Lemon (Kenshi Yonezu song)

Kenshi accepted several interviews about "Lemon", talked about the background of "Lemon" and others. The temporary title was "Memento." He said, "I think it came from somewhere in my memory, but I can't really explain it well either." Even the day before recording, he was still writing the lyrics, the last two sentences "Like one half of a fruit sliced in two, even now, you are my light" suddenly appeared in his brain and he said, "Ahh, so this song really was "Lemon."" He also did the cover illustration himself. He focused on liveliness and freshness of a lemon, giving it an image quite unlike what's typically associated with death.^[4] For the song, he wanted to go for a ballad, but a simple ballad is not very interesting for him, and he did not want it to be purely gloomy. As a result, he made a hybrid of sorts, with sad words over a dancing, skipping rhythm.^[5] He made the song while on his nationwide tour, during which his grandfather died. He agonized over it a lot, so it took even longer to finish than usual.^[6]

On February 27, 2018, the music video was published on YouTube.^{[7][better source needed]}

On December 31, 2018, Yonezu gave his first performance on television, singing the track on 69th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen.^[8]

Credits adapted from the liner notes.

• Kenshi Yonezu - production, arrangement, vocal, guitar
• Koichiro Muroya - string arrangement, strings
• Yu Suto - bass
• Masaki Huri - drums
• Ichiyo Izawa - piano
• Tatsuya Mochizuki - guitar technician
• Koji Imamura - drum technician
• Akira Miyake - vocal direction
• Masahito Komori - recording, mixing
• Ted Jensen - mastering