Faylan to rock us with best album to commemorate tenth anniversary!

Japanese pop-rock vocalist Faylan will rock us with a best album to commemorate her tenth anniversary in the music industry. Titled mind as ROCK! , the album will release July 24. Faylan is famous for many theme songs; she has contributed to anime such as Break Blade, Canaan, Girls Bravo, Future Diary, and many more. mind as ROCK! will be released in a four-disc set: 3 CDs and a Blu-ray featuring the promotional video for the album. The track listing and cover are currently TBA. In the meantime, you can pre-order your copy on CDJapan here and check out Faylan’s promotional video for her famous song “Blood teller” below:

Izumikawa Sora soars with second best album after thirteen years!

Japanese vocalist, voice actress (seiyuu), songwriter, producer, and composer Izumikawa Sora announced her second best album Sorabest 2 thirteen years after the release of her first best album Sorabest (released April 2006). Sorabest 2 will be released July 24 and will consist of twelve tracks, one of which a cover of UNISON SQUARE GARDEN’s “絵の具” (“E no Gu; paint”), which is also included on a fifteenth anniversary tribute album dedicated to the band. Izumikawa Sora will also appear as a guest at the special event for UNISON SQUARE GARDEN held at Diamond Hall in Aichi May 13 for their 「fun time HOLIDAY 7」 anti-van event. Check out the track listing below along with the promotional video for Time Capsule!

01. Plastic City
02. メインステージ (Main Stage)
03. Fly
04. 碧 (Ao; Moth)
05. message
06. 黄昏ゆく (Tasogare yuku; Yellow-ish)
07. リピートブライトデイ (Repeat Bright Day)
08. OH! Sunny Day
09. タイムカプセル（tribute ver.）(Time Capsule)
10. 願い (Negai; Wish)
11. はじまりの音（ね）(Hajimari no Oto ne; Sound of Beginning, right?)
12. 絵の具（r-r ver.） (E no Gu; paint)

Koda Kumi brings us back with re(LIVE) tour 2019!

Japanese veteran pop vocalist and queen of live Koda Kumi announced via her FanClub, website, and Instagram her 2019 hall tour. She will bring fans something very special with this tour, which will bring back 2007’s “Black Cherry” and 2013’s “JAPONESQUE”. Kuu-chan will show us how she has evolved over the years with re(LIVE) starting September 14 with “Koda Kumi Live Tour 2019 re(LIVE) ~Black Cherry~” and “Koda Kumi Live Tour 2019 re(LIVE) ~JAPONESQUE~”! Pre-sale tickets will become available May 21 while general admission tickets will become available May 27. Tour dates and venue information will be released at a later date. Check out the promotional image below to get hyped!

LiSA sings about high school life as she teams up with Kirin Lemon!

In a surprised twist, popular beverage company Kirin dropped its new CM featuring popular vocalist LiSA in its “Kirin Lemon Tribute” campaign with her rendition of the song "透明なままでゆけ" ("Tomeina mamade yuke”) on its official YouTube channel.

The CM features a scene of a male high school student hanging out with members of the basketball club interspersed with scenes of LiSA singing in a classroom. Dubbing this CM Natsu, Aitsura Story 2, Kirin took a different approach this year in designing its CM by having it being congruent to Miyakawa-kun’s Kaze wo Kiretara CM that aired last month. In comparison to LiSA’s version it had the love interest of the student as the center focus of the CM.

Check out both versions of Kirin Lemon’s CMs in the videos below! 

Kiki Asakura announces hiatus from activities with Tsubaki Factory!

After taking number four in the Oricon Charts with their latest single “Oh No Ono”, five-member idol group Tsubaki Factory’s Kiki Asakura announced that she will be taking a break from activities—starting immediately. Asakura stated that she was diagnosed with lumbar disk herniation—which, in layman’s terms, means a spinal injury—and was told to take a hiatus from her work as an idol as soon as possible. 

This news broke just in the middle of Tsubaki Factory’s live tour which Asakura will unfortunately not continue with. She said that she feels bad disappointing her fellow group members but will do her best in her rehabilitation and “will be back better then ever”!

We at Ongaku To You wish Asakura a speedy recovery and hope to see her back onstage soon.