Tracks:

1. Take off

2. love the world

3. Dream Fighter

4. edge (⊿-mix)

5. NIGHT FLIGHT

6. Kiss and Music

7. Zero Gravity

8. I still love U

9. The best thing

10. Speed of Sound

11. One Room Disco

12. Negai (Album-mix)

⊿ is Perfume’s 2ND album (not including those impromptu best albums, bitches!) and it was released on July 8th, 2009. It reached #1 on the Oricon Weekly Charts and has sold 269,474 copies.

Take off does indeed “take off”. This is a perfect opening track for the album because it has the loopy synth and really sets the tone for the album. The girls count us down and then the album begins!

Our first single of the era, and it’s over a year old! love the world was a huge turn-around for Perfume. This is the perfect first full-length track because it shows what Perfume is all about.

Dream Fighter was a big surprise from the girls. This track showcases Perfume’s strongest vocals to date (yeah I know, they’re under Nakata’s vocoder, BUT STILL.) This song got a lot of smack talk from fans, but I still love this track to pieces.

A remix on an album? Blasphemy! The ⊿-mix of edge proves to be one of the best songs on the album. It pretty much takes both the extended version and the original and adds a lot of new bells and whistles on it, making it even more edgier. There’s a lot more synth, beats, and verses. This new version proves to be the best of the three.

Probably one of the most talked about songs so far this year is the infamous NIGHT FLIGHT. When it first surfaced on the net, I wasn’t to sure on how it would turn out. But once I finally heard the full version, I was quite impressed. For some reason, this song reminds me of an airplane, not just because of the CM, but just the synth. The synth is echoey and beepy, and oh so catchy.

Kiss and Music would’ve made such an amazing full track. This is Perfume’s first ~sex romp~, if you will. This time, more sensual, seductive synth is used. The girls sound really convincing too, especially during the chorus:

your eyes, your hands, your lips, love me. See me, touch me, catch me, kiss and music.

Things lighten up with the cheery Zero Gravity. This track is just as catchy as everything else on here and it’s probably the most progressive track so far.

At first, I didn’t really like I still love U. The girls sounded really weird (Nakata decided to layer them differently this time) with the 90s synth. Oh yeah, the synth. I didn’t really like that at first either. But now, I like it. But that’s about it.

Oh, The best thing. I looove this track. Perfume speed things up a bit and make this song sound a lot more club-friendly. This song is amazing musically, but lyrically it’s really short. Only about two verses and just a repetition of the chorus (WHICH IS THE BEST PART, MIGHT I ADD.) Also lyrically, the trio use more questionable lyrics:

you are my heart, my life, and my soul. I love you more then words can say, ah. You are my heart, my life and my soul. The best thing I can do is to show you now.

SO DIRTY, AMIRITE? I wonder who writes their lyrics anyways, unless they do it themselves. Oh well, this song is amazing either way.

The only song I didn’t like on this album was Speed of Sound. Like most of you have probably seen, this song sounds a lot like a certain Nakata-act’s song. Namely MEG with MAKE LOVE. I agree. The single word lines are kind of annoying, to be honest. But I do somewhat like the club-like music. I’m gonna have to pass on this one though.

One Room Disco, even though it was a previously released track, is one of the best tracks off the album. This song is just fun all around and the girls really did an amazing job with this extremely infectious track.

A big surprise on the album was the Album-mix of Negai, the B-side from the Dream Fighter single. I kind of liked the original back when it first came out, but this song takes the cake. A more grandiose arrangement is added. The synth is still there, but more strings and a louder beat are put in, making the original look like a flop. I thought it was the perfect way to end this great album and I couldn’t have thought of a better way to end it off.

Wow. That’s all I really have to say. Perfume, once again, shows that they’re three cute forces to be reckoned with! At first, I thought GAME was a better in terms of catchyness, but the more I listened to this album, the more I saw that it was far more superior. Perfume have definitely proved that they’re not ones to be messed with and have set a milestone for electropop artists everywhere. To be honest, this album would’ve probably gotten a 5/5, if it wasn’t for  and the fact that Kiss and Music was so short, otherwise I highly recommend this album if you’re trying to get into electropop artists, or just looking for some amazingly catchy music.

Overall Grade:

Tracks:

1. One Room Disco

2. 23:30

3. One Room Disco -Original Instrumental-

4. 23:30 -Original Instrumental-

Perfume’s One Room Disco was released on March 25th, 2009. It’s their 15th single and it debuted at #1 on the Oricon Weekly Charts, and it sold 77,325 copies in its first week.

Another high quality A-side from Perfume! One Room Disco is your typical cutesy Perfume song, but like always, it’s highly addictive with it’s catchy melody and (continually sounding stronger) vocoder vocals. For me, this track has the better hook of the previously released A-sides this era, because the ominous blaring synth in the beginning makes you think it’s something completely different. All in all, this song can be describe as a cute spring dance song. And congratulations to the girls for yet another #1 spot! You show them! (They beat Gackt who got the #2 spot by a longshot.)

I’m gonna be frank here. I hate 23:30, flat out. At first, it sounded nice and soothing with the bass plucks and the cute synth loops, but by the time the vocals come in I’m asleep. Perfume sound dead and monotone and I think this is the worst B-side they’ve put out in a long time, sorry to say, considering all of the others have been (not amazing) but pretty good.

Overall Grade:

Tracks:

1. Dream Fighter

2. Negai

3. Dream Fighter -Original Instrumental-

4. Negai -Original Instrumental-

Perfume’s Dream Fighter was released on November 19th 2008. It’s their 13th single and it debuted at #2 on the Oricon Weekly Charts, selling 70,873 copies in its first week.

First off we start with the trio’s more dance oriented, and somewhat aggressive, with Dream Fighter. I’ve noticed that this song has been getting a lot of negative criticism and I just want to say, “no.” Now that just may be my inner fanboy surfacing but I happen to really enjoy this song. I mean sure, it isn’t as good as Polyrhythm or love the world but it’s still another high-quality release from this amazing group. I know I’m probably gonna get bashed for this but it’s whatever. Anyway, like I was saying. This song focuses more on the dance sound and has a lot more synth rather than pop-synth. I like that each of the girls get their own solo part, and it shows how much stronger their voices are than they were a year or two ago.

The B-side showcases a COMPLETELY new sound from the trio. Negai is what I guess you could call a “tek-ballad” because it’s very chill and doesn’t have a lot of dance beats or heavy synth. I think it’s great that they’re experimenting with their sound a bit and I think they really pulled it off, because their voices can adapt with a slower tempoed song like they did in Macaroni. I love the ending to this, it’s nice but it’s also surprising. It ends with calming piano which definately was a good way to end it.

Overall Grade:

Tracks:

1. love the world

2. edge

3. love the world -original instrumental-

4. edge -extended mix-

Perfume’s love the world was released on July 9th, 2008. It’s their 7th major single and charted at #1 on the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart, selling 80,742 copies in its first week.

After an extremely successful album (which is still currently charting having sold 315,724 copies total) Perfume is back with this extremely infectious and catchy single. Like most have said love the world has this 80s retro feel to it, and I agree the looping synth and the thumping beat adds to that making it perfection. (No I’m not saying this because I LOOOOVE Perfume, I just REALLY like this song.) Yeah yeah, the vocals are filtered but WHO CARES. It probably wouldn’t be good if they were, because it wouldn’t exactly fit in with this type of song. ANYWAY. Like I said this song is extremely infectious and had me going the first time I heard. Let’s just say it jump-started my love for Perfume. <3

Following the almost exact same style as GAME, is edge. This song pretty much self-explanatory, it has an aggressive edge to it. GAME started to grow on me after a bit, so after hearing this that grew. I really like the aggressive sound to this track. The music, I guess you could say isn’t really synthy, more like full-blown techno.

The extended mix of edge is well… extended. This mix clocks in at 8 minutes 41 seconds… a little too long for me. I do like that they added more parts to it though, but I wouldn’t exactly listen to this partly through without hitting the next button.

Overall Grade:

Tracks:

1. Polyrhythm

2. plastic smile

3. GAME

4. Baby cruising Love

5. Chocolate Disco

6. Macaroni

7. Ceramic Girl

8. Take me Take me

9. Secret Secret

10. Butterfly

11. Twinkle Snow Powdery Snow

12. Puppy love

Perfume’s GAME was released on April 16th, 2008. It’s their 3rd album, but first full-length. It peaked at #1, selling 154,304 copies in their first week. It’s their first release to reach #1.

I think plastic smile captures a lot of Perfume. It’s what they’re all about. A fun upbeat song that’s perfect for a new-to-Perfume fan. It’s got a mid-tempo with all synth. As they’ve grown up, their voices have begun to flow together really well making the quality of their music so much better and I respect them for that.

The title track, GAME, is really heavy on beat and is probably their most aggressive song to date. It’s got electric guitar which makes it the perfect track for the title. It disappointed me though. The same vocals are throughout the song, making it partially instrumental. “Play the gaaaaaaaaame.” I think they could’ve done a lot better with it. The overall beat is great though.

My favourite new track is Ceramic Girl. Although it sounds like they’re saying “salami girl.” xD It’s upbeat and catchy and fits perfect in here. It’s midtempo and has plenty of synth with a good beat to back it up. Their vocals during the first few verses are a little faster than what we’ve heard in the past, but it fits perfectly in here. A must listen!

I found Take me Take me to be a little repetitive. Like GAME it features the same parts throughout the whole song. While it’s still an alright track, I wish they would’ve taken time to filter out a lot of the songs that were repetitive and edited them more. The only good part I likw about this song is that their English has gotten a lot better.  Oh yeah, and the part where they go “Take me tooooniiiiiiight.”

Secret Secret is a lot like Ceramic Girl in the sense of the tempo and style. It’s catchy and a good quality dance track, which makes me love Perfume even more. My third favourite song, among the new tracks.

I found Butterfly extremely unique because it has almost a jungle feeling to it, making it fit in with the song’s overall arrangement. It begins with an actual jungle ambience sound, birds and the like. The synth part of it makes it sound all the more jungley. By far my favourite one of my favourite new tracks.

Ending it all is the freaking amazing Puppy love. What makes it so amazing you ask? The fact that it contains almost no synth! It has guitar, percussion, and piano making it by far, the coolest Perfume song EVA. YOu can hear a little synth in it but that’s about it. The chorus is really catchy because the beat picks up and combines everything in it. It ends the album almost perfectly.

Overall, GAME shines among all of Perfume’s releases. It captures what makes Perfume, Perfume. (With the exception of a few songs.) All the songs fit them perfectly and fit in the album perfectly as well. Since it being their first album and all I can see why there are still a little rough patches, but if they pull it together and smooth out those patches, I feel they can make something shiny and perfect. Keep going you three!

Overall Grade:

1. Chocolate Disco

2. Twinkle Snow Powdery Snow

I figured I would review this single since it would be on Perfume’s first REAL album, GAME. (WHICH I AM ABSOLUTELY DYING TO GET. D: ) I absolutely love Chocolate Disco. It’s so fun and cute and I read something on it and it was dedicated to Valentine’s Day, which was the release date. It’s one of my favourite Perfume songs because of how catchy it is. If you listen closely during the chorus, you can hear some acoustic guitar! O:

Lastly, is the great couple for Chocolate Disco, Twinkle Snow Powdery Snow. (Long name isn’t it? xD) This song is also great because of the persistent beat it has. I like how in this song, it switches between the girls during some parts in the chorus. Perfect song to dance to! :3

Overall Grade:

1. Baby cruising Love

2. Macaroni

3. Baby cruising Love (Instrumental)

Macaroni (Instrumental)

A lot can be said about Baby cruising Love. But I’ll just sum it up in one word. AMA-ZA-ZING. I’d say it’s as good as Polyrhythm, if not better. I like how they’re slowing adding real instruments totheir music to make it sound more unique. The real instrument in this one is the piano which fits in the song perfectly. Their voices overall are a little synthy, but for the most part it’s all real, which is great because they have nice voices even without the added stuff. It’s got an extremely catchy tune that’ll have you dancing immediatly.

I was a bit skeptical at Macaroni. Since it’s possibly one of their slowest songs, and contains a lot less synth and techno than all of their songs. But besides that it’s got a nice, calm tune. It contrasts perfectly with the A-side because of that. It’s got a somewhat slow beat and has some percussion noises from what I hear.

Overall Grade:

1. Polyrhythm

2. SEVENTH HEAVEN

3. Polyrhythm -extra short edit-

4. Polyrhythm ~Original Instrumental~

5. SEVENTH HEAVEN ~Original Instrumental~

First up is the amazing Polyrhythm. Personally, I think this is by far their best single because to me it just seems to different, and this style of music is what fits them best. It’s so synthy and technoey, you can’t help but to dance! (I know I did. xD) Perfume’s vocals have improved DRASTICALLY since their previous singles and really made an impression to their fans. I really like the “Polyrhytumu”s throughout the song. Some might say it’s repetitive, but I enjoy it. xD

Next is the, also amazing, SEVENTH HEAVEN. The reason I like this song is because it’s COMPLETELY different from previous songs. It’s different because they actually used intsruments instead of just techno. It features piano and what sounds to me like guitar.

And finally is the extra short edit of Polyrhythm. My first thought: Why? It’s fine just the way it is. xD But hey for those people out there who don’t like the “polyrhytumu”s this is the song for you.

Overall Grade: