Where is the LOVE for Perfume?

honestly i wouldn't consider anything nakata's done to be a top-to-bottom great release, w/ the possible exception of coltemonikha 2

barely game?

:|

hi again brad :) been missing you

game is really consistent and there's nothing bad on it by any means, but i think as a start-to-finish listen it doesn't have enough variation. nakata's career-long struggles with pacing at the song level contributes, as well.

i'm way more into the dynamics of having "point" followed by "daijobanai," for example. i know it's never gonna happen but i think a whole album with that kind of individual quality and variety is where the potential is

perfume is in <url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=34&v=aBYWGjIzvyw>;this iphone ad</url> for two thirds of a second at 0:26 and again at 0:42 because obviously?

let's pretend i can do formatting codes just for now

xp I couldn't disagree more violently - I think all their albums, from complete best up to and including JPN are 10/10s and among the classics of pop history.

I think the singles campaign for Level 3 was their weakest but it's pretty great as an album. The singles post-Level 3 have been better, explored new terrain.

I do find it difficult to listen to a full album, IMO there aren't enough good album tracks like "Speed of Sound" (by which I mean, tunes that are NOT intended to be singles). But of course when you're in the mood for 'em they're like the best things ever.

I'm with abcfsk - JPN is a fucking fantastic album-as-album. Level3 is really the only time an album of theirs felt even slightly like a letdown, and that was mostly because the original mixes of the singles ("Spending All My Time" in particular) were so superior to the album mixes.

Game is def best but i think they're all difficult to listen through. a little bit of editing could've gone a long way there, though (and a judicious 'best of' would be unbelievable).

Not a single album track pre-Level 3 is less than an 8/10. For 10 years they had the most perfect discography in history, basically. And I think the album experience also adds something, I think they're album and live artists, there's a play between the big chorus numbers and the introspectives, the quirkiness and the bangers.

eh i somewhat disagree. i think their most impressive singles campaign also predicated their most uneven album, triangle (lol i know i'm alone there)

otherwise their albums are all great, and i hold game and level 3 in nearly the same esteem

Ok some time this fall I'll go through all the albums and review each track.

Where is the LOVE for student folk trio cover versions of Perfume songs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twb8cB9dRHU

no, brad, i find triangle especially uneven, too. maybe their most uneven, but i suppose i should give their discog a fresh coat of lastfm paint it's probably been half a year at least by now

agreed, however, with whoever said LEVEL3 had their best batch of singles but album was a letdown in large part because of how botched those singles' LP arrangements were

anyway it's really interesting that there the venn diagram overlaps of everyone's opinions are so thin. i know game is kind of a consensus record but past that we're all over the place

what's everyone's favorite perfume songs? unranked but all 5 stars in my itunes:

ポリリズム
The Opening
ナチュラルに恋して
ねぇ (Nee) [and its instrumental]
ポイント (Point [and its instrumental])
だいじょばない (Daijobanai, from a songwriting and songwriting-meets-production standpoint their best)
Fake It
Spending all my time [single mix, and its instrumental]
575 [and its instrumental]
Kiss and Music [like Oizo producing mid-aughts Britney, so good]

some other songs close, and i'd even make revisions of some of these ("Nee" could be so much shorter), but these are top-tier imo. Game is most consistent but only has one of these

I don't think anyone but you would say Level 3 had the best batch of singles. Weakest by far.

triangle had the best singles. love the world, dream fighter, one room disco

anyway perfume pox:

dream fighter
plastic smile
fake it
nee
i still love u
electro world
night flight
my color
chocolate disco
spice

actually, limited to a-sides, i'd prob say JPN had best singles. my fondness for LEVEL3's are more than halfway owe to the b-sides "point" and "daijobanai" (but the single mix of "spending all my time" is brilliant from a songwriting standpoint, the use of repetition is so effective and few other songs take it so far so well (in terms of mileage on a minimum of content, i think the high watermark remains alice deejay's "better off alone")). "spring of life" was eh, "1mm" was dece (that was a single, i think? remember writing about it for TMT), and i love "mirai no museum" and its little swipe from hall & oates, really underrated song.

meanwhile, JPN: "natural ni koishite," "nee," "laser beam," "spice"...def strong batch, incredible b-sides w/ "fake it" and "575" too. (there were at least two other a-sides that i don't like as much, but nothing bad)

hard to complain about triangle's crop indeed, perhaps technically 'the best' but it's got an advantage in there only being three of them and musically they all risk so little

*level3's more than halfway owe to

also, crucial if we are talking about LEVEL3's singles to limit our discussion to the single mixes, the ones on the album are total self-sabotage =/

"musically they all risk so little" what

what

lol? they're all songs that are completely in nakata/perfume's wheelhouse, well established by the time game came out (triangle's singles all being songs around the 5-minute mark, too, with little development and no surprises to show for it – as i've said before, economy is nakata's most consistent stumbling block). i still love 'em, but nakata's at his boldest when employing more obtuse strategies to his compositions: making a whole song out of basically two lines and some ten words and the simplest theme of his career ("spending all my time" – the title itself is basically the verse, the chorus, the post-chorus, and bridge...!), grafting the perfume aesthetic to a breakbeat, harp, and some of the most fleshed-out melodic development he's ever done ("point"), "daijobanai" which is afaik a strategically unique song in terms of what it attempts and how it achieves it (about which i could write a good couple thou, wish it were a k-pop song so i would), and "kiss and music" (which, cramming as many transitional, melodic and rhythmic surprises as it does into just 2:30, is easily nakata's idea-densest and most compact song to date). these are all songs that take risks autopilot nakata never bothers with.

hate to go here, but have you ever written a song? or produced? do you know any theory? i know these are dick things to ask in general but this is the one subject on which you keep hasslin' me up in here and i think it's p clear we're just not listening to music in the same way and should prob leave it at that

oh relistening to "daijobanai" now and remembering how there's no functional snare in the entire song (what's hitting on the 2 and 4 is super subtle and basically manifests as a slight accent on the kick if one really listens for it; also that heavily reverbed pickup leading into the chorus, i guess), which is always an accomplishment for a banger (most impressively imo on "new slaves" which aside from the sample coda lacks percussion throughout, less what could be considered a kick/low tom here and there). love that song so much :')

wait are we talking about nakata's writing/production on "dream fighter" which was really still evolving out of his work on game and sugarless girl/more more more as "wheelhouse"? "autopilot"?

i have written a song and know theory, but i'm bad at both. regardless i think the structure and production of "dream fighter" is really surprising and dimensional in a way that you're downplaying in favor of novelty and economy

i mean obviously we listen to music for different reasons but u are really insistent about explaining in paragraphs how you tend to listen for very specific things, which i think is a narrow and very alienating approach if you're on a message board about discussing music

the singles on triangle were so comfort zone for him by then, maybe sliiight progressions but i would be interested to hear how you'd quantify these as songs as great leaps for him. (what is "surprises" you about "dream fighter?" how is it "dimensional?"

i think economy's important across the board (granted, a 20-minute song can be perfectly economical), but even if i think a song could stand to lose some weight (these ones, "nee," much other nakata) i can still appreciate all that it gets right. as for "novelty," i don't agree with that word's connotations – it makes something innovative sound like a party favor. but yes, as i believe i've said before (and why i'm motioning that we maybe stop talking about these things, at least in such catty ways), in an instance of two hypothetical songs that are of equal quality, i'm always going to prefer the one that arrives at that goodness in an idiosyncratic way. at this point in my life the strategy of how music achieves its goals is a huge part of why music even interests me, and i do think is a measure more 'objective' a discussion than your generic "i like this" vs. my generic "i like this." the why is what's interesting.

"i mean obviously we listen to music for different reasons but u are really insistent about explaining in paragraphs how you tend to listen for very specific things"

no? that is one sentence of what i posted above. the paragraph is me explaining what those specific things are that i find exceptional about x y z songs we're discussing...which is, yes, the entire point of a message board aboutg discussing music, as you've italicized it. all you ever say is "this is good, this is not" – can you explain to me how using concretes and bothering to expound is "narrow" and "alienating," or how that underscores some kind of superficial engagement or whatever you said the last time we had this convo w/ diff topical variables plugged in? or can we at least not do it anymore? it's just an ironic diss coming from someone who always responds with "yeah but you're wrong" or an emoticon or w/e

sorry for messiness, i need to start what my dictation software put down before hitting enter ;-(

*start checking XD

I like Spending All My Time quite a lot, but saying it's Nakata at its boldest just because he does a banal trick he hasn't employed before is a good example of why using 'theory' when talking taste can lead to baffling results. Similarly Point being unique just because it does genre elements? That could easily be turned around and used to argue the song is reductive and "musically risking little". Its use of breakbeat is a simple quotation in service of a catchy song.

Favorites:

Vitamin Drop
Monochrome Effect
Electro World
Computer Driving
Polyrhythm
Baby Cruising Love
Macaroni
Plastic Smile
Dream Fighter
Edge
One Room Disco
The Best THing
Kiss and Music
Natural ni Koishite
Nee
Glitter
Spice

More recently Sweet Refrain and p,erhaps Relax In the City just to get some easy listening on the list.

nah – the logic of those songs go deep. and these aren't so much "theoretical" points as ones to do with arrangement, structure, production, daredevil strategies (i.e. very few songs work as well as "spending all my time" does with as little or less, though i'd be curious to hear counterexamples), etc. it's the way nakata brings them all together that's special. though sure, if you isolate any one element of a song like "point" - or most any - it's easy to write off.

I'm not saying Spending All My Time doesn't do well with that choice, or Point for that matter, nor that it's not valid to bring these qualities up. You talked of originality/risk in a binary way though - these songs risk a lot, these songs don't (so they're worth less). I feel that's rarely the best primary factor to judge songs on, and I also think it's pretty easy to argue that some of your choices aren't more original than some of the others. Selective use of theoretical arguments - you like a song and find arguments for its uniqueness.

i'm sure you're right sometimes, though it very often goes the other way (per another discussion we've all taken part in, i actually disliked "missing you" until i bothered to analyze it a bit). in the case of nakata alone, though, i'd say that the songs i've mentioned are far more distinct from the rest of his work than triangle's singles...whether we agree re: the value of that or not

and i thought i made it clear, but no, i do not think an unusual strategy is central to value. but i do think in the case of two good songs, the unusual one is that much worthier. and that's how i come down on this particular selection of music, again all of which i like. i think it's great to disagree and i actually feel like i'm learning something by you articulating why, though i find brad's more ad hominem and sub-sentence responses redundant (esp when they're always about the same fundamental parallax y'dig)

i like perfume

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3aejcy_perfume-star-train_music

only realised the other day that Relax in the City is A+

New album april 6th COSMIC EXPLORER. New US tour in summer.

https://40.media.tumblr.com/e74b4c1b46439ac002ccc8ec3bc7e2cb/tumblr_o2jgwyVJUx1qbc57uo1_1280.jpg

Anybody who didn't see them last time, GO.

The greatest live act

album tracklisting

01. Navigate
02. Cosmic Explorer
03. Miracle Worker
04. Next Stage with YOU
05. STORY
06. FLASH（Album-mix）
07. Sweet Refrain（Album-mix）
08. Baby Face
09. TOKIMEKI LIGHTS（Album-mix）
10. STAR TRAIN（Album-mix）
11. Relax In The City
12. Pick Me Up
13. Cling Cling（Album-mix）
14. Hold Your Hand

I'm hoping, from the title, that this will be their move into full-blown Tangerine Dream / Italo space techno, although the presence of Star Train in the track list isn't boding well for that.

album mix though! could mean literally anything

[日程] 2016/08/26 (金)
[会場] The Wiltern（Los Angeles）
http://www.wiltern.com
[開場/開演] 19:00/20:00 (現地時間)
$39.50 / $49.50 / $59.50

[日程] 2016/08/28 (日)
[会場] The Warfield（San Francisco）
http://www.thewarfieldtheatre.com
[開場/開演] 19:00/20:00 (現地時間)
$49.50 / $59.50
　
[日程] 2016/08/31 (水)
[会場] The Vic Theatre（Chicago）
http://jamusa.com/the-vic/
[開場/開演] 19:00/20:00 (現地時間)
] $49.50

[日程] 2016/09/03 (土)
[会場] HAMMERSTEIN BALLROOM（New York）
http://www.mcstudios.com
[開場/開演] 19:00/20:00 (現地時間)
$39.50 / $49.50 / $59.50 / $64.50

[日程] 2016/09/04 (日)
[会場] HAMMERSTEIN BALLROOM（New York）
http://www.mcstudios.com
[開場/開演] 19:00/20:00 (現地時間)
$39.50 / $49.50 / $59.50 / $64.50

mmmmmm

Two New York shows over Labor Day weekend? Man, I have no excuse for skipping that...

Perfume kung fu fighting!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM63o4UlUPU

The album is... OUT

http://www.generasia.com/w/images/3/3e/Perfume_-_Cosmic_Explorer_(Regular_Edition).jpg