Mucc (ムック) released their first single of the year, Sora to Ito (空と糸), not long ago in January and their new album is on its way. Their last album, Shion (志恩), was released just a year ago, so they’re kind of fast making songs, albums and such — but that’s not a problem if you happen to be a fan.

The band’s new album, Kyuutai (球体, orb) will hit shelves on the 4th of March so we don’t have to wait too much longer. Here’s a little recap about Mucc in general and their newest two singles.

So, Sora to Ito is the most recent material from the band. It came in two prints as usual, a regular and a limited edition (cleary to harass the fans). Besides the title song there are Canary (カナリア) and Kikanetsu (気化熱) — one of them on the regular and the other on the limited edition. Both of them are way “Mucc-ier” than Sora to Ito.

Canary has a very cool popping bassline and funky guitar parts which sometimes turn to heavy riffs from Miya (not too heavy though). It’s kind of an upbeat song, just like Kikanetsu. If I ever had to compare it to another song from Mucc, I would propably pick Flight (フライト), because it has a similar feeling to it. The title song, Sora to Ito is just simply good. It’s not their best stuff, but its still pleasant for the ears.

Their second most recent single is Ageha (アゲハ). The title song is OK; I think that they wanted to create something epic with this, but it didn’t quite turn out. Nonetheless it’s a very cool song. The change of pace in the beggining of the song from a mellow melody to (actually) heavy riffs and drums is awesome. The solo from Miya (ミヤ) is a bit out of place and pace, but it’s crazy enough to be good. Tatsurou’s (逹瑯) vocals are top notch. He just gets better and better from release to release. It isn’t anything like Zetsubou (絶望) for instance or like one of their earlier songs, but its still good in another way.

On the b-side of Ageha are Aoi Mori (青い森) and Concrete 082 (コンクリート082). Again, I must say that I like these much more than the title song. Aoi Mori is heavier — like the standard stuff from them — but there isn’t much happening apart from the very good bassline, so lets keep moving. Concrete 082 is the kind of song that the band probably loved to record and loves to play. I can cleary hear it in the funky bassline from Yukke, in Tatsurou’s harmonica solo, in the crazy chromatic-ish guitar part from Miya, and of course the drumming of Satochi (Satoち) is indispensable. A perfect song, perhaps.

With their upcoming album Kyuutai the band’s intention is cleary not to produce another Shion-like album, which is a good thing because it was a bit chaotic and too experimental-ish. But they clearly won’t go back to their early days to record another Homura Uta (葬ラ謳) also. Those good-crazy-raw-Mucc-times are definitely over, because the sound of their latest material differs from these two albums quite a lot.

It’s up to you to decide if you like this new kind of Mucc or not. I’m happy to say that I’m content with the band’s effort to create something totally new and they are on a very good track to achieve this goal. I can’t even think of a band that resembles Mucc in any way.

Lastly, I’m way more eager to hear their new album than I was back before the release of Shion. Maybe it’s a sign!

Check out the PV for Sora to Ito: