ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION releases its fourth album titled World World World on March 5, so says Bounce.com, which goes on to describe the album as "edgy" and "melodious". The article says the band has expanded its sound. Perhaps — I just remember not being able to tell Sol-fa apart from Fan Club. And I actually like Sol-fa — it’s terrific workout music.
Nakamura Koji’s post-Supercar project iLL releases a new album titled Dead Wonderland on March 5, so says Bounce.com. iLL’s first album, Sound by iLL, was an entirely instrumental work, but the new album should find Nakako using his voice again, as evidenced by his last single, "Call my name".
Bounce also reports the release of the Complete single collection by the brilliant green on Feb. 20. The collection includes all the singles the band has so far released, including two new songs. A first-run special edition includes a DVD covering the same ground. the brilliant green’s newest song, "Ash Like Snow", serves as the opening theme for a new Gundam series.
Billboard reports R.E.M. has turned up the guitars on its next album, Accelerate. Nine years ago, the band titled its first post-Bill Berry album Up, and it was anything but. Accelerate sounds like another chance for a mistitled effort. As trusted a source as Billboard can be — that’s you snickering right? — I don’t think I’ll believe R.E.M. has kicked the dreary thing till I hear it.
If I’m wrong, I probably won’t drop money on a CD — I’ll settle for digital (if it shows up on Amazon.) If I’m right, there’s always the I.R.S. back catalog to explore.
Furukawa Miki releases a new single on Feb. 20, 2008 titled "Candy Girl," so says Bounce.com. The song is a collaboration with the Candy Stripper clothing brand, which will tie in with the single’s cover art. The article describes the song as having a catchy guitar riff with coquettish vocals by Furukawa. (I think that’s what it says.) Furukawa’s previous single, "Psycho America", was released in March 2007.
By the way, this photo of Furukawa? Really freaks me out.
Utada Hikaru is scheduled to release a new single, "HEART STATION/Stay Gold", on Feb. 20, 2008, so says Oops! Music. "Stay Gold" was used as the commercial music for Kaou Hair Care. Her official site also mentions that a new album is arriving in the spring. I didn’t know this tidbit, but Utada is also featured on a single by American R&B singer Ne-Yo, titled "Do You".
I don’t usually start paying attention to the year in music till it reaches the second quarter. The release schedule usually needs three months before it starts churning out notable releases. It seems on this side of the Pacific Ocean, that pattern pretty much holds true.
On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, the first quarter of 2008 is quite packed, not so much with big names but with names familiar to readers of this site. I’m not sure the Hamasaki Ayumi and Utada Hikaru fans would care about comebacks from Kicell and Oblivion Dust, but I’m thinking those are going to be my first purchases of the new year.
Of all the artists I would never imagine sounding "more Jesus and Mary Chain than the Jesus and Mary Chain", it would be the Magnetic Fields. But that’s exactly what the Fields’ headmaster Stephin Merritt promises with the band’s new album, Distortion, coming out on Jan. 15, 2008. The Nonesuch blog mentions an article in Uncut which previews the album. I like the Magnetic Fields, and for a time, I bought into the 69 Love Songs hype. Honestly, that album doesn’t have a very good shelf life, and I’m not curious enough to explore the band’s catalog. This album, however, sounds intriguing.
The Nonesuch blog has been extraordinarily chatty this fall. In September, the blog had all of two posts. The following month, the floodgates opened. Sadly, I’m not terribly interested in a lot of the stuff that’s been on Nonesuch’s recent release schedule.
But I like the fact the blog seems a lot more communicative. Before last month, it just seemed to exist for the sake of being some sort of web presence.
I got an e-mail from CD Japan announcing some interesting releases. First, Sony is releasing a best collection for ACO, titled ACO BEST ~girl’s diary~. It’s a 2-CD set pretty much split between the two eras of her career. If the track listing is any indication, those early years seem to need a bit more padding than her post-absolute ego work. The album arrives on Dec. 19. Did you know ACO has a blog?
Speedstar Records recently celebrated its 15th anniversary with a concert in which artists on its rostered pair off. Cocco and Quruli, of course, brought out Singer Songer, while The Back Horn and Tsuji Ayano teamed up. Now the label has put together a compilation featuring artists who have recorded for the label. Eh? No WINO? I can’t say I’ve been very impressed with Speedstar’s more recent signings, but this site owes a lot of its content to Speestar artists — Cocco, UA, Quruli, Kicell, the Back Horn …
I always wondered what happened to Kicell. At some point, I noticed the Speedstar web site put the band in its artist archives, which is an indirect way of saying they were dropped from the label. Now comes word from Bounce.com that Kicell is releasing its first new album in 2 1/2 years on Jan. 23, 2008.
The album, titled magic hour, contains 12 tracks and will be released on Kakuba Rhythm, which includes Sakerock and Your Song Is Good on its roster. A preview will be available from the later half of November till the beginning of December at a special website to be determined.
Bounce.com posted three articles today announcing new album releases by Yaida Hitomi, Oblivion Dust and Quruli in 2008. Yaida’s new studio album is schedule for March, while the Quruli release, which is a live album, is expected in February. Oblivion Dust starts things off with the Jan. 23 release of its newest album in six years. The band originally split up in 2001 but announced a new album was in the works at a reunion show. Titles for all three releases have not yet been determined.