Landmark is the seventh studio album by the Japanese rock band Asian Kung-Fu Generation, released on September 12, 2012.
History Recording of the album began after March 2011, when the band's nationwide tour for Magic Disk was interrupted by the Tōhoku earthquake. Gotoh stated that he had been planning to leave the band after the tour and the recording of Landmark. Whilst recording the album, the band members did believe that they would not continue after its production, however they were able to reconcile and finish the recording with the assistance of their support members (Iwasaki, Mihara, Ueda) at the time. Gotoh also confirmed that if the tour hadn't been cancelled due to the earthquake, he would have left the band.
In July 2012, shortly after their 2012 Nano-Mugen Festival, the title and release date of the album were announced, along with a 22-show nationwide tour in support of the album.
On August 2, Gotoh claimed that the album "is a masterpiece" via Twitter.
On August 8, the album art was revealed and credited to Yusuke Nakamura, a long time art collaborator with the band. The track list was also confirmed, revealing that "All Right Part 2" will be the second song to appear on both a Nano-Mugen Compilation and a studio album (the first being "Blackout", which appeared on the first Nano-Mugen Compilation as well as Fanclub.) "N2" was previously released on the "Marching Band" single as a b-side, similar to three tracks on Surf Bungaku Kamakura.
On August 28, the song "Bicycle Race" was first played on "School of Lock", a segment on a radio station in Tokyo. The music video for the song was released on September 7.
Two different limited editions of the album were released, with one including an LP version of the album, and the other a compilation DVD of songs performed at both a 2011 Nano-Mugen festival concert, and a 2012 Best Hit AKG concert.
The album became the band's first original album to be made available for purchase in the United States through the iTunes store, being released on October 17.
Track listing The track list for the album was confirmed by Gotoh on his diary on August 23, 2012.
Disc 1 (CD - Landmark)
Disc 2 (Limited Edition Live DVD) All songs are from the "Best Hit AKG" concert held on February 23, 2012, except for track 8 "All right part2", recorded from the Nano-Mugen 2011 circuit.
Personnel Masafumi Gotoh - vocals, guitar, programming Kensuke Kita - guitar, vocals Takahiro Yamada - bass, vocals Kiyoshi Ijichi - drums, percussion, synthesizer
References CDJapan