Single Review: Kumi Koda – Silence

One thing about Koda Kumi; she may not always deliver on quality, but she’s gonna give you some whiplash with the music releases. We really went from a cute cover of an 80s Christmas classic, to that EDM Crazy Frog nonsense, to a beautiful piano ballad in the space of two months.

Koda Kumi’s second single of 2024 “Silence” was released on Valentine’s Day, which is pretty on brand for her. She often tends to release music around cultural holidays and the changing of seasons (something I think she should lean into far more with fully themed songs). But despite the Valentine’s Day drop, this isn’t a typical Valentine’s Day song. And that is because “Silence” is the theme song for the film Gold Boy. But even so, having watched the trailer to the film, I’m curious as to how the song fits into it at all. The trailer for Gold Boy is tense as hell, and features people getting shanked, pushed off of cliff sides, adultery and a side piece getting slapped by a housewife. The credits, I guess?

Kumi Koda – Silence | Avex Music Creative Inc.

I will say off the bat, I really like this song. I may not always think highly of Kumi Koda’s studio albums or her uptempo songs, but one thing I have always said is that Kumi is good with ballads. Ballads are where Kumi shines the brightest. They are some of her best songs and where is the most consistent. And they are also some of her best performances. Her symphonic concerts where she literally just stands on stage in a gown and sings ballads for an hour are some of her best concerts. Not all of Kumi’s ballads are great. There have certainly been some misses. But even Kumi’s worst ballad is nowhere near close to the depths of Hyrule as the likes of some of the club tracks on W Face -outside-, DNA, AND and monsteR + angeL [My Name Is…].

The simplicity of “Silence” is a nice change of pace for Kumi, even amongst her ballads. “Silence” is reminiscent of “100 no Kodoku-tachi e”, “Run” and her cover of her sister’s song “0-ji Mae no Tsunderella” – very stripped back and being led primarily by a piano, placing a highlight on Kumi’s vocal delivery. This pared down style of ballad really suits her. Because Kumi has a good enough voice and an emotive style of delivery which can carry a song, without reliance on all of the sweeping strings and dramatics in the production to carry the whole thing. But unfortunately, Kumi’s voice doesn’t sound as great on “Silence” as I would have liked. Her singing technique over the years has been incredibly inconsistent. She’s like the Japanese Alicia Keys. Sometimes she sounds great. Sometimes she sounds off. Sometimes she just sounds fine. Kumi has never been the most technical singer and I think the inconsistencies with her voice shows that she doesn’t have the foundations of a great technique and that she probably isn’t taking the best care of her voice either; which is crucial for the amount of shows that she does. Maybe doing so many shows is the reason her voice is in the state that it’s in. There are moments on “Silence” where Kumi doesn’t quite glide through the song and her vibrato sounds like it’s buffering. She sounds good enough. But I just know she could have sounded better, had she either warmed up her vocals or recorded “Silence” on a day where her voice was in better shape. Because her voice should have been the centrepiece of this song, but it’s not.

Kumi Koda – Silence | Avex Music Creative Inc.

The arrangement of “Silence” is an odd one. The song sounds beautiful. The arrangement is very understated. But it’s perhaps a bit too understated, as it completely undersells the chorus, to the point of making it feel non-existent, in stark contrast to the melody of the verses, which carry the entire song. The chorus melody is buried to the point that it takes a moment for you to hear it and latch onto it. And that is the problem. The chorus melody shouldn’t be buried. You shouldn’t have to lean forward, squint and focus to be able to hear it. The chorus also plays out like a pre-chorus, because it sounds like it’s leading into the chorus. And at the moment you expect the chorus to hit, the next verse starts. It’s really bizarre. Given the production of the song, keeping it very low key and not having the chorus swell with strings and shift the energy too much was clearly a choice. I get it. But even within the parameters of keeping the song low key and not having the chorus hit in all of the ways the chorus of a typical J-ballad does, there is still so much which could have been done to make the chorus pop. And quite frankly, I think low key shoulda been thrown out of the window if it meant the chorus would be stronger. The lack of defined chorus makes “Silence” feel like it’s just coasting on the same energy and level from start to finish. Always in a state of trying to take off, but never actually doing it.

Kumi Koda – Silence | Avex Music Creative Inc.

“Silence” is a nice change of pace for Kumi. (Even though she’ll be back to living her K-pop fantasy on some horrid sounding song by the end of the month). But this is another case of ‘This coulda been great if…’. And I can’t even say ‘I don’t understand how the lack of a chorus and progression across the song went unaddressed’ because this is Koda Kumi. So many of her songs feature stuff that I’m baffled were not addressed. But it’s really unfortunate here, because “Silence” is a good song which could have been great and set a new style of ballad for her to play around with. And there was also enough here to work with for “Silence” to become a ballad that will be remembered. But as it is, it won’t be.