Angela Aki is back — with a new single out, a new tour and her first album in 13 years

Angela Aki is back y’all. And not on her ‘music for stage plays’ shit. But her pop star shit. She has a brand new single out titled “Pledge”, a tour hitting in July and she is working on a brand new album of original material — her first in THIRTEEN YEARS.

I regulary listen to Angela’s music and think ‘When is she going to release a new album!?’. And almost as though Angela heard my thoughts, she provided the [turns and looks into the camera] answer.

Angela’s single “Pledge” is out now, which comes a little over a year after her comeback-kinda single “Kono Sekai no Achikochi ni” at the tailend of 2023.

“Pledge” is a really nice song. It’s typical Angela shit. No bold swings. Nothing really new. But I think familiarity is a good way to go for an artist like her, who has largely been away from releasing music as a pop star. Listening to “Pledge” feels comforting. And I appreciate that nothing of Angela’s sound feels like it’s been gutted or changed to better fit in the landscape of today, and that she still had a very clear sense of her musical identity — something many artists who debuted in the early 2000s of the Heisei era struggle with now.

Angela will also be kicking off Tour 2025 -Eleven- in July — the name being a reference to how long it’s been since she last held a solo show, which was 11 years ago. The Eleven tour will feature two types of shows — one which is just Angela and her piano and another which features a band. I’m not sure what the selection process was of which date would get which type of performance, or whether the venue or maybe even the logistics determined that. But I think it’s a cool idea. to mix things up. We’ve seen Fujii Kaze do similar things with his tours. Either way, fans will be getting a performance from Angela.

• Monday, 21 July - Tokushima Awagin Hall (Tokushima Prefecture Folk Culture Center)
• Thursday, 24 July - Miyagi Sendai Gigs
• Saturday, 26th July - Kumamoto Castle Hall Main Hall 🎹
• Wednesday, 20 July - Ishikawa Kanazawa City Culture Hall 🎹
• Friday, 1 August - Aichi Comtec Portbase
• Saturday, 2 August - Okayama Okayama Arts Creation Theater Hallenova Grand Theater
• Monday, 4 August - Hiroshima Kure Shinkin Bank Hall 🎹
• Thursday, 7 August - Osaka Festival Hall
• Friday, 8 August - Fukuoka Fukuoka Civic Hall Main Hall
• Sunday, 10 August - Tokyo Tokyo International Forum Hall A

Angela also confirmed in an Instagram post that she is working on a brand new studio album, which would mark her first studio album in 13 years. I cannot believe that Blue was the last album she put out. I still play “Aiueo” regularly. A memory I have which is forever tied to the song, is riding the night bus alone to the airport in 2012. It was the only song I was listening to the entire journey — looking out of the window and staring into the black of night, feeling my music video / film scene fantasy. And I remember this vividly, because I missed my flight to Japan that day.

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💿 Album reviews: Answer | Songbook | Blue