''Stray Sheep'' (stylized in

all caps In typography, all caps (short for "all capitals") refers to text or a font in which all letters are capital letters, for example: "THIS TEXT IS IN ALL CAPS". All caps may be used for emphasis (for a word or phrase). They are commonly seen in l ...

) is the fifth album by

Kenshi Yonezu is a Japanese musician, singer-songwriter, record producer and illustrator who began releasing Vocaloid music under the stage name in 2009. In 2012, he debuted under his real name, releasing music with his own voice. He has sold at least 4.2 mi ...

, released on August 5, 2020. The name of the album was inspired by the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

. The song "Kanden" has been used as the theme song of the comedy TV series ''MIU404''. The album sold over 879,000 copies in its first week, debuting atop the Oricon Albums Chart. It was the top selling album of 2020 in Japan according to both ''

Billboard Japan ''Billboard Japan'' is a sister organization of the U.S.-based music magazine '' Billboard''. It is operated by the Japanese Osaka-based company Hanshin Contents Link (a subsidiary of Hanshin Electric Railway is a Japanese private railway compa ...

'' and ''

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 ...

''. The latter calculated that the album had sold 1,970,930 copies in Japan by the end of 2020, summarizing CDs, vinyls, downloads, and streaming equivalents. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), ''Stray Sheep'' was the world's third-best-selling album of 2020, with 2.54 million sales worldwide.

Release

''Stray Sheep'' was released digitally worldwide on August 5, 2020. The album was available on physical formats in South Korea and Taiwan on October 16, 2020.

Singles

Lemon The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China. The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culin ...

" is the first single of the album and was released on February 27, 2018. It served as the theme song for the

TBS television TBS may stand for: Entertainment * Taipei Broadcasting Station, a radio station in Taipei, Taiwan * Tokyo Broadcasting System, a stock holding company in Tokyo, Japan ** TBS Television (Japan), a television station ** TBS Radio, a radio stati ...

drama '' Unnatural''. "Spirits of the Sea (Umi no Yuurei)" was chosen as the theme song of the animated film '' Children of the Sea''. "Uma to Shika" is the theme song of TBS television drama ''No Side Manager''. " Paprika" is the representative song for

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

Commercial performance

The song "Kanden" was released on YouTube on July 10, 2020, and reached 10 million views in four days, breaking Yonezu's own record. The studio album has sold one million copies within 10 days. Besides, the album hit number one under the J-Pop category in over 30 countries in iTunes Chart and hit number one in 54 countries under the J-Pop Apple Music Albums Chart. And the topped 20 All Genres category in 22 Countries/Regions, 6 of which hit Number one.

Release

Singles

Commercial performance

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

References