The new album seems to be a ballad compilation.

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/pictures/l/02/46/ESCL-4008.jpg

バラー丼 (Balladon)
Release date: 2012/12/19

1. 風が吹いている (イギリスにて録音した新バージョン) (Kaze ga Fuiteiru (Newly recorded in the UK Version))
2. 風が吹いている (Kaze ga Fuiteiru)
3. 歩いていこう (Aruite Ikou)
4. ありがとう (Arigatou)
5. 明日へ向かう帰り道 (Ashita e Mukau Kaerimichi)
6. YELL
7. ふたり (Futari)
8. 心の花を咲かせよう (Kokoro no Hana wo Sakaseyou)
9. プラネタリウム (Planetarium)
10. 帰りたくなったよ (Kaeritakunatta yo)
11. 茜色の約束 (Akaneiro no Yakusoku)
12. コイスルオトメ (Koisuru Otome)
13. SAKURA

CDJapan links for more info: Limited Edition | Regular Edition

Kinda bummed that it turns out to be a compilation, though I should have seen that coming. :| I wish we had gotten a new ballad instead of a renewed Kaze ga Fuiteiru though, the original was kinda underwhelimg and I don't think a new version is going to fix the song's problems. Other than that, pretty nice tracklisting! Certainly covers their career nicely.

Is there any difference between the editions other than that the limited apparently comes with "a muffler towel"? I'm... not even sure what that is lol.

Ikimonogakari Announces New Single "1 2 3 ~Koi ga Hajimaru~"
Source: Jpopasia

Finally new single!!!

The new single is out! What did everyone think about it?

Personally, I was disappointed with the title track. :( The titular chant was the only thing that stuck in my mind, apart from that the song was hardly interesting at all and it just feels like it drags on and on. Fortunately I really liked the b-side! The melody is really nice and the instrumentation sounds really fresh. Kiyoe's lalalas are cute lol. A great summer song!

EDIT: To add some news to this post: new single and album coming in July!

26th single Egao, out July 10th

Regular edition cover (I really like it :heart) and tracklist:
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/pictures/l/03/09/ESCL-4076.jpg
1. 笑顔 (Egao)
2. ホントウノヒビ (Hontou no Hibi)
3. 笑顔 -instrumental-
4. ホントウノヒビ -instrumental-

And 6th album should be released on July 24th, no further info available yet. Funny how the album announcement has been on their site for quite some time already, but there's not a single think about Egao's single release even though online shops already have covers, tracklist and stuff available.

More new music is coming, yay!

I hate to say about this, but I'm not sure why IG's recent single covers are quite unusual...!

Album info! Ikimonogakari's 6th album is called I (as in i, not one), has 14 tracks including all the singles (Haru Uta, Kaze ga Fuiteiru, 1 2 3 ~Koi ga Hajimaru~, Egao).

Cover:

http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/318pJsvyFJL.jpg


Tracklist:

1 笑顔　(Egao)
Lyrics & Composition: Yoshiki Mizuno, Arrangement: Seiji Kameda

2 １ ２ ３ ～恋がはじまる～ (1 2 3 ~Koi ga Hajimaru~)
Lyrics & Composition: Yoshiki Mizuno, Arrangement: Akimitsu Homma

3 ぱぱぱ～や (Papapa~ya)
Lyrics & Composition: Yoshiki Mizuno, Arrangement: Akimitsu Homma

4 恋跡 (Koiato)
Lyrics & Composition: Hotaka Yamashita, Arrangement: Yuusuke Tanaka & Takashi Kondo

5 ハルウタ (Haru Uta)
Lyrics & Composition: Hotaka Yamashita, Arrangement: Akira Eguchi, Strings Arrangement: Akira Eguchi & Tatsuya Murayama

6 マイサンシャインストーリー (My Sunshine Story ugh why did they have to spell this in katakana)
Lyrics & Composition: Hotaka Yamashita, Arrangement: Masanori Shimada

7 なんで (Nande)
Lyrics & Composition: Yoshiki Mizuno, Arrangement: Seiji Kameda

8 あしたのそら (Ashita no Sora)
Lyrics & Composition: Hotaka Yamashita, Arrangement: Akimitsu Homma

9 風乞うて花揺れる (Kaze Koute Hana Yureru)
Lyrics & Composition: Hotaka Yamashita, Arrangement: Kouichi Tsutaya

10 MONSTAR
Lyrics & Composition: Yoshiki Mizuno, Arrangement: Suzuki Daichi Hideyuki

11 恋愛小説 (Renai Shousetsu)
Lyrics & Composition: Yoshiki Mizuno, Arrangement: Seiji Kameda

12 東京 (Tokyo)
Lyrics & Composition: Kiyoe Yoshioka, Arrangement: Kouichi Tsutaya

13 風が吹いている (Kaze ga Fuiteiru)
Lyrics & Composition: Yoshiki Mizuno, Arrangement: Seiji Kameda

14 ぬくもり (Nukumori)
Lyrics & Composition: Hotaka Yamashita, Arrangement: Masanori Shimada


So glad they're including Ashita no Sora! Could have done without Kaze ga Fuiteiru though, ugh.

New album, yay !

Another album ending with Nukumori (exact hiragana ぬくもり, like miwa)...do you realize that?

So, I is out and topped the charts! What did everyone think about it? :)

Personally, not nearly as good as NEWTRAL, but good enough for me to buy the CD. The first half of the album is kind of lackluster, so many boring tracks. Thank god things start getting better from Nande onwards. I was disappointed that so many new songs were very forgetable (these would be the ones in the first half of the album), but fortunately there were many good ones too. Tokyo is my favorite of the new songs (which did not surprise me at all since apparently Kiyoe Yoshioka knows exactly how to compose songs that reduce me to goo), it's such a gorgeous ballad and I love how it starts off so quiet, I've been missing some peace and quiet in Ikimonogakari's songs in the middle off all the strings and brass stuff. Nande, MONSTAR, Kaze Koute Hana Yureru and Nukumori were also nice. I wish I liked Papapa~ya more, but I think it's trying too hard to be the new Joyful. Out of the old tracks, I still LOVE Haru Uta and Ashita no Sora, really really like Egao, don't care about 1 2 3 and have somehow come to like Kaze ga Fuiteiru (though I still think the song should be snapped in half).

Also, I have to say that the packaging for this album is awesome (at least for the CD+DVD version). I was gladly surprised to find an I-themed extra pamphlet with pictures of the band members doing stuff and an explanatory text ("I [verb]") slapped on each of them. It's adorable. I also liked how the lyrics booklet was designed to look like a web page.

At least #1 weekly!

Time for revival! New single, Love Song wa Tomaranai yo, out in just a few weeks, July 9th! About time they release some new music. (I'm just gonna link to Generasia for more information because doing more than plain text without a keyboard is a pain.)

Has anyone heard the song Ikimonogakari did for the DREAMS COME TRUE tribute album, Mirai Yosouzu II? I have, though I kinda wish I hadn't... it was exceptionally dull in a way that's making me fear for their future music. I hope this single can bring back some more optimistic thoughts.

Yeah, when was the last time I was really talking about Ikimonogakari? It's quite a long time...especially when I've been way too busy with my schoolwork and my thoughts on computers!!!

Been so long since I listened to their music, or watch their PV's. Guess I have some catching up to do.

Can't wait to see the PV for their upcoming single. :)

I dislike a lot of their ballads, I hope this new single is an upbeat one

Ikimonogakari is on a singles roll! It wasn't too long ago that they released their 28th single, double A-side Netsujou no Spectrum / Namida ga Kieru nara, and a new one is already announced! The title is GOLDEN GIRL, the release date is November 12th, the cover and tracklist are as follows:

http://www.jpopasia.com/img/album-co...wwjpo-z6sp.jpg
1. GOLDEN GIRL
2. 未来予想図Ⅱ (Mirai Yosouzu II, DREAMS COME TRUE cover)
3. GOLDEN GIRL -instrumental-

I'm afraid to say my expectations for this single are extremely low. Nothing they've released after I has done anything to me; Namida ga Kieru nara from the last single was at least decent grower material, but it hasn't latched onto me yet. However, GOLDEN GIRL is composed by Kiyoe, and I've LOVED all the tracks she's penned so far (save for the boring one from My song your song), so I have some hope. Mirai Yosouzu though... ugh, it's the single biggest disappointment this band has ever given me. x_x

Also, I've seen several sites list a new album, FUN! FUN! FANFARE!, for a December release, but there's no mention of that on Ikimono's official site. The site does have news about two unreleased songs, ジャンプ！ (Jump!) and キラリ (Kirari) though, so I think the album is coming, but their official site is just being weird again, blah.

The title track sounds interesting. Hope there isn't the same as their so many generic songs... I'm curious how will the new album turn like.
On the other note, I still have to listen to Hajimari No Uta and Newtral. Which do you recommend me first?

Have you heard a preview? I haven't seen one anywhere, I'm kinda curious about it.

Those are my two favourite Ikimono albums! I think they both have their merits:

- Hajimari no Uta has a more varied sound, the best tracks stand out more, and it contains some of their most popular songs... but also many forgettable ballads. But you can't miss Joyful, YELL, Cosmos, Tenohira no Oto, Mirai Wakusei and Ashita e Mukau Kaerimichi! I would probably recommend starting with this one.

- NEWTRAL is more upbeat, is steadier quality-wise, and also contains some great songs, but it does admittedly have a more generic sound and the tracks might blend together a little. However, it was my first album from Ikimonogakari and it got me addicted right away, so I don't really think it's a bad one to go for either. :P Also, this album definitely has a smaller emotional scale than Hajimari no Uta: it's one happy song after another, hopefully that's not a turn-off. Also also, you should totally try and find the bonus live disc, it contains some great tracks!

... But basically, whichever you start with, you're not gonna go wrong. :)

Thanks for the advices :)
I think I'll start with Hajimari No Uta.
Sorry, that's not what I wanted to say. I wanted to say that the cover looks interesting, not that the song sounds interesting - english fail XD

The song Netsujou no Spectrum was nice. Not amazing but it didn't let me indifferent. I'm waiting for this new single.

About the albums, I prefer NEWTRAL even if Hajimari no uta has pearl as YELL