Quick Impressions
Honey Lemon Soda‘s soundtrack is the very essence of soft, tinkly, romantic piano music. If those particular musical descriptors put you off in general, I highly suggest avoiding this soundtrack. There’ll be no pleasure in it for you.
I find this to be my kind of jam. Composer Akira Kosemura serves up the type of piano music that hits at my soft spots. For one, the motif in “Honey Lemon Soda – Main Theme” is an ear-worm and a particularly good one at that. In its opening, the melody teeters between hope and despair, an illustration of the anime’s heroine’s lonely circumstances. The middle section sees a steady progression upwards, as though it were expressing a desire to break from that tragic past into a better future.
Overall, the motif is packed with emotion, presented subtly and beautifully in the main theme and elsewhere. I loved, for instance, how it combines piano and strings in “Overflowing”, and, of course, in “Uka & Kai” where the theme is initially tentative. But as the piece continues, its tone grows more hopeful, right in line with the eponymous couple’s blossoming relationship.
Beyond that theme, this soundtrack offers melodies as effervescent as, well, a honey lemon soda. “The World in Colors” exemplifies this through transient high notes that bubble gently along. quietly sparkling like the aforementioned soda. But when the music departs from the quieter, cozier fare or the more emotive pieces, the quality is still decent. “Dark Past” and “Blank Mind” are an anomaly because they are more on the atmospheric side. But others, like “More Intense” and “Into the Dark” have a quiet, lingering anxiety to them. Tracks like those won’t jump out immediately, but those who take the time to give it repeated listens will find a lot of intricacies to appreciate.