Certain music sometimes leave such a strong imprint during key moments of your life that they come to define time, memory and place for you.

Every Little Thing is that for me. Their first CD “Everlasting” blew me away, especially Kaori’s voice. I was used to Cantopop CDs that usually have a few good tracks on each CD at most (I guess American CDs aren’t that different). Rare are the CDs where every track is solid, if not great. And it wasn’t just that almost every track was enjoyable to listen to, it was that they had such a fresh and distinct sound.

But it wasn’t until their second album that they had a song that came to define an era for me.

It’s hard to pick one song, and even this one song, As Time Goes By, has several brilliant versions.

It’s hard to express what this song means for me. It disappears on me at times. I cannot remember the last time I listened to this song. It’s a relic of the pre-iPod era. iPods have drastically changed the way we listen to music, making songs much more persistent, I believe. You don’t lose track of certain songs as much, except for the category of songs you were obsessively listening to before you had an iPod and for some reason never bothered to transfer them.

It was 1998. I started discovering my own music, what I liked, what did not work for me. Strong memories of my first girlfriend. Of having a place for myself, living on my own. Of spreading out my own wings, so convinced and so ready to take on the world.

So convinced, and so fragile at the same time. Growing stronger, as time goes by. But at what cost? Something that is nevertheless inevitable. We leave behind the connections with people we once cared deeply about, intensely shared years of your life with, and whose presence still leaves imprints on who you are and how you remember yourself. The stories we willl tell.

And Every Little Thing will provide the soundtrack for one important chapter of my life. Enjoy.