''Humania'' is the fourth studio album by the Japanese rock band

Nico Touches the Walls Nico Touches the Walls (stylized as NICO Touches the Walls) was a Japanese rock band formed in 2004. The band members were: Mitsumura Tatsuya, Sakakura Shingo, Furumura Daisuke & Tsushima Shotaro. In the same year, they won the Lotte Prize at the ...

, released on December 7, 2011, nine months after their previous album ''

Passenger A passenger (also abbreviated as pax) is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. The ...

''. The album contains their latest hits, such as "

Te o Tatake is the ninth single by Japanese rock band Nico Touches the Walls, released on August 17, 2011, from their fourth studio album " Humania". The single was announced on their final show of the tour called " Tour 2011 Passenger: We Are Passionate Me ...

" (featured on

LISMO LISMO is an online music service provided by au, a Japanese mobile phone brand run by KDDI, a Japanese telecommunication company. This service uses a mobile phone as a music player. This service was introduced on January 19, 2006, and the service ...

commercial), "Endless Roll" (theme song from the film ''Switch o Osu Toki'') and "Bicycle" (featured in the drama ''11 Nin mo iru!''). The album was also released in a limited edition with two discs (CD+DVD). The DVD which comes with the limited edition has a full acoustic live session, titled "Nico Touches the Walls Acoustic Sessions: ''Akotachi to Yonde Mite''".

Releases and promotion

The song "

" was featured in the

commercial before its release. After that, the band has the song "Endless Roll" featured in the movie "Switch o Osu Toki" released on September 17, 2011. The song was written by the bassist Shingo Sakakura, according to him, the music conveys a sense of hope that referencing back to the story."Endless Roll" was available for digital downloads through mobile phones as a digital single from the album. "Bicycle" was a theme song for the comedy home drama "11 nin mo iru", aired in October 2011 by

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as (also known as EX and and stylized as TV asahi), is a television station that is owned and operated by the subsidiary of certified broadcasting holding company , itself controlled by The Asahi Shimbun Compan ...

. As "Endless Roll", the song was also available for digital download on October 21, as digital single.

Music videos

Three music videos were made from the album: The first one, for the single "

", released on July 10. For "Endless Roll" a promotional video was released on September 7, 2011. Only a short one-minute version was uploaded on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. It shows Mitsumura walking in a tunnel in the same direction as the light behind him with some effects of lights on his face. Their next promotional video was "Bicycle". On November 11, the video was released and first aired on

Space Shower TV is a Japanese music television channel operated by Space Shower Networks, Inc. The company is headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The channel launched at 6:00 on December 1, 1989. The idea behind establishing Space Shower TV was to create a special ...

in Japan. Later it was also uploaded on YouTube, but only for Japanese viewers. It shows the band in motion pictures, while singing the song in a large empty field, where the camera gives an idea of a bicycle around them.

Track listing

Limited edition

Chart position

The album debuted at number ten on

Oricon Chart , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nove ...

, the band's first top ten album.

Tour

To promote the album, the band announced a nationwide tour for January 2012, called "Tour2012Humania". It was a 10-stop tour, that started at Yokohama Blitz on January 13, and ended at Zepp Sendai on February 25, but later, after seven dates of "Humania Tour" was sold out, the band announced five additional performances called "Ground of Humania", finishing the tour at Naha Central Hall on March 25. Information for tickets pre-orders were included in their single "

", released on August 17.

References

External links

Nico Touches the Walls official website

Official Twitter Page
{{Authority control 2011 albums Nico Touches the Walls albums Japanese-language albums Sony Music albums