9999 (pronounced "Four Nine"[1]) is the tenth studio album by Japanese rock band The Yellow Monkey, released on April 17, 2019 by Atlantic Records.

The Yellow Monkey held their last concert on January 8, 2001 at the Tokyo Dome, beginning an indefinite hiatus, before officially announcing their disbandment on July 7, 2004.

[2][3] After seeing The Rolling Stones perform in London in 2013, Kazuya Yoshii emailed the other members about reuniting, and the band officially announced their reformation on January 8, 2016.

[4][5] They went on the Super Japan Tour 2016 from May 11 to September 11, 2016, and quickly followed it up with another leg subtitled Subjective Late Show from November 12 to December 18.

[13] The new song "Roseana" was included in a special edition of the band's May 21, 2017 self-cover album, The Yellow Monkey is Here.

[20][21] The members said that touring the previous two years helped them get familiar with each other's playing again and see what kind of sounds they could produce for new material.

[27] It was done in a studio with old equipment, such as a vintage Neve mixing console, which Yoshii said gave it an "American" and 1950s rock and roll feel.

[30] The song was made to be the theme of the TV drama adaptation of the mahjong manga Ten: Tenhō-dōri no Kaidanji.

[34][35] Hirose's bass drives the song and was played in the fingerpicking style at the suggestion of engineer Kenny Takahashi.

[38] Yoshii said that "Breaking the Hide" is in line with "Kegawa no Kōto no Blues", and compared its worldview to that of the 1974 film The Night Porter.

[33][39] Hideaki had the image of Eastern Europe for the song, and Yoshii wrote the lyrics with that in mind and included a vampire angle.

[40] Music critic Yu-ichi Hirayama called the song very danceable with a very simple structure, while using a "psychedelic scale.

[43] Although the song was written and arranged before Yoshii saw Bohemian Rhapsody, the singer requested Hideaki play Brian May-like guitar.

[44] Tomonori Shiba of Real Sound wrote that the lyrics are closely related to the show and that the song's "disturbing" melody fits the suspense drama.

[44] The strings on the track were arranged by Motoki Funayama, who Yoshii had previously worked with on "Bara to Taiyō" for KinKi Kids, and resulted in what the singer called a fusion of "Shōwa era kayō" and Western music.

[39] Yoshii wrote the lyrics with the image of an old French apartment in mind, and used the words "civet" and "café au lait" due to the influence of singer Yoshitaka Minami.

[5][42] The lyrics were written to be like a picture book, with Yoshii and Hirose comparing them to Yellow Submarine and Alice in Wonderland respectively.

The instrumental "Bon Appetit" makes up two of them as it is split into an "Opening" and "Ending", and was used as the band's entrance music on the tour.

[48] Yoshii said it was planned to be included on the original version of the album after recording it in LA, but he did not make it in time and had to finish it in Japan.

Before the album's release, the band held a "listening event" at the Nippon Budokan on March 28, 2019 where they performed each of its songs live.

If the normal or limited edition was purchased at select stores, an additional DVD containing the live performance of "Primal."

It includes four additional songs, a DVD of their August 3, 2019 concert at Sekisui Heim Super Arena and a 204-page photo booklet containing photographs from the Grateful Spoonful tour.

[53] In a review for Mikiki, Yuji Tayama wrote that the album is transparent in its blues and glam rock influences and has the pop appeal and licentiousness that The Yellow Monkey has always had.

described "Love Homme" as a tribute to glam rock but with a different approach than the band had done previously and called "Changes Far Away" one of the album's highlights.

[5] According to Yu-ichi Hirayama of Entertainment Station, the "mysterious" lyrics of "Roseana" give the song an "exoticism" that might cause new listeners to become interested in The Yellow Monkey.

[41] Real Sound's Tomokazu Nishihiro wrote that "Horizon" was likely to become a representative song of the band in the future.

[60][61][62] It also reached number 3 on Billboard Japan's Top Albums chart, which is based only on physical sales.