KOKIA – AKIKO∞KOKIA ~balance~
| KOKIA – AKIKO∞KOKIA ~balance~ March 18, 2009 |
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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
I think I’m the only person who thinks this is a nice album, although I do see why people might think it’s… well, boring.
Haha. I do think it is a nice album, but combine 11 nice songs of similar structure and it’s not as interesting for me :P.
ALSO UPDATE YOUR BLOG =OOO.