Contents
1. Prologue “Remember me”
2. Watashi no Taiyou
3. Different Way
4. Kawaranai koto ~since1976~
5. Happy birthday to me
6. With music
7. Anshin no Naka
8. Sora
9. The Power of Smile
10. Clap your hands!
11. I believe ~Umi no Soko Kara~
12. Daiji na Mono wa Mabuta no Ura
13. ?
14. Sigh
15. Remember the kiss (duet “KOKIA & piano”)
Two remarks before I start my review: 1) I really adore the cover of this album, and 2) this album is cramped with great songs I only discovered weeks, if not months after I had first gained them. Dumb thing to do.
The album starts off with a voice message of KOKIA, Prologue “Remember Me”. She is accompanied by very soft piano and a chorus. The text is as follows:
“There is no better song than the one you sing for someone special.
Parents singing a lullaby for their children, lovers singing to share their feelings.
And singing for your close friends to show your appreciation.
There are so many songs in this world.
I believe that music has the power to heal our heart, so I hope that many people will hear this song and feel something start in their hearts.
There really is no better song than the one you sing for the ones you love.
But for today – this one’s just for you.“
(It’s typed as I heard it, so there might be some things off.) I think it’s a very sweet text, and it’s true of course. I mean, you don’t have to be gifted to sing well, but you can still sing your child to sleep with a lullaby. It’s a way of showing you love them.
The first actual song is Watashi no Taiyou, in which you can hear pretty clearly that KOKIA’s voice has developed. It sounds more mature than in her two previous albums. I have the idea she sings the same notes, but where her voice was high pitched in earlier songs, her voice has a lower sound. This is a rather upbeat song, with a saxophone or something alike in the bridge for variation. It’s not as variated as songs like Chouwa~Oto~, but it’s a nice song.
Ah, Different way is one of the songs I mentioned in the beginning. The one I had to rediscover after I’d gained it for quite some weeks already. It starts off with drums and that sets the atmosphere for the song: upbeat, powerful. I like it, since it’s neither extremely merry nor heavy. A nice way in between those two. It ends with an electric guitar rather than drums.
Kawaranai Koto ~since1976~ is in my top XX of favourite songs (fill in a number yourself). It’s a calmer song than the two previous ones, and apparently a personal song to KOKIA. You can feel she put her feelings into it – well, I myself felt it anyway. The song struck me because of that. It’s not too ballad-like, it’s just right to get the feelings passed.
Happy birthday to me starts off with, surprise, KOKIA softly singing ‘happy birthday to me’. It sounds like an intro to a quite merry, not to say hyperactive song, but it isn’t. The beginning of the actual singing is very calm. It sounds ‘canned’; I don’t know if that’s just my version or not, but it gives off an isolated feeling. Since the text is ‘happy birthday to me‘ rather than to you, I think the isolated feeling was intentional. The refrain is rather calm as well, and the canned-ness wears off here.
Next, there is a completely English song: with music. It’s a sweet, in the end rather merry song, in which KOKIA expresses what music means to her. What grasped me the most was that her pronounciation of ‘music’ in the refrain is very close to the Dutch pronounciation…
Anshin no Naka has a rather strong bass right in the beginning, so that it doesn’t become too soft a song. Since she sings ‘Ai shiteru’ (I love you) a couple of times, I take it that it’s a love song, which is not very surprising after the prologue of course. And it sounds like a love song, just not your average ballad. Near the ending, the song gets stronger and more powerful, until it eventually softens down again and ends like it started off.
The next song, sora, caught my interest because KOKIA is only accompanied by a harp (or at least an instrument that sounds a lot like a harp). And since I’ve played the harp ever since I was seven, it’s always nice to bump into a song with a harp in it, sung by one of your favourite artists. This one is very gentle, very soft. You can get stronger with a harp, but here, it’s used in the traditional way. It’s a beautiful song nonetheless, although it’s slightly too long. There’s little variation in it, so it gets a tad boring near the end. Now excuse me, I want to find out how to play it on my harp! 
The Power of Smile is a whole lot more upbeat. It really puts a smile on your face because of all the happiness. It couldn’t be more contrasting to sora, but who cares, it’s a nice song!
Clap your Hands! is like some of the songs from trip trip, and I’m pointing at the exotic atmosphere here. This song really has the feeling of a land in the Middle-East rather than Japan, especially with the refrain. It’s pretty upbeat and an original song. It has, like Chouwa~Oto~, quite some variations in it, although there is an easier pattern in this song. Some pieces are sung as if she’s singing into a glass, if you understand what I mean by that. But that’s not all. Have you heard the high-pitched voices that sing Japanese numbers? Together, they’re the number Pi, like in mathematics. I have no idea what it’s doing there, but it’s surely original.
I Believe ~Umi no Soko Kara~ is probably one of my favourite songs of all time. It’s hard to describe why exactly, but maybe it’s because it shows off her voice in almost all aspects. It goes from soft to powerful, from short to long tones, from low to high and back. This song is truly something. If you’re going to give KOKIA a chance, you should listen to this song most definitely.
Daiji na Mono wa Mabuta no Ura is the next track of the album. It has around the same atmosphere as I Believe ~Umi no Soko Kara~, but it hasn’t all the variations that song has.
And then, there’s the song with the interesting title ?. No, it’s not your computer not recognizing Japanese fonts – it’s just ?. It’s quite an upbeat song, especially the refrains. Very busy, as a contrast to the slower two previous songs.
Sigh is also quite upbeat and busy, though not as busy as ?. There’s not much to say about it – a nice song, though not a good one to read a book to. It’s quite distracting.
Finally, the album ends with the wonderful track Remember the kiss (duet “KOKIA & piano”). It’s a calm, soothing song, with a nice refrain. I really enjoy listening it, and the three other versions I have of this song. It’s one of those songs you’ll never get enough of.
All in all, Remember me is certainly a title to remember. Most songs are truly wonderful and should not be forgotten.
