- September 2, 2026
- 05:45 PM
Bingkai Karya – I Don’t Like Mondays. is set to release its sixth studio album, ‘FRIDAY’, on September 25, 2026, marking a major new chapter for the band after a decade of building its distinctive sound. The 14-track album features an unprecedented seven guest collaborators, bringing together artists from different genres and generations while expanding the group’s signature Tokyo City Pop sound in its boldest collaborative project to date.
The announcement follows the band’s recent appearance at NIPPON HAKU BANGKOK 2026, where they also connected with Thai acts Scrubb and ETC. band. That spirit of creative connection carries directly into ‘FRIDAY’, which features GAN (Takanori Iwata), Taku Takahashi of m-flo, claquepot, NAOTO of ORANGE RANGE, GeG, ZEN-LA-ROCK, and SHO-SENSEI!!.
At the heart of the album is “1989,” one of its most personal collaborations. Vocalist YU joins his childhood friend, actor and musician Takanori Iwata, credited as GAN, for their first-ever performance together. Produced by GeG, the track was co-written by the two artists and distills more than 30 years of friendship into a single song.
Elsewhere, “GENIUS” features a guest verse from ZEN-LA-ROCK with production by NAOTO of ORANGE RANGE, while dance-driven track “ODORE” brings together SHO-SENSEI!! and producer Taku Takahashi. The album also completes a personal creative circle with a self-cover of “DON’T WANNA DIE,” a song YU originally wrote for Hiromitsu Kitayama in 2019 and now performs himself for the first time, seven years later.
Of the album’s 14 tracks, five are newly recorded, while nine revisit previously released singles dating back to “jealous.” Ahead of the album’s release, “1989” will arrive with an official music video on September 7, followed by “ODORE” on September 16.
‘FRIDAY’ arrives amid growing momentum across Asia. The band’s 2025 tour across six mainland Chinese cities sold out all 5,500 tickets, while its Strawberry Music Festival appearances drew a combined audience of 60,000 people. More recently, the TOXIC ASIA TOUR 2026 took the group through Singapore, Taipei, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Seoul.
Following the album’s release, I Don’t Like Mondays. will launch the FRIDAY MOOD JAPAN TOUR 2026, an 11-date tour across eight cities beginning in Sapporo on October 3 and concluding at Zepp DiverCity, Tokyo, on December 5. With ‘FRIDAY’, the band looks back on a decade of defining its own sound while opening the door to a broader creative future.
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