)
The next track on the album is definitely a bit more upbeat than a lot of the songs here, and it has a bit of a swing to the overall feel of the ballad. Most of this is the way KOKIA sings the melody, and partially because it’s in triple time. KOKIA does the accent on the first beat very well, and it definitely brings this beautiful song forward despite a slightly laid-back feel. Do I really have to mention that KOKIA continues to sing excellently?

13. 祈りにも似た美しい世界 (Inori ni mo Nita Utsukushii Sekai)
I really love KOKIA’s vocals in this next song. They’re light, but very musical, with nice decrescendos and crescendos throughout her vocal. The song overall is just really light, and calming. There’s nothing much else to note here, but nevertheless, I still really enjoy this song as it’s charming and beautifully sung.

14. 命の光 (Inochi no Hikari)
More soft songs, and again KOKIA sings well, but what else is new? Another beautiful song to add to this rather lengthy list of pretty ballads. Nevertheless, it’s still a good song, just not very interesting after a long onslaught of similar songs, some of which are superior.

15. ありがとう… (Arigatou…) (from KOKIA 2007)
I really like the a capella part at the beginning where she starts with “Arigatou” in a bit of a varied rhythm, where she holds a different note than expected. From there, the piano comes in and she starts off with the first verse. This version has a lot more rubato (i.e. she’s a lot more flexible with the tempo here) than the original version, and I enjoy it quite a bit (I tend to be a big fan of the use of rubato — which is why I’m a really crummy Baroque player ;o; ). The accompaniment in this song is simply the piano, and I adore it. The end is kind of sloppy, however, as the piano and KOKIA don’t quite hit the chord at the same time as they rallentando together, but nevertheless, I love how it ends after that.

Overall -
Favourite Track: 二人の娘 (Futari no Musume)
aigakikoeru, like her previous album, is very laid-back and soft as compared to some of the stuff she’s done. It actually kind of reminds me of songbird’s calming aura, but this time with better vocals. While I personally found this album kind of lengthy in both the number of tracks and the length of the tracks themselves, there are some really pretty songs here. At the same time, some of the repeated styles in this album can quickly become quite boring as you listen to it all the way through. Personally, I quite enjoyed the beginning of the album, but my interest started to wander as I ran further into the album. I would have liked maybe a more concise album. Nevertheless, there are some unique songs on this album that is worth checking out, despite it being a bit on the boring side at the end.

Artist: KOKIA
Album: 歌がチカラ (Uta ga Chikara)
Release Date: July 21, 2004

1. 夢がチカラ
My first KOKIA song back when it first came out! Pretty, pretty, pretty. The song opens up with sweeping strings, and a fuller sound from KOKIA. I really enjoy KOKIA’s vocals in this song as the do not have a trace of her cute, kidlike voice that she can have. Instead, we’re treated with a mature, deep voice. The song itself is a very light song that kind of floats its way through. It’s not as impressive now that I’ve heard what KOKIA can do in terms of composition, but it’s still a gorgeons song.

2. a girl
KOKIA uses her soft, kid-like voice in this next song. It’s about the same kind of tempo as the previous song, but a bit more cheerful. Unfortunately not much stands out about this track. KOKIA vocals are a bit too light, and it feels as if the accompaniment overpowers KOKIA’s vocals here. In addition, her vocals are lackluster here and it shows none of the energy that I know she can do. The accompaniment, however, is quite nice.

3. so much love for you
The next track starts off with a more promising vocal from KOKIA. This next song has a faster moving chorus, while the verses have longer notes. I really like how she opens the song with a lot more energy and power than in the previous song. She puts a good amount of emphasis on some parts of the melody, and her performance overall is very pleasant. There are parts where I thought her voice sounded a bit too tense, and would have benefited from a nice vibrato. I especially like the chorus, however.

4. 空に太陽　あなたに私
KOKIA sings well again in this next song, but the melody doesn’t really catch my attention until the chorus comes in. I really like the melody in the chorus, although it is a bit repetitive in terms of its progression as it repeats a similar sequence of notes over and over again. I really like her phrasing in the chorus, although her delivery seems a little bit mechanical. As a whole, the song is nice, but nothing extraordinary.

5. ピンチはチャンス
This is one of the songs that stands out in this album. It starts off with a syncopated rhythm with KOKIA saying “Yes!” on the offbeats at the beginning. It’s rather catchy. The syncopated “yes” continues in the chorus, but this time with KOKIA singing under it. I find it interesting how she managed to integrate that into the main melody. This song is kind of laidback, but upbeat at the same time, and I quite enjoy it. Some of the accompaniment have a bit of a jazzy feel to it, and I enjoy the sax solo in the bridge.

6. キラリ
I really like this song from the moment KOKIA comes in with a lot of confidence and energy. It starts off with longer notes in the verses, then turns into a really upbeat song as the song gets a little more aggressive. I really like the “Kimi” part in the latter part of the chorus. The accompaniment is quite nice with a bit of flute.

7. give & take
Track 7 has a steady acoustic guitar accompaniment that strums along in the background. It’s noticeable at the beginning, but after KOKIA comes in, it gets a little bit buried under her voice, which makes the song a little less upbeat than previously though. KOKIA, on the other hand, sings this song with a lot of legato and as a result, the song is really smooth. The overall song has a very calming effect. Again, nothing exciting, but very, very pretty to listen to.

8. New season ~夢に向かって吹く風~
This is in a similar tempo than the previous song, but more upbeat sounding with shorter notes in the accompaniment. KOKIA still sings with a lot of legato over the short, upbeat notes of the accompaniment, making it sound much happier than the previous song. I do enjoy this song, however. It has a very pleasant sound, and KOKIA sings well in this song, despite the lack of vocal variety.

9. 歌う人
Vocally, this is the best KOKIA has sung on this album thus far. She has a lot of variety in her vocals and she sings with a lot of conviction and emotion. The song is rather simple with a piano accompaniment and a bit of string and (very little) percussion creeping in at times. Despite the minimal accompaniment, this is one of the best songs off this album. It’s really nice to hear KOKIA use the different sides of her voice in an album that seems to be lacking a bit of vocal variety in some of her previous songs.

10. 夢がチカラ (acoustic ver)
The album closes with what it opened with. I’ve always really loved the instrumental opening for this song; it’s one of the most gorgeous things I’ve heard. This is similar to the original version, with a stripped down accompaniment (without percussion and a softer accompaniment). KOKIA sings equally as well in this version as the opening version.

Overall -
Favourite Track: 歌う人 (Utau Hito)
This album seems a bit disapointing in comparison to what she’s done so far: her songs aren’t as unique as some of the stuff she’s done, and her vocals are good, but sometimes feel a bit mechanical, especially when she lacks a bit of variety in the way she presents some of the songs. Nevertheless, this album is still quite pretty and I enjoyed some of the songs on it. It’s far from being a horrible album, but we all know KOKIA can do a lot better than simply this average, boring album.

Artist: KOKIA
Album: Remember me
Release Date: November 12, 2003

1. Prologue “Remember me”
Gah! It’s the dialogue again. Please, no. The accompaniment for the dialogue is quite pretty with KOKIA singing long notes with an echo effect over her voice. If you tune out the dialogue and listen to the piano and vocal, it’s pretty quite pretty. Yeah sorry, I don’t like dialogue in songs regardless of what they say XD.

2. 私の太陽
Wow, this song is really pretty. KOKIA comes in gently, and her tone is just scrumptious to listen to. There’s just so much emotion in the simple melody she sings here, and the orchestral accompaniment in the chorus really adds a fleeting feeling to the overall song. KOKIA’s vocals are never overwhelming; instead, they float through the song effortlessly.

3. Different way
This next song has a heavier electric guitar and drum backing, while keeping a mellow sound to it. I don’t particularly find this song all that interesting in the verses, especially since I find KOKIA overdoes the little trills and melismas with her voice here that it gets a little bit excessive. I do, however, like the chorus quite a bit as it has some shorter notes and they move a bit faster.

4. かわらないこと~since1976~
KOKIA returns back to another ballad, and again it’s quite a nice song. I don’t like this one as much as 私の太陽, but it’s still quite pretty. I enjoy the piano line throughout this song, but aside from that and KOKIA’s consistant vocals, I don’t like much else in this song. I find the verses a little bit bland, but the chorus is much prettier in comparison, especially some of the note jumps she does in the melody.

5. Happy birthday to me
KOKIA’s vocals in the beginning of this are childlike, but also poorly supported at parts of it; it’s kind of painful to listen to. However, once she gets to her normal voice, it’s so much better. She just sings really well once she switches out of her child voice, and her voice is absolutely gorgeous. The accompaniment is simple, but works really well with KOKIA’s gentle vocals in this song. While I understand why KOKIA put in such a childish voice, it doesn’t make it easier to listen to. Either way, the middle section (not including her childish part) is quite pretty and calming.

6. With music
I really like how KOKIA enunciates the lyrics in this sing; even if she has a slight accent, her English is very clear. KOKIA sings this simple song in a lively manner over the simple piano. KOKIA has a bit of a soul (the genre) vocal style at random times in this song, and I like it. The piano in this is quite well played, and I especially like how the higher notes stand out at the end. The left hand has heavy, basslike intervals (among other things), while the right hand plays some short, slightly detached higher notes over it. I quite like it.

7. 安心の中
The melody at the beginning is sung with a bit of a detachment at the end of several notes, and it adds a different flavour to this ballad. Again, KOKIA’s vocals ring out throughout the song with excellent clarity and delicious tone. There’s a bit of bounciness due to the detachment of the notes and the percussion in the background. The chorus is done in a legato manner, but you barely notice the change. I actually quite like the composition of this song as there’s a transition between a poppy sound and a more tradition sound at random points in the sound, although most of it has a poppy sound. This is yet another very pretty song.

8. そら
This next track has a simple arpeggio harp accompaniment under KOKIA’s soothing vocals. I adore the simplicity of this song as it’s almost like a lullabye. I especially like when KOKIA goes into her head voice; what a gorgeous sound! Although the lack of change can get boring as the song is a full five minutes and fourty minutes. Way too long for this type of song.

9. The Power of Smile
I don’t remember my first KOKIA song, but I suspect this was one of my first ones. This upbeat track couldn’t have come at a better time than after the simplistic lullaby of Sora in the previous track. KOKIA shows more personality in this next track in her vocals and her pulls off this lively, upbeat song. I really like the harmonies in the chorus she has in her voice. I really love how well the harmonies blend with the melody.

10. Clap your hands!
The progression of notes in this song is really quite interesting and different from anything on this album thus far. It has a bit of a mysterious flavour with some of the voice filters she uses at points of the song, and I really enjoy the melody of this song. This song is like Middle-East meets electric guitar, synths and Western percussion. I’ve always really enjoyed KOKIA’s more traditional sounding vocal style.

11. I believe ~海の底から~
Right from the beginning, KOKIA’s performance of this song is just absolutely stunning. She is just so musical from the very first note she sings. There’s just so much emotion oozing out of her voice. KOKIA sings effortless, and yet she sounds like she knows exactly what she’s doing when she suddenly sings softer or louder; every single nuance in her voice is well thoughtout and complements the song perfectly. The key change and dynamic change is really well done as well.

12. 大事なものは目蓋の裏
KOKIA continues with ballad-like songs again, but this time with percussion, some flute (DID SOMEONE SAY FLUTE?!). I protest, though, as the flute is barely audible when it plays (I only say so because I’m a flutist, and flutes make me happy) even if the harmonies are really pretty in the one section at the beginning where I can actually hear them. This song is a little less impressive than the previous song, but it’s still really pretty to listen to as it has a pretty powerful chorus, and KOKIA again has excellent vocals.

13. ?
The title of this song drove me crazy at first because I thought my computer was being stupid and was refusing to show the kanji, but no, it’s actually a question mark. The verses here start off with detached notes at the beginning, then evolve into more legato phrases in the pre-chorus before going into the extremely catchy chorus of this song.

14. Sigh
KOKIA returns again for another legato song. It features some light picked acoustic guitar. I pretty much song have to say that KOKIA vocals are excellent by now, but I’ll say it anyways. The song is quite calming while being a bit upbeat with the more frequent percussion to add pulse to the overall song. The percussion also takes a little while to pick up, but it goes back to being less frequent a little while later. This song is quite pretty, and I quite enjoy its sound.

15. Remember the kiss (duet “KOKIA & Piano”)
The final track of KOKIA’s third album is another heartfelt ballad which features piano. The lack of accompaniment really showcases KOKIA’s excellent vocals. The song is simplistic and has a gorgeous, flowing melody.

Overall -
Favourite Track: I Believe ~海の底から~
KOKIA third effort isn’t as bold as her previous album (which I gave the stamp of adoration to), but it is definitely another solid effort from KOKIA. She has definitely improved vocally since her previous album, and I find myself consistently breathless when listening to her vocals. While I enjoyed the compositions in trip trip more, KOKIA’s third album is still a very enjoyable album.

Artist: KOKIA
Album: trip trip
Release Date: January 23, 2002

1. 調和
Two and a half years later, KOKIA comes out with a new album, and her vocal improvement is immediately clear from the first note she sings. She leaves her childish voice behind, and adopts a powerful, more mature voice. KOKIA’s voice grabs my attention immediately and leaves me breathless. Her vocal style is somewhat more traditional, and it works. This song uses changes of time signature (although mostly in triple time) in its composition, as well as key signature changes. Repetitive, but breathtaking. An impressive opening track.

2. 次会う時は (Tsugi Au Toki Wa)
Following the unique opening track comes (what seems like)a more mainstream acoustic guitar ballad. KOKIA’s vocal improvements are more clear in this style, and I’m loving her vocals. There’s a bit of a harmonic added over the acoustic guitar and a little bit of piano. The song opens up in a simple manner, but it’s charming. About halfway through, KOKIA changes back to a similar singing style as the opening track, and it’s rather interesting, and the accompaniment builds up as she adds more and more vocal oddities to the track. KOKIA then reduces it again as the accompaniment settles down.

3. Say Hi!!
The next song again opens up with guitar, but it’s upbeat, yet a little bit light. The accompaniment (and beat) seems subdued, and brings the focus more on KOKIA’s vocals. The result is a pleasant, almost summery tone to this track. KOKIA’s vocals match the dreamy quality of this song, and starts the chorus with English lyrics (of which I have no idea what she’s talking about aside from random phrases — I hear saying “doughnuts” at some point, but it doesn’t have anything to do with what she was talking about XD). The song is a bit too subdued for my tastes, however, and there’s isn’t much to listen to after awhile. However, there’s something dreamy and charming about this fairly simple song.

4. The rule of universe
The next track starts off with a light piano solo with weird sounds in the background. The opening is subdued, but kind of haunting and KOKIA opens with emotion and conviction as she sings in English. I adore the small dynamic crescendos and decrescendos she does in her excellently phrased phrases. The arrangement of the song tends to drag a bit after awhile, but KOKIA singing is excellent throughout the song. Too bad the song itself gets a little tedious after the first chorus.

5. Princess ÉHIME
The next song is a little bit different. It features a syncopated rhythm in the background, with odd little sounds everywhere. It lacks the usual accompaniment, but it manages to be rather interesting. KOKIA begins the song with whispered sing-speak that is rather creepy over the ambient background. It’s not all that exciting, but I LOVE it nevertheless. It’s just very unique sounding, and the section where she says “time to take a bath” includes immensely dissonant progressions and chords. It’s unfortunately a little long for its repetitive composition, so it gets kind of old after several minutes of listening to it.

6. 天使 (Tenshi)
The next is definitely more poppier, and it has a light but agressive melody at the beginning. KOKIA sings it lightly,but she does so with emphasis. The choppiness of her vocals at the beginning help make the melody seem rather catchy at the beginning. Although the accompaniment is her usual piano at the beginning, the chorus bursts out with electric guitar and a fuller voice from KOKIA. The song is definitely a bit typical sounding (aside from KOKIA’s voice, which is rather unique), but she does it well. The accompaniment supports her vocals well, and it was well arranged. KOKIA’s vocals are excellent over the dramatic accompaniment.

7. ぴんくの象 (Pinku no Zou)
Right from the beginning, I fell in love with this song. It has a bit of a middle eastern sound to it in the background with the general vocal stylings. The rhythm of it is absolutely infectious, and KOKIA adopts her cute voice in this song. It’s a rather interesting combination of sounds with the bongo-like percussion. I adore how KOKIA presents her voice in this song. It’s sassy and immensely amusing. The percussion in this song is rather complex at times.

8. Hello passing days
KOKIA continues with a light pop song to contrast with the oddities from the previous track, and again she is wonderful. The next song has a gorgeous piano accompaniment to complement KOKIA’s light, floating vocals. While this track is gorgeous, sometimes I feel as if thre is something lacking in KOKIA’s presentation. I personally would of liked a fuller vibrato sound at points in this song. Either way, this song is pleasant. Also, the higher pitched vocals in the chorus seem a little bit pinched, and I don’t enjoy the sound of it over KOKIA’s normal voice; there’s not much blend in between, and her head voice here sounds a little bit off.

9. 花 (Hana)
This next song has some short pizzicato notes in the background of the introduction, with picked guitar at the beginning. KOKIA, again, uses her softer voice in this song. The song starts off rather poppy sounding, and it’s quite pretty. The first surprising change in the song is in the chorus, where is adopts more of a middle eastern-sounding melody, and it’s gorgeous. This song is both pretty and haunting, and KOKIA pulls it off excellently. The accompaniment is rather simplistic, but very well done.

10. 人間ってそんなものね (Ningentte Sonna Mono Ne)
人間ってそんなものね has the similar echo effect added to KOKIA’s vocals (which we see a lot in this album so far). This track is back to the more typical sound, and it doesn’t seem to interest me much in terms of its sound. However, it is not a bad song at all. It’s rather pleasant to listen to with the usual larger note leaps in the chorus, and a more linear verse. The melody is quite nice, but nothing out of the ordinary.

11. 足音
This is yet another light pop song with some harmonica instrument in the background over the the guitar background of this song. Again, another pleasant song but nothing particularly unique in this song other than the use of the harmonica. The melody and arrangement is pretty typical of KOKIA at this point in time. It’s a nice song, although nothing terribly outstanding.

12. tomoni
The next song goes back to a similar style as the first track of this album, and I love it. There’s something spellbinding about KOKIA’s vocals when she sings like this. She makes it sound so easy and effortless, and I love the general atmosphere of this song; it works well with the power and control KOKIA has over her vocals. Brilliant.

13. a gift
I’ve always found dialogue to be rather cheesy. Sorry, KOKIA, but it doesn’t work. Beyond that, the final track is a very relaxing song as KOKIA goes back to a bit of a kid-like voice over the strings. KOKIA’s vocals go a little flat at parts of this song, and it’s kind of disapointing to hear her have such a poor vocal performance. A poor ending to a good album.

Overall -
Favourite Track: 調和
KOKIA’s second album is excellent. It definitely shows off some of KOKIA’s strengths: her creativity, her excellent songwriting, her powerful vocals. There are some highly creative pieces in this album, a lot of which I was highly impressed. Some of the more generic songs are very pleasant to listen to, althugh I feel as if they sometimes pulled the quality of the album down by being a bit too predictable, and I found them a little bit hard to get through at times when compared to her more unique tunes. Either way, this is a strong effort from KOKIA.