Perfume - Level 3

Fantastic future pop, as expected!

I am in no way a hater of pop music but I do find myself disliking, or not caring for a lot of top 40 music. Every record Perfume made since their début (Game) has had the number one position. So why do I love Perfume’s music so much?
Perfume is an Electropop trio produced by Yasutaka Nakata. A big name in J-pop and one of the key factors of the group’s success.
What I love so much about Nakata’s general sound is his forward looking view on pop music. Lots of pop acts take their influence from a contemporary hype or a past movement. And of course that can lead to great results. (Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience) But with a lot of Nakata’s productions and especially Perfume’s songs, the music has a distinct quality that gives of the sense that it belongs perfectly at home in a futuristic nightclub. The three girls are great pop vocalists of course and they give the music a lot of charisma. Nakata layers their voices, which sometimes don’t even sound human anymore through the use of voice effects and voice manipulation, upon these futuristic Electropop beats in such a way that it becomes the perfect pop music for me.

But enough about Perfume in general, let’s discuss Level 3 in particular.
Firstly, the singles versus the album mixes. Level 3 had an amazing set of singles preceding it. Even Spending All My Time and Mirai no Museum where great, or at least interesting Perfume material in my opinion.
I do however prefer the actual single versions over the album remixes.
The “Spring Of Life” remix has some nice changes where the bridge that has been added as intro brings some nice momentum as it rolls with even more joyful force into the fantastic chorus.
The “Magic Of Life” and “Spending All My Time” remixes weren’t as good in my opinion. The “Magic Of Life” remix blows the chorus up a bit too much and so loses a bit of its charm.
In comparison to the single; the “Spending All My Time” remix is not really good at all. The placement of some parts and, the way it builds up to the great sing-along parts are unsuccessfully done in my opinion.
Some of the remixes did give me the feeling the record flowed a bit nicer into each other and I can always enjoy that.

The great b-sides that are included bring a nice variety to the mix, and some of the new songs are strong growers and potential classics in Perfume’s discography. “1mm” in particular is perfect Perfume material.
“Point” is a gorgeous Drum and Bass inspired track, and “Handy Man” is such an “out there” pop track that reminded me a bit of Nakata’s work with Kyary Pamyu Pamyu on her last record.
Overall I think this is one of Perfume’s strongest efforts yet. To me it brings elements of Triangle and JPN greatly together and takes the strong points of both.
I recommend this record to everyone looking for a great forward thinking pop record and whoever wants to take a look into Japan’s pop music scene.