''JPN'' is the third studio album (fourth overall) by Japanese

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ...

Perfume Perfume (, ; french: parfum) is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agreeable scent. Th ...

, released on November 30, 2011, by Tokuma Japan Communications, nearly two and a half years after their second studio album ''

Triangle A triangle is a polygon with three Edge (geometry), edges and three Vertex (geometry), vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, an ...

''. The album sold a total of 268,414 after two weeks of release, making it the 24th best-selling album of 2011 according to Oricon. ''JPN'' is the group's last release under Tokuma Japan Communications as the group moved to

Universal Music Japan , often referred to as just Universal Music Japan or UMJ, is a Japanese subsidiary of the Universal Music Group founded in 1990. It is the largest subsidiary for a foreign company in the country regarding music distribution. The company is resp ...

(as announced February 28, 2012) for their future releases. ''JPN'' was released worldwide on March 6, 2012, to over 50 countries via

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

Background

The album was announced at Perfume's official website on September 5, 2011, along with a dance contest, their nineteenth single "

Spice A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garnish. Spices a ...

" and their third nationwide arena tour "Perfume Third Tour: JPN" starting in January 2012. It was released in two different versions; as a CD-only version and in a limited edition CD+DVD featuring promotional videos and commercial spots. The B-side track of "Nee" ("FAKE IT") was not included in this album but two years later in " Perfume Global Compilation "LOVE THE WORLD"" album.

Composition

The album includes all of the group's past four singles: "

Fushizen na Girl/Natural ni Koishite is Perfume's first 2010 single and tenth major single release. It was released on April 14, 2010, as a CD-only version and CD+DVD version. The single was notable for being Perfume's second double A-side after Baby Cruising Love / Macaroni. As ...

", "

Voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production in ...

", "

Nee Nee or NEE may refer to: Names * Née (lit. "born"), a woman's family name at birth before the adoption of another surname usually after marriage **The male equivalent "né" is used to indicate what a man was originally known as before the adopt ...

", and "

Laser Beam/Kasuka na Kaori A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The firs ...

". It also includes the singles' corresponding B-side songs. The only song out of all the singles that did not make it to this album was "Fake it" from the single

. The group's nineteenth single, "

", serves as the album's lead single. It was released on November 2, 2011. A special version of its B-side song, "Glitter", is also included in the album. Five of the other tracks are brand-new songs, including "My Color", "Toki no Hari" (時の針), and "Have a Stroll". "Fushizen na Girl" was slightly edited from the original single version for this album, however, it is uncredited.

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number 1 in the

Oricon , 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 Nov ...

Weekly Albums Chart with 227,000 copies sold on its first week of release, their highest debut week sales than their previous albums in their career to date. This also made them the second female Japanese group to achieve three consecutive number one albums, a feat first achieved twelve years ago by veteran pop group

Speed In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a scalar quanti ...

. The album sold a total of 268,000 after two weeks of release, making it the 24th best-selling album of 2011. In South Korea, the album debuted at number thirty-nine in the Gaon Monthly International Albums, selling 358 copies.

Track listing

Chart positions

Oricon charts

Other charts

Certifications

Accolades

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

's 20 Best Pop Albums of 2011 - ranked 14th

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:JPN (Perfume album) 2011 albums Japanese-language albums Tokuma Shoten albums Perfume (Japanese band) albums Albums produced by Yasutaka Nakata