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My full review, as part of the weekly Burning Ambulance newsletter (subscribe! it's free!):
The new Perfume album, Plasma, came out last week, and I’ve been listening to it a lot. I’ve been a fan for more than a decade at this point; seeing them live at Hammerstein Ballroom in 2014 was one of the most fun concert experiences of my life. Their last two albums — 2016’s Cosmic Explorer and 2018’s Future Pop — were just OK, though. So I kind of expected more of the same this time: cybernetic pop tunes produced as always by Yasutaka Nakata, with the three women’s voices blended into a pleasant, slightly uncanny valley-ish ensemble sound, chirpy at times and vaguely melancholy at other times.
And yeah, vocally, A-Chan, Nocchi and Kashiyuka sound much like they always have. But Nakata has delivered some of the best music of his career on this album. It begins, as Perfume albums often do, with a short intro. This one is also the title track, and it has an almost Perturbator-esque feel, with drums that punch hard and synths that wheel in the sky like cybernetic vultures. You would be forgiven for thinking they were about to make a turn toward industrial, or at least EDM. But the first actual song, “Time Warp,” is ultra-chirpy electro J-pop of a type they’ve done many times before, one of several moments that made me say to myself, Yes, this is what a Perfume song sounds like.
There’s another left turn coming fast, though. “Polygon Wave,” a pre-album single, sounds like Daft Punk-esque filter disco. More accurately, it sounds like “Music Sounds Better With You,” the one-off 1998 single by Thomas Bangalter’s side project Stardust. “Spinning World” is another highlight, a cool track set to a hip-hop/funk rhythm. This recent TV performance showcases the impeccable, posthuman choreography that’s been a Perfume trademark forever:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pFIkLEXINU
The most striking track on Plasma, though, is “Drive’n the Rain.” At 6:17, it’s one of their longest songs (only the stomping techno anthems “Party Maker” from Level3 and “Edge” from Triangle, at 7:22 and 8:43(!) respectively, are longer), but what really sets it apart is its mood. It’s not a dancefloor banger; it’s an uptempo but still internally chilled-out mood piece that begins with the sound of rain and is constructed to sound like silky jazz-funk or ’80s “city pop.” It’s so slick and smooth, with what sounds like live funk bass and some ultra-AC keyboard soloing in the second half, that I wouldn’t have been at all surprised to hear Michael McDonald crooning on the choruses. I’ll come right out and say it: Plasma is the best Perfume album in a decade, and maybe their best album-as-album ever. Their records are usually somewhat bafflingly sequenced, full of jarring transitions; this one works from beginning to end. There’s not a bad track here. Give it a chance.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Wednesday, 3 August 2022 15:34 (one year ago) link
Enjoyable album. I liked the branching out into new styles and sounds on "Spinning World", "Flow", and "Drive'n the Rain", which are my three favorite tracks. the flute in the chorus of "Drive'n the Rain" is subtle and awesome!
― Vinnie, Monday, 15 August 2022 08:22 (one year ago) link
five months pass...
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