If It's Love, I Know

"If you're going to take it all, take it all the way to the end-take everything, even my hope. I can't bear to barely scrape by without you."
(From "Illusion")

Izumi Makura, who made a huge impact on the music scene with her two works, *Graduation and the Drowsiness Before It* and *My Room, My Stage*, has completed her first new album in a year and a half, *If It's Love, I Know*.

Even leading up to this release, she has been the subject of constant buzz: her collaborative tracks with mabanua and Yoko Kanno were featured as insert songs in the anime *Space Dandy*; she collaborated with Kintan no Tassuketsu and Cherry Brown; and "balloon," from *Graduation and the Drowsiness Before It*, was used as an insert song in the movie *Terrace House*.

Centered on the theme of "love," this album features candid lyrics that pose questions-sometimes gently, sometimes harshly.

Led by main producer nagaco, a lineup of producers coming together for the first time-including Mitsu the Beats, Olive Oil, LIBRO, and Shokuhin Matsuri-powerfully supports and enriches these lyrics.