Sakanaction (stylized as sakanaction, ) is the sixth studio album by Japanese band Sakanaction, released on March 13, 2013. Primarily created in recording sessions that began in September 2012 and lasted approximately four months, the album was recorded at the home of band's vocalist and songwriter, Ichiro Yamaguchi. In order to reach an audience, the band challenged themselves by creating music for commercial tie-ups and television dramas. Prior to the album's release, the band released three singles: two acting as theme songs for Japanese television dramas and another used in a commercial campaign for the design school Mode Gakuen.
Theming the album around the concept of a Möbius strip, the band separated their music into two different types: external-facing songs meant for a wide audience, and internal-facing, created as a reflection of their personal musical tastes. The theme represented the band's efforts in attempting to bridge the gap between these two song types. Yamaguchi classified each song on the album as either external or internal, except for the album's preceding single "Music", which he saw as both. The album featured a strong dance sound, influenced by the band members' current musical tastes. Electronic musician Aoki Takamasa, who had previously created remixes for the band, collaborated with Sakanaction on the primarily instrumental songs "Structure" and "Inori".
The album was primarily promoted during its release by two songs: "Aoi", an "external" song commissioned for NHK's 2013 soccer broadcasts that was promoted on radio and released exclusively on iTunes two weeks before the album, and "Inori", an "internal" song that was promoted with a music video and was released as the Inori EP, a vinyl exclusive release on June 26, 2013. From March to June 2013, the band promoted the album with the Sakanaquarium 2013 tour, including their first solely billed concert in Taiwan.
The album was their first release to debut at number one on the Japanese Oricon albums chart, and was also certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan during its first month. As of 2016, the album is the band's most commercially successful release. Critics were positive about the album, praising Sakanaction'''s stronger dance sound, however were either disappointed that there was not a greater change, or were alienated by the "internal" songs. The album was chosen as one of the general award-receiving albums for the 2014 CD Shop Awards, however did not receive one of the major awards.
Background and development
In September 2011, Sakanaction released their fifth studio album Documentaly, which had reached number two on the Japanese Oricon albums chart; the highest position achieved by the band in their career at the time. The album was strongly affected by the events of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami which had occurred in March of that year, during the promotional period for their single "Rookie". The band's vocalist and songwriter Ichiro Yamaguchi felt a new resolution to create music that would resonate with a general pop music audience, who listened to idol acts such as Girls' Generation and AKB48. As rock music was no longer a popular staple during the early 2010s in Japan, Yamaguchi felt that the reasons people listened to music had changed over time, and wanted to mix rock music with entertainment-focused music in order to give these people the type of music that they look for.
The band's personal goal for Documentaly was to achieve 100,000 copies sold and to be able to perform at the 9,000-capacity Makuhari Messe event hall. After achieving this goal, Sakanaction decided to extend this goal for their next album: 200,000 copies sold and two days performing at the Makuhari Messe. In order for the band to meet this goal, they realized they would need to reach out to a much wider audience, by agreeing to more commercial tie-ups, which they saw as a challenge for the band to do new things. Furthermore, they felt that they would need to consider a new audience: people with no prior interest in the band, who would happen to hear their music as they watched television, as well as a younger audience.
In October 2011, while the band had just begun performing their Sakanaquarium 2011 tour, the band were contacted by the promotions team of Mode Gakuen to write a commercial song for their 2012 advertisements in October 2011, This was the first time the band had been asked to write a piece of music specifically for a purpose (though songs on Documentaly had been used for commercial tie-ups, these had been organized after the songs had been completed). The band recorded the song after the tour finished, and planned to release it as a single at the beginning of 2012. However, while this was happening, the band were contacted to write a theme song for the Tsuyoshi Kusanagi drama 37-sai de Isha ni Natta Boku: Kenshui Junjō Monogatari, which disrupted their plans for the single. The theme song, "Boku to Hana", was released in May 2012, while the Mode Gakuen commercial song "Yoru no Odoriko" was released in August 2012. During the same time period, Yamaguchi was commissioned to write the song "Moment" for the Japanese boy band SMAP. Used as the theme music for the Tokyo Broadcasting System Television broadcast of the 2012 Summer Olympics, for which SMAP member Masahiro Nakai was the main sportscaster, the song was released as a single on August 1, 2012, and reached number one on Oricon's weekly singles chart.
Both "Boku to Hana" and "Yoru no Odoriko" saw commercial and critical success. After three months, "Boku to Hana" certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan, for 100,000 digital downloads to desktop computers, a milestone "Yoru no Odoriko" also achieved seven months after its release. Critics praised "Boku to Hana" as highly entertaining, noting its minimalist electro arrangement and its emotion, while "Yoru no Odoriko"'s progressive structure and trance elements were seen as expressing an essential, core identity and style of Sakanaction.
A month and a half before the album's release, the band released the single "Music", a song used as the theme song for the Yōsuke Eguchi-starring Fuji Television drama Dinner. The song was their first number one single on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, and is currently the band's most successful single in terms of physical copies sold.
Writing and production Recording
The album's main recording sessions began in September 2012, and lasted for approximately four months. The band decided to record songs at Yamaguchi's home studio, as the group had grown tired of having to return to recording studios often due to their repeated commercial tie-up offers. They originally intended to re-record some parts of songs at a large recording studio, but instead used the home-recorded takes. The band felt that recording at Yamaguchi's home had a different atmosphere, as the location did not come with the pressure of time limits and recording staff, which made these sessions feel less like work. For the Sakanaction album sessions, the band found that they felt free to record any music that they wanted to, and that the location allowed for the band to develop a different sound, as this was the space where Yamaguchi usually listened to music. Yamaguchi described these home sessions as feeling like an after school club, how everyone worked together in front of a computer. In addition to the main recording session, additional recordings were held at Alive Recording Studio in Setagaya and Aobadai Studio in Aobadai, Meguro.
The members of Sakanaction entirely finished the musical arrangement of each song first, without having lyrics to accompany the songs. This was a technique they had first used in the "Boku to Hana" recording sessions earlier in 2012. Yamaguchi would then write the lyrics and record the vocal tracks at home, after they had finished. The other members of the band found this difficult, as they could not use the lyrics as a guiding image for how to create the song, and found that each member's image of the song was different. Yamaguchi focused on song-making during the album's creation, especially the song's lyrics, and left the album's mixing, mastering and track order to the other band members, as well as the recording engineers who were working with them.
The first song in the album recording sessions was "Structure", a song that Yamaguchi composed on the guitar, which originally had lyrics. The next composition the band worked on after "Structure" was "Music", a song they envisioned as the leading promotional track for the album. After finishing the song's arrangement but prior to finishing the lyrics, they were informed that the Fuji Television production staff for drama Dinner had requested a Sakanaction song for the drama's theme song. As the offer was for any Sakanaction song, the band submitted "Music", a song that they wanted to release personally, without considering the drama's story or the song's reception by television audience as they had done for "Boku to Hana". Due to the drama tie-up, the band released "Music" as a two track single on January 23, 2013, coupled with a demo take of the song "Eiga" recorded on November 16, 2012. The band were still actively recording the album in January 2013, and finished on February 16. The album's introduction was the final song recorded for the album, recorded in binaural recording on the morning that the album was mastered.
Title and themes
The band decided to self-title the album between the "Yoru no Odoriko" sessions, and before the start of their September recording sessions. This was based on discussions the band had in 2010, where they wanted to release instrumental songs as sakanaction (ibid.) as opposed to their name in Japanese which they used for their regular releases, . Originally the band planned to release two albums simultaneously, with an album composed of songs with lyrics released under their Japanese name and an album of instrumental songs, released with their name in lower case roman script. The band abandoned these plans due to their busy schedule, instead using lower case roman sakanaction as the album's title.
The band had originally planned to self-title their previous album, Documentaly (2011), due to the album's documentary theme. However, as the events of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami affecting the album's recording so much, as this did not reflect their attempt to express everything that was happening in 2011, as opposed to just what happened to the band. For their next album, they decided to revisit this idea. This was due to the band's greater exposure in Japan through their commercial tie-ups, which would mean a great number of people would be listening to Sakanaction for the first time for this album. Yamaguchi described making music for this new audience as feeling like the band were releasing their first album again, which strengthened their desire to self-title this release.