Is BACK-ON’s first full album called “Yes!!!”?

Rumours that BACK-ON might be releasing their first full album this year have been floating around since earlier this year, when the various online record companies posted an ‘Untitled’ album by BACK-ON due out on the penultimate day of July. However, 30th July came and went, and news from the band during the summer were really just day-to-day thoughts from their official blog.

Then came September, and the revelation that the other half of the mysterious new group BAReeeeeeeeeeN were in fact BACK-ON, and since then, the band has experienced a huge surge of popularity. So much so, that at their first public performance after the release of 足跡 (Ashiato) at Shibuya Boxx on October 9th, the venue was packed out! We found out about this from the official ‘report’ on Back-on.com, which was accompanied by the launch of their official photo gallery, featuring more than a dozen photos from the gig!

There are more photos available at the link above, but perhaps more importantly… we had the very first hint in the last line of the report that the full album really is forthcoming, this time on the new rumoured date of November 12th 2008!

So what do we know about this potential new album? If the Japan-base online CD retail companies like Amazon.jp, CDJapan and HMV.jp are anything to go by, this is the jacket cover of the brand new album:

We also find out that the new album will probably be called Yes!!!, and that it should be priced at ¥ 2,600, which is around $27 USD or £17 GBP. Apparently there will be a total of 10 tracks, including 足跡 (Ashiato) aka. Footprints and color from the BAReeeeeeeeeeN debut single, which really shouldn’t be a surprise, given that the cover design really does scream (to me) GReeeeN!!! What do you think? Let us know on the Forums, if not in the comments below!

The supposed 8 other tracks on the album are currently unknown, but it seems BACK-ON will definitely be including all the title tracks from their singles so far, which presumably means songs such as (in reverse chronological order) –

• Sands of time
• flower
• Butterfly
• BLAZE LINE
• NEW WORLD
• Chain

and many more of their crowd favourites. One site even mentioned ヒカリサスホウ (Hikari Sasuhou), which was a huge hit with the fans at their October 9th Sonic Concorde gig, enough to make BACK-ON perform it twice!

Seeing as it’s one of my most favourite songs, I think I can understand why ;) And as if the photo extravaganza above wasn’t enough, look at the promotional photo we found on Amazon.jp!

Kenji03 is wearing glasses!!! That’s enough to make any fan-girl go KYAAAAAA! (I’ve borrowed this from someone, sorry!) It’s a pity the photo isn’t larger, but if you do want a good close up, I can certainly recommend watching a new video uploaded by gangangan03, where BACK-ON (in their new outfits!) introduce 足跡 (Ashiato), but unfortunately the broadcasting giants appear to have waved their copyright flag, and not only have they removed the video, but gangangan03‘s Youtube account has mysteriously been suspended! It’s a HUGE HUGE blow for BACK-ON fans imho, and I really hope the account will be re-instated soon as it is a gold mine of media of the band. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

I would like to drop in a tantalizing hint “タネウマ★DJ ICHIKAWA from Volta Master remix” at this point, but let’s leave it for the next post and move back to the main topic:

Will BACK-ON‘s first full album be called Yes!!!

Will it really be released on November 12th 2008?

That really remains to be seen, but please keep checking back here for more news!

Only 3 more days to go until the release of “Sands of time”

Are you excited? I can hardly wait! With the days are crawling by so slowly, it doesn’t help that I know I have to wait up to an additional week to receive the pre-ordered Sands of time CD! :)

If you’re wondering where to buy your copy, we’ve done a little bit of research on a few major online retailers who are stocking the single, and have provided a table below for your general reference. For the sake of convenience, we’re listing prices in USD (even though I personally live in the UK) as it makes it far easier to compare the ‘true’ costs.

*Prices originally listed in Japanese Yen have been converted using the Interbank rate listed on OANDA on May 18th 2008. These are annotated with a ‘~’.
*The shipping costs are for a standard Air Mail delivery (not EMS) to the US which usually means a delivery time of around a week (7 days) except when this is not available.

Although this is only a very crude guide, there is some variation in price so it’s a good idea to shop around. I have only made purchases from Play-Asia, Yesasia and HMV (Japan) [we’re not affiliated with any retailers!] and can’t complain about their service at all. For CDJapan, I have corresponded with the support team by email, and have found them to be very helpful.

Hopefully some will find this comparison table useful. :) If there are any errors or mistakes, of if anyone can suggest any alternative sources, please let us know in the comments!

p/s: We’ve just updated the Discography section with the (reported) track times of songs from the new single!

flower and Butterfly singles released (samples available)!

Back-on‘s brand new singles flower and Butterfly were both released to much fanfare yesterday! :D There has been a flurry of activity at Back-on’s Official Blog (which has a new layout) with plenty of photos and comments!

This is particularly in response to the original blog post by Back-on‘s staff asking for feedback and comments, where I believe Back-on staff promised that comments would receive replies if they posted within a certain timeframe, and Teeda for instance, has made an amazing effort to say hi to everyone!

You might be interested in knowing that both Teeda and Kenji03 have stopped writing in their own blogs, and that Back-on’s Official Blog is now their main blogging platform, so it’s a fantastic resource for interesting pictures and videos from the band!

We’ll try and give you more information about these posts in the future, but Back-on did include some photos of the singles in the shops (HMV for instance) that you can see below:

They also took pictures with some lucky CD staff member(s)!

Last but not least, if you’re wondering what the songs sound like, we’ve been able to listen to samples of each track on both CDs (courtesy of Hmv.co.jp) which we are now making available below as a mix-zip file below! So included 45 second samples are:

• flower (Myspace preview) – as it’s better quality
• ZERO
• Colors
• Butterfly (Myspace preview)
• Spark
• DRIVE (Shutokou Remix)

Please bear in mind that these are song samples so the quality is unfortunately not very good (aside from flower and Butterfly previews from Back-on’s Myspace, which were both made available in a previous post) but hopefully it is enough to give everyone a quick preview! Personally, aside from the title tracks, I’m loving the sample of ZERO and Colors! Which songs do you like?

BLAZE LINE/a day dreaming… single released today!

BLAZE LINE/a day dreaming… is out today! The single cover featuring Teeda is shown below and clicking on it will take you to an even larger picture in the Gallery.

The tracklisting includes: