Provoke (stylized in all caps) is the ninth studio album by the Japanese rock band [Alexandros]. It was released on April 23, 2025 through Polydor Records and RX-Records under Universal Music Japan, nearly three years after the band's previous studio album, But wait. Cats?, and fifteen years after their debut album, Where's My Potato?. The album contains 15 tracks and includes material released by the band between 2023 and 2025, as well as collaborations with the British band Hard Life and Japanese musician WurtS.
The band began planning Provoke around the end of the recording of But wait. Cats?, developing the album around a predetermined structure while continuing to write material over the following three years. After working with outside producers on Sleepless in Brooklyn and But wait. Cats?, the band returned to self-production for Provoke. Vocalist Yoohei Kawakami said that one of his aims was to create an album with the same combination of planning and impulse that he associated with making the band's first album.
The album peaked at number 11 on the Oricon Albums Chart, number 13 on both the Oricon Daily Albums Chart and the Oricon Combined Albums Chart, and reached number 8 on the Oricon Digital Albums Chart. It also peaked at number 12 on Billboard Japan's Top Albums Sales chart, number 61 on the Hot Albums chart and number 7 on the Download Albums chart.
Background and recording [Alexandros] released their eighth studio album, But wait. Cats?, in July 2022. During the closing stages of its production, vocalist and songwriter Yoohei Kawakami had already begun considering the structure of the band's next album. For Provoke, the band developed the album around an overall framework, with Kawakami planning a 15-track record and preparing several candidate songs for each position before selecting the final tracklist.
Kawakami described the process as more deliberate than their earlier albums, while still allowing the songs and arrangements to change during production. He also kept parts of his initial conception from the other members, believing that explaining the intended result too fully could lead them to reproduce his plan rather than develop the songs through their own contributions.
The album also marked a return to self-production following the band's collaborations with outside producers on Sleepless in Brooklyn and But wait. Cats?. Kawakami described a long-standing desire to make another record with the combination of preparation and spontaneity that he associated with a debut album, and said that Provoke had fulfilled that aim.
Several songs continued to develop late in the recording process. Kawakami recalled that the title track remained without a clearly determined final form until near the end of production. "FABRIC YOUTH", meanwhile, was arranged mainly by the other three members while Kawakami worked on other material. The arrangement developed from a voice memo of Kawakami singing while playing guitar, which was recorded by drummer Ib Riad.
Release and promotion The album was announced on March 3, 2025, for release on April 23. It was issued as a standard CD, two limited CD and video editions, and a complete production-limited edition.
The limited editions included footage of both [Alexandros] performances at the band's festival, This Fes '24 in Sagamihara, together with a documentary about the event. The complete production-limited edition additionally included footage from Back to School!!, a concert held at Aoyama Gakuin University, where the band was formed, as well as a rearrangement album titled Changed My Mind, two photo books and a T-shirt.
The band promoted the album with the Provoke Launch Party and the Provoke Japan Tour 2025, which began in May. An Asian tour followed later in the year. A double LP version was released on October 1, 2025.
Composition and songs Provoke contains 15 tracks. Kawakami wrote the lyrics and music for most of the album, while the arrangement is mostly credited to [Alexandros]. The record includes previously released material alongside songs completed specifically for the album.
"PROVOKE" The title track opens the album and incorporates a sample from "Burger Queen", the opening song from the band's debut album, Where's My Potato?. Kawakami also connected the album's title to the band's early use of the words "provoke" and "provocation". Their 2009 demo album Provocation to Noble Artists was reworked into Where's My Potato?, while "Burger Queen", which contains the phrase "this is a provocation to noble artists" (although it was not included on the demo), has frequently been used as the introductory number in their live shows. The spoken word phrases on the track were contributed by both a speech synthesis model and an employee of the band's record company.
"JULIUS" "JULIUS" originated during writing sessions held in a meeting room at the band's management office. Because studio time in Tokyo was limited, Kawakami began bringing a small amplifier to the office and wrote several songs there. He later said that it was his favourite track from the album, and that completing "JULIUS" helped him recognize the atmosphere the album would eventually take. The song was used as the theme for the second episode of the Wowow television drama Golden Kamuy: The Hunt of Prisoners in Hokkaido. The version heard in the drama differs slightly from the one on the album, with Kawakami later re-recording portions and altering the mix.
"WITH ALL DUE RESPECT" Kawakami wanted the third track, following "PROVOKE" and "JULIUS", to contain the most aggressive and heavily distorted sound on the album. He regarded its rapid vocal delivery as the latest development of a style [Alexandros] had used since their [Champagne] period, lying somewhere between rapping and fast singing. Rather than constructing the melody around guitar chords as he usually did, Kawakami developed the vocal line while singing over the band's performance. The song developed from an unusual guitar riff Kawakami recorded without an amplifier and looped repeatedly. To heighten the deliberately chaotic character of the verses, vocals from a demo containing different words were layered into the final recording so that the passages would be difficult to distinguish clearly.
"Koeru" "Koeru" was written as the opening theme for the first cours of the anime television series Umamusume: Cinderella Gray. Kawakami said that he wanted the song to depict the protagonist, Oguri Cap. Several prospective versions were written before the band selected the song that became "Koeru". Its arrangement drops in intensity after the first verse before rising again through the following section, while Kawakami used falsetto in the chorus to reflect what he perceived as the elegance of the characters while running. The arrangement underwent substantial revision during production. An earlier band version was slower, and the members continued changing its rhythm and structure until relatively late in the process. Kawakami recalled that the band spent approximately eight hours working on only four bars of Riad's drums in the song's B-section.
"Kinjito" "Kinjito" was first released on "SINGLE 3" and served as the theme song for the TV Asahi drama Private Banker. The drama's staff gave [Alexandros] broad freedom in deciding the musical direction. Kawakami considered several approaches before deciding that the existing demo for "Kinjito" was the best fit for Private Banker.
The song's central rhythm originated from an old recording Kawakami discovered on a voice recorder that his bandmates had given him. The recording contained a drum pattern he believed had been improvised by former drummer Satoyasu Shomura. Kawakami increased its tempo and sent it to Riad, who analysed the pattern before the two further developed it in the studio. They experimented with several approaches, including a four on the floor beat. Kawakami noted it had a resemblance to "Waitress, Waitress!", while Riad described the finished rhythm as an updated use of a pattern common in [Alexandros]' earlier songs.
"EVERYBODY KNOWS" "EVERYBODY KNOWS" was developed from one of the oldest demos used for Provoke and had previously been considered for inclusion on the band's preceding album, But wait. Cats?. Its chorus melody remained largely unchanged for several years, although Kawakami initially felt that a strong melody alone was insufficient to finish the song. The band therefore continued revisiting it until he considered the different elements properly balanced. The arrangement was given an ambient character, although Kawakami felt that his vocal delivery naturally introduced a distinctly Japanese sense of melancholy.
"Coffee Float (feat. hard life)" The original "Coffee Float" was released on "SINGLE 3". It began in 2023 during writing sessions in the band's management-office meeting room, where "Backseat" and "Afterschool" were also developed. Kawakami and the band initially expected to replace the deliberately dry and rough-sounding demo with a cleaner studio recording, but decided that the atmosphere of the office recording was integral to the song. Kawakami subsequently handed much of its development to Isobe, Shirai and Riad while he concentrated on "Kinjito".
The Provoke version features vocals from Murray Matravers of the British band Hard Life. Matravers and Kawakami had first met when Hard Life visited Japan for Summer Sonic and Kawakami interviewed them for his radio programme, Oto, Okashi, after which the two remained in contact. Their friendship developed further when Matravers visited This Fes '24 in Sagamihara. Kawakami said that he had imagined Matravers singing on "Coffee Float" from an early stage of the song's development and formally approached him about contributing while the album was being mixed. Matravers subsequently recorded a new section for the album version.
"Boy Fearless" "Boy Fearless" was previously released on "SINGLE 2" and was written as an inspired song for Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2024 film Cloud, and was used in the film's promotional material. Kawakami recorded the album's vocals in a studio constructed in the basement of his home, and "Boy Fearless" was recorded before renovations to the room had been completed. He experimented with recording different sections separately rather than following his earlier preference for complete vocal takes, intending to give the sections contrasting vocal personas.
"Samechau" "Samechau" was first released as the opening track of "SINGLE 1" in May 2024.
"" "", pronounced "June 2", is an early demo of "Backseat". Kawakami said the recording reflected his usual approach to making early demos, in which he records ideas directly into voice memos and imitates drums and bass through vocal percussion rather than immediately programming the parts electronically. He said that these deliberately organic demos allow him to communicate the intended character of a song to the other members and recording engineers.
"Backseat" "Backseat" was first released on "SINGLE 2" and was used in an advertising campaign for Glico's Pocky. The song originated while the band was working in the studio and Kawakami asked support keyboardist Rosé to improvise a chord progression that he might like. Kawakami sang melodies over her playing, with the eventual chorus emerging first. The lyrics were partly inspired by a friend of Kawakami's who had recently experienced a breakup. References to Men I Trust and Zepp venues were drawn from Kawakami's own experience of attending a Men I Trust concert.
Kawakami re-recorded his lead vocals for the Provoke version. He said that he had been recovering from a cold during the "SINGLE 2" session and felt that the original performance sounded noticeably nasal. The album version therefore uses a new vocal recording and a slightly altered mix.
"VANILLA SKY 2 (feat. WurtS)"