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Newtown is the first extended play by Japanese band Folks, released on February 12, 2014. It was the band's first major label release under Ki/oon Music.

Background and development
Folks first formed in 2013 when former Galileo Galilei members Fumito Iwai and Kazumasa Noguchi moved back to their birthplace of Hokkaido to start a band. Iwai and Noguchi asked former Guild member Yoshitomo Kobayashi to join their band, and they moved to Sapporo, renting a house with Iwai's older brother Katsutoshi Iwai and his friend Masatsugu Takahashi, who later joined Folks. The group based themselves at their hometown of Eniwa, Hokkaido, and released their first extended play Take Off in March 2013, and performed at the Rising Sun Rock Festival, on August 17, 2013.

Writing and production
Newtown was recorded in Sapporo, at Hit Studio and Geimori Studio. The album features four of the five songs on Take Off (the song "Gaga" was retitled "You're Right"), along with three new compositions. Fumito Iwai is the main songwriter and vocalist for the album, writing every track except "River," which was written and sung by Katsutoshi Iwai. The song "Good-bye, Friends" was composed by all members of Folks, but featured lyrics written by Fumito Iwai. Their self-produced 2012 extended play Take Off was produced and arranged by Fumito Iwai alone, but Newtown was created from the advice and response of all five members of the band. The arrangements of Take Off songs were changed after the band performed them in front of live audiences. Fumito Iwai had never considered what the songs would sound like live, so experimented by changed the songs' percussion balance and tempo, and created live arrangements for the songs. The song "Everything Is Alone" was described as having an "updated funk sound" by Fumito Iwai, and was a mix of everything the band members wanted to express in a song. Tatsuki Masuko, member of Japanese instrumental band Rovo, was brought in to help mix and mastered Newtown. This was compared to Take Off, which Fumito Iwai mixed all by himself.

The title Newtown refers to the planned community of Megumino in Eniwa, which is a motif of the release. The cover and artist promotional photos were taken in Eniwa by photographer Yoshiharu Ota, as well as the music video for "Everything Is Alone." The video was shot at the members' homes in Megumino.

Promotion and release
"Everything Is Alone" was the lead song promoting the album. The song was released to radio stations and received a music video, which was a power play video on music video station Space Shower TV in January 2014. The song received minor requests to radio stations on a national level in January 2014,  however was extremely popular in Hokkaido, being the number one requested song at radio stations for January 2014. The song peaked at number 81 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Airplay Chart. The song was chosen as the February ending theme song for Nagoya radio station Zip-FM's Spice Up weekend morning radio show.

The band performed their first live outside of Hokkaido at the Tokyo Tsutaya O-West on January 20, 2014. The band held their first live in Eniwa just after the extended play's release, on February 15, 2014 at the Eniwa Musōkan, where Fumito Iwai's high school band Guild first performed.

Critical reception
Critical reception to Newtown was positive. Akihiro Okumura from What's In? was impressed with the "overseas resonance" of the band, likening Folks to indie rock musicians like Passion Pit and Mumford and Sons, as well as having the approach of James Blake. Okumura was very impressed by the "lyrical vocal lines" of Fumito Iwai and Kazutoshi Iwai, and likened them to the 1980s city pop movement in Japanese music. Saori Kishiba, a reviewer for Skream!, likened the band to Animal Collective and Arcade Fire, praising the "dreamy pop sound" and polished arrangements of songs on Newtown.

Personnel
Personnel details were sourced from Newtown's liner notes booklet.

Folks


 * All members – arrangement, production
 * Yoshitomo Kobayashi – guitar, synthesizer, percussion, chorus
 * Fumito Iwai – vocals (#1-4, #6-7), guitar


 * Katsutoshi Iwai – guitar, vocals (#5)
 * Kazumasa Noguchi – bass, chorus
 * Masatsugu Takahash – programming, synthesizer, chorus

Technical, production and imagery


 * Yuri Furukawa – A&R chief
 * Noriyuki Kikuchi – A&R
 * Kenichi Koga – recording engineer at Geimori Studio (#1, #3, #5-7)
 * Tatsuki Masuko – mixing, mastering
 * Yoshiharu Ota – art direction, photography
 * Naonori Sakamoto – assistant recording engineer at Geimori Studio (#1, #3, #5-7)
 * Hirano Tanaka – art direction, design
 * Naoya Tsubakihara – support drum, drum technician
 * Hirokazu Tsuruha – recording engineer at Hit Studio