January 4, 2009
play the GAME
Perfume released an album earlier this year that complimented their recent hit to the big time in the Japanese music world. It was probably reviewed and written up to death earlier this year, when it was released, but as I am a fairly new Perfume fan, I’m going to write about it now.
This isn’t a review, necessarily, but I will be going through the album track by track. Let’s start at the begining, with Polyrhythm.
Polyrhythm
This song is pretty good, but I’m still deciding where exactly it falls in my favourites for Perfume. I really like the beginning lines which are slow and lead up to the first chorus. It gives the song a more climactic and dramatic feel. Parts of the instrumental make me think of Katamari Damacy music. . . maybe Perfume should do a song on the next Katamari Damacy soundtrack? That game’s notorious for having amazing soundtracks, so Perfume would fit in fine. But that’s another note >.>
I also really like the repeat parts in the middle of the song, which then lead back into the slow build up bits.
Here’s the PV for your viewing pleasure!
Plastic Smile
this song is is pleasant, but a little repetitive in my opinion. It doesn’t seem like they go anywhere from the beginning, except adding a stronger bass part. Unfortunately, the stronger bass also kind of drowns out the vocals, so This song kind of passes through my head when I listen to it. It’s a pleasant song, overall, and I could definitely see it being played in a movie or something. Maybe if I ever get around to writing a movie, it’ll be in the soundtrack. . . But that’s for another time.
GAME
This song gave me a headache when I first heard it, but if you listen to it a few more times it gets a little better. It comes off a little strong after the cutesy feel of plastic smile, and the guitar that starts in the beginning doesn’t really fit the song. The vocals are a little strange and are a little more scary feeling for Perfume. Granted, I don’t actually know what they’re saying, but it kind of has the same feel as some of the early Tommy heavenly6 (especially +gothic pink+ ) work with a more techno feel. Out of the entire album, this is the only song I really dislike, but I’m sure it has it’s fans out there somewhere.
Baby cruising Love
This is where the album really starts to pick up. The song kind of starts slow, like polyrhythm, but when it picks up, the lyrics stay slow, which kind of gives the song a nice moderate pace that I like. I also happen to LOVE techno that includes piano, which is only another plus to this album for me. The PV for this song is great, too, if you haven’t seen it.
I really like the parts where they draw with the lights 
Chocolate Disco
When I first started listening to Perfume, this was one of my favourite songs. It’s very repetitive, but unlike plastic smile, you can actually hear what they’re saying. The song is almost sickeningly cute, but it’s from a single called ‘Fan Service ~Sweet~’ right? The dance is adorable and sometimes I fake dance along with it. Usually I just nod my head happily along with the song, though, because I try to avoid looking completely ridiculous in public.
Here’s the PV, for you who haven’t heard the song or seen the PV yet:
Macaroni
This song has almost a funk or jazz feel to it, like some of the earlier Morning Musume; that jazz feel has been known to make me sleepy on several occasions. The song is pleasant and I guess feels like the standard ballad song for every album. Usually after I listen to this I can be heard saying ‘ma ma macaroni’ at random points, but the song sticks to you I guess. It’s a pleasant song like plastic smile, but it’s definitely more memorable.
Ceramic Girl
This song is kind of poppy and wakes you up after the brief slowdown with Macaroni. My favourite parts of this one are the verses, ironically, as I usually favour the choruses of songs. The instrumental of this song seems to pop at you, too, which I like. I can only imagine a PV for this one–all I can think of is the perfume girls in greyscale walking around a world where green and yellow and red and blue paint is being splattered around their footsteps. That’d be a fun PV!
Take me Take me
This song reminds me of the first few tracks on this Daft Punk album my sister bought when I was really little. I’m not sure why, but it also reminds me of dark chocolate–like it could be a commercial song for some luxurious dark chocolate bar in Japan. Do it, perfume! Do it! Now! xD I like this song, like the rest of them and the vocals remind me of a doll or something. It’s vaguely creepy but a nice song.
Secret Secret
This song is amazing. It was my first Perfume song, and I immediately fell in love with it. The beginning has kind of a ripple feeling and then the chorus is like, the peak, but since the chorus is in there so much, it peaks a lot. Perfume songs are generally subdued, but this is one of the only Perfume songs that really gets me going and excited and happy; it’d be great for a pick-me-up playlist.
Once again, here’s the PV for those of you who haven’t heard or seen it yet:
Butterfly
When this song first started on my iTunes, I was immediately confused by it. I think when I first heard the album it was too late for me to be really coherent as to what the song actually was and the music really became just background music, but as I’m listening to this right now, it immediately thought of like, a boss battle from an RPG, particularly one in a jungle setting. You can hear some tribal instruments and stuff in the actual song, and the vocals add to the feeling othat this song is being played in the jungle or an RPG. One thing that really confuses me is when they say Butterfly; it sounds like a train is going past or something. The song picks me up in the same way as Secret Secret, so that’s another reason why I like it.
Twinkle Snow Powdery Snow
TWINKLE SNOW~! This might just be my favourite song on the album. Everything about it just oozes cute, especially the name. I want to be in a store and have this come on the radio, or something. It’d make me really happy. I don’t know exactly why this is my favourite song, but it definitely is up there. It’s like i heard it and it immediatly became my favourite.
Puppy love
When I told Amy of Merry-go-Round I was going to blog about this album, I was afraid why she was so excited for me to hear this, especially after the cracktastic song ‘puppy love’ off of Kusumi Koharu’s recent album, but this song is really nice. It doesn’t have a similar flow to other perfume songs on the album, but it definitely does have the technopop sound that their other songs have. The flow seems a little more similar to an album song from Morning Musume or C-ute, but either way I really like it.
After listening to this album, I can say I really hope to see a lot more music from Perfume, especially songs that sound like Puppy love or Twinkle Snow Powdery Snow.
Until next time,
Max
SUP WENDY said,
February 26, 2009 at 3:39 am
…I just lost the game.