Memories Off 6 is the latest installment in the popular love adventure franchise. At the musical helm is Takeshi Abo, who is skilled at capturing the slice-of-life nature of the genre in a melodic and memorable way. The sountrack itself follows the formula of including the opening vocal theme, the in-game music, and various vocal ending themes sung by the seiyuu for the female characters. The music itself will not convert anyone who dislikes catchy Japanese synth pop, but I quite liked it. It may even be my favorite soundtracks of the entire series.
As expected, the vocal themes are a mixed bag, but there are more good ones than mediocre ones. The opening theme, Triangle Wave, initially had me swaying back and forth in a dance-y way and a second listen revealed musical layers I was not aware of. Ayumi Murata’s voice in this song is the kind of female Japanese vocal that I really like: not too squeaky, not too lethargic, just right. The other Murata song, WAVE!!!, was too heavy-handed for my tastes. Primedia was also a heavy-handed song, despite the appealing vocal. Aya Hirano is becoming a favorite of mine, and the songs she did, Mind Loop and Blue Star, were both really good. You by Ayano Niina is Blue Star with alternate lyrics, almost like the two different versions of Don’t Cry by Guns ‘n Roses. Niina’s vocals are great and her other song, Candy Love, is my favorite vocal song on the soundtrack. Rainbow Highway by Rie Tanaka is a delightfully rocking piece of pop rock; also a good song. Blue Moon by Yuuko Gotou and Haruka Kanata by Ui Miyazaki are alright, but nothing to really write home about.
In any given Memories Off soundtrack, the vocal themes often outshine the in-game music. But not this time. I thought the in-game music was pretty strong and some of Abo’s strongest efforts. This is Abo fare consisting of layered, poppy synths and strong piano pieces, but it’s good Abo fare with a healthy amount of presence. If you are as much a Takeshi Abo fan as I am, you will love this soundtrack.
Disc 1 consists mostly of character themes, and in almost any given game, the character themes are my favorite pieces. Each girl has two themes, one normal and one melancholy, and my personal favorites were Ririsu’s themes: Powerful Kitten and Fabrication. He even revisits classic Memories Off themes in tracks 15 and 16 that I found to be beautiful and nostalgic piano pieces.
Disc 2 has most of the event themes and most of the vocal themes I commented on earlier. Event and scene music is usually meant to capture the slice-of-life nature of the genre so they usually don’t have as much presence as the character themes. In this case, these themes had presence. Very few were bouncy and poppy. Most pieces were downtempo and more melancholy, which is not what I initially expect from Memories Off. I liked it. I also liked the couple of tense pieces that would not be out of place in an Infinity series title. In short, disc 2 is pretty strong as well.
I am a fan of both Memories Off and Takeshi Abo, and have therefore listened to a lot of those soundtracks. And I must say, T-wave may be one of Abo’s most powerful soundtracks to date. I felt that a lot of the piece, particularly the piano pieces in disc 2, outshined even the best of the vocal themes. I thoroughly enjoyed this soundtrack and definitely think it’s worth checking out.
