A mere three months after the highly successful 「GAME」, Perfume drop new music with their 12th single 「love the world」. Given the short delay between both releases, you'll be forgiven for thinking these two new songs are nothing more than extra B-sides that didn't make the full-length cut. But in fact, even though the two new songs "love the world" and "edge" are very similar to what you would find on 「GAME」, they hold their own quite well and serve as the perfect companion to an already perfect record. There are four tracks in total, including an instrumental version of "love the world" and an extended remix of "edge". The cover gives off a retro/60's vibe which can be felt in the music. All of them are looking nothing short of hot (with Nocchi on top) so my chauvinistic side is hoping the next cover follows in line!
love the world: The opening track wastes no time introducing the poignant little jingle that will make a recurring appearance for the next 4:35 to come. In accordance with the song's name, this is a fairly cheerful track that may or may not entice you to actually love said world. I don't really dig forced child labor in India and the endlessly ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so I'm gonna assume that they're singing about a fictitious, dream-like world. That much I have no problem with... good try though. Musically we're really close to GAME's "Plastic Smile", which I have really grown to love due to my girlfriend's abusive favorite-song-on-replay policy. Yet again, there are no surprises on here, high quality production values are all over the place and the song never drags on or becomes boring.
However, I'm starting to understand long-time Perfume fans when they say they prefer the older stuff. Not that I'm on their side, but the girls' role might as well have been diminished to showroom mannequins. They don't sing at all anymore, they merely push harmonious sounds out of their tiny mouths while they prance around in a faux-popping fashion. The vocalizer plugin does all of their work while Nakata-san serves up his greatest compositions to date unto the unsuspecting masses. One quick comparative listen to "Sweet Donuts" and even momoi-produced "アキハバラブ" reveals that the girls used to have to sing their way into their fans' heart. This is apparently no longer necessary given the new style, but I'd still like to see them turn off the cruise control someday...
However, I'm starting to understand long-time Perfume fans when they say they prefer the older stuff. Not that I'm on their side, but the girls' role might as well have been diminished to showroom mannequins. They don't sing at all anymore, they merely push harmonious sounds out of their tiny mouths while they prance around in a faux-popping fashion. The vocalizer plugin does all of their work while Nakata-san serves up his greatest compositions to date unto the unsuspecting masses. One quick comparative listen to "Sweet Donuts" and even momoi-produced "アキハバラブ" reveals that the girls used to have to sing their way into their fans' heart. This is apparently no longer necessary given the new style, but I'd still like to see them turn off the cruise control someday...
edge: Whereas "love the world" was purely written Perfume-style, "edge" is... ちょっとちがう, a little different. It doesn't sound anything like a Perfume song, but rather a capsule one. This is 中田ヤスタカ having fun 2 da maxxx obviously, but I'm not sure how well the die-hard fans will receive this. Personally I'm quite pleased given how much I love capsule, so I welcome the crossover initiative with open arms. But what exactly makes "edge" capsule-sounding? It opens with an arcane groove pattern tucked under a laser-cut precise drum pattern. Appropriately this time, the girls sing in a darker tone, bathing this tune in a gloomy aura that you just can't shake off. Definitely not the lollipop stuff they were singing about 3-4 years ago. I appreciate the change but I'd still really like to see some new songs performed in the key of yon.
edge ~extended remix~: Why yes, I am reviewing a remixed song, thanks for noticing. This one (probably the intended cut) adds a whole 2 minutes to the watered-down version for a whopping total of 8:41 minutes. The girls don't start "singing" until about 1 minute in, due to the long intro. The rest of the song is actually very similar, except for elongated passages and an even darker mood due to some sullen chanting and morose homophony that mirror the vocal patterns.
I'm completely sold to Perfume, so I'm not gonna say "this isn't bad" or anything like that. 「love the world」 rules. Hard. If you enjoyed 「GAME」 there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn't get this なかま single. Japan seems to think so as well; with an astonishing 80K+ units sold in the first week, this single is on par with the full-length album's 315K copies so far. There is just no stopping this Oricon-raping Perfume train!
3 comments:
I'm loving this single, but it's sort of overshadowed by the other Yasutaka-produced single, Suzuki Ami's "ONE". Which makes it pretty awesome ;)
Hm? Did you mean to say that "love the world" overshadowed ONE, or the other way around? In terms of pure sales, LTW is far on top (80K vs 5K). But I haven't heard ONE yet so thanks for the reminder!
Sorry for the unclearness, I meant to say that personally I loved "ONE" much better than "love the world". In terms of numbers, like you said, perfume's way ahead lol.
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