[5][6] A year later, Yonezu debuted under major label Universal Music Japan with the single "Santa Maria."

[13] Yonezu decided to take up an offer from major label Universal, in order to find people with similar musical ideas as himself.

[7] He attempted to make his songs sound universal and easy to understand, compared to Diorama, which focused on expressing the town concept.

[14] While not a concept, a word that Yonezu intentionally used in many songs was curse (呪い, noroi), and wrote about invisible forces that hold back people's lives.

[19] "Mad Head Love" was written later in 2013, and featured Yonezu's childhood friend Hiroshi Nakajima as a guitarist.

[18][20] It was written about Yonezu's feelings when composing music, and gave the song a theme of "communication friction.

[22] The song "Eine Kleine" was written specifically for Tokyo Metro, and features lyrics about looking forward despite adversity.

[19] "Living Dead Youth" was the final song written for the album, and was inspired by Yonezu rethinking his life during elementary and junior high school.

[19] Much like Diorama (2012), "Santa Maria" (2013) and "Mad Head Love" / "Poppin' Apathy" (2013), Yankee features artwork drawn personally by Yonezu.

[27] On March 14, a music video was released for the song "Living Dead Youth," directed by Hidenobu Tanabe.

[32] To promote the album, interviews with Yonezu were featured in the music and fashion magazines 7 Pia, Barfout!, Chokichoki, Flying Postman Press, Musica, Rolling Stone Japan and Tokyo Head Line.

[29] Yonezu appeared at the Niconico Chōkaigi 3 convention at Makuhari Messe on April 27, to talk about the album.