What is "documentaly"

Documentaly (stylized as DocumentaLy, ) is the fifth studio album by Japanese band Sakanaction, released on September 28, 2011. Written around a documentary theme, the band were inspired by personal and world events in 2011 to create material for the album.

The band decided to release three singles prior to the album, as a way to alleviate the pressure that the band felt to release new music after the success of their previous album Kikuuiki (2010), and as a way to show the album's development process. The first single " Identity", a song originally written during that album's recording sessions, was released three months after Kikuuiki. The band intended to release " Endless" as the album's second single, however as they were not fully satisfied with the song, released " Rookie" in its place in March 2011. Just prior to the single's physical release, Japan experienced the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, which made Yamaguchi re-evaluate the reasons why the band made music. Originally, the album's documentary concept focused on themselves as a band, but the disaster prompted Yamaguchi to take inspiration from world events such as the earthquake. " Bach no Senritsu o Yoru ni Kiita Sei Desu", released as the album's third single in July, was written as therapy for Yamaguchi during this time.

The album was primarily created in the first half of 2011. The band began work on the song "Endless", and continued to develop it over the course of eight months, however due to Yamaguchi's dissatisfaction with the piece. Most of the album's remaining songs were recorded in breaks between the work on "Endless". Yamaguchi spent much of this time writing lyrics that would express 2011 as a concept, and entrusted the album's arrangement to the other band members. The album's other tracks were ordered to complement "Endless", and are generally ordered chronologically in the order each song was written. The song "Endless" was used as the main promotional track for the album, which was sent to radio stations and given a music video. The band toured the album from October to November with their Sakanaquarium 2011 tour, performing 15 dates at 13 venues in Japan.

The album was well received by critics in Japan, who praised the album's blend of dance, rock and electronic genres, and felt that the documentary theme expressed the preciousness of music. The album was one of the 13 prize-winning entries for the 2012 CD Shop Awards, and iTunes Japan's iTunes Rewind 2011 awards named it the best album of the year. Commercially, the album was a success, reaching number two on Oricon's albums chart, and being certified gold for 100,000 physical copies shipped to stored by the Recording Industry Association of Japan.