Album review: Perfume - LEVEL3

For a group with such an unparalleled level of visual consistency, their music hasn't always matched. Game was an album I didn't like at first, but I soon grew to find it amazing. But JPN was a stumble, saved purely on the charms of the girls themselves and producer Nakata Yasutaka delivering stellar singles, which were so good that you overlooked the shortcomings of the album. In conjunction with this, Perfume have often come under fire for their sound being placed so firmly in the hands of Nakata with their sound sometimes blurring the lines between what is a song of theirs and a song of Capsules. But LEVEL3 marks the first album of Perfume's which feels as though it's built around the purpose of not just creating another sphere of Perfume's world, but one which has been built on everything they'd encountered and touched upon until now and then some.

LEVEL3 is one of Perfume's most diverse offerings. It is essentially the more refined offering which JPN should have been. The album dips and plucks from different styles and genres in a way that none of Perfume's previous albums have. Constantly to'ing and fro'ing between what you would expect to hear from Perfume and something you thought you'd never hear from them. "Handy man" is unlike anything the girls have done before. But then you have a song like "Spring of life" which is so typically Perfume and is the most straight shooting pop record the girls have done since "Glitter". LEVEL3 feels like an album which was thought through in retrospect of Perfume's previous releases. Nakata has managed to craft an album which features the best of Game, Triangle and JPN to form what is one of Perfume's most rounded and consistent albums. It does however falter on 3 occasions.

For the newness that Nakata spreads on this album, he does rehash for the song "Sleeping beauty", which is pretty much a LEVEL3 album mix of Game's "Butterfly". From the vibe, to the note progressions, to the lack of actual lyrics and vocal input from the girls. It is not a terrible song, but the album would not have been any worse off without it. Given that every other song on the album feels so fresh and difficult to draw comparisons to, "Sleeping beauty" is the short straw.

"Mirai no museum" is a piece of shit which ruins the flow of the album so much that I can not understand why Universal didn't leave it off. I don't give a fuck that the song was an A-side single for some anime about some blue cat with a bell around its neck. The song is rubbish. When the label were listening to this album upon submission, somebody should have rang the alarm and had this song removed. It's too sickly sweet and goes against the grain of everything else on the album. LEVEL3 is Perfume's big push into Western markets, so "Mirai no museum" is going to throw casual listeners of the album as they won't know that the song was produced for a kids cartoon. Fans know the story behind the song and why it sounds the way it does and still fucking hate it. Non Perfume fans will not have any time for this song. Leaving "Hurly burly" off of this album in place of "Mirai no crap" was the biggest mistake made on this album. "Hurly burly" would have fit brilliantly on this album and also made tracks 5 ("1mm"), 6 (What should have been "Hurly burly") and 7 ("Party maker") the holy trinity. At the very least Universal should have replaced "Mirai no rubbish" with "Hurly burly" for the European press of the album.

LEVEL3 sees the return of Nakata's controversial album mixes. These are a prime case of Nakata doing too much. As was the case with JPN, Nakata revises songs which were perfect in their original iterations. As much as I quickly dismissed "Magic of love", that song did not need to be touched and neither did "Spring of life" or "Spending all my time". "Magic of love" doesn't sound any worse or better off. It just...is. The ending feels much more conclusive than the video game bonus stage jingle which abruptly ended the single version. But everything else doesn't really add anything to the song. What makes this album mix come off even worse is that Perfume had performed to a mix of "Magic of love" which shits on the single mix AND the album mix, featuring a completely re-worked intro and retaining the melodic shifts of the single mix which many were annoyed got removed for the album mix. Not to mention that the more dance heavy drums only serve to further the arguments as to why "Hurly burly" was not short listed for the album, when the new drum sequencing is identical and could have been mixed straight into it had Nakata wanted to go the continuous play route.

"Spring of life" now opens and ends with the switch which originally occurred in the middle-8 of the single version. This was and still is the best part of the song. But by sticking it at the start and the end, it weakens the middle-8 completely and dampens the impact because you have already been spoilt with it from the start. What made the middle-8 so brilliant on the single mix was that it was so unexpected and polar from the rest of the song. But now it's the most prominent part of it which dilutes its effect. The album mix of "Spending all my time" is a shortened version of the extended mix which Perfume had performed at their Cannes showcase and also on World tour 2nd. It's nice to have this mix finally, but it doesn't work as well as a stand alone piece of music without the visuals and the performance to go with it. Personally, I think the single mix is far superior from a purely listening experience. Despite the single mix of "Spending all my time" being wholly repetitive, the album mix manages to make it even more so. The track 10 placing on the album does it no favours either. After a song like "Sleeping beauty" which features no vocals from the girls, to then have a mix of a song which strips out more of their vocals - it's too much.

The album mixes feel as though they were re-worked and structured solely for Perfume's live performances. Given there has always been mindful synergy between Perfume's music, performances and music videos, this makes sense. But I would rather have had the single mixes of the songs on the album, because they felt much more complete and conclusive. Make me cry over the reworked mixes that I hear on the tour. I'll get over it. If anything, Nakata should have reworked "Mirai no museum" into something decent which fit with the rest of the album. He also should have made a pass at album mixing "Daijobanai", which despite being a great song could have done with some reworking to break up the monotony. The same of which could be said for "Handy man".

On many of the albums tracks it feels as though Nakata is dialling things back, which works wonders. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's Nanda collection was a cacophony of sounds, with songs featuring melody changes, chord changes, sometimes sounding like three songs smashed into one. It showcased a really, bold, fresh, clusterfuck of sounds from a producer who seemed to have pigeon holed himself with the same ol', same ol'. But by stripping things back he essentially reveals the essence of Perfume's songs and how they completely diverge from those of Pussy Pam. "1mm" features no drastic melodic shift. In fact, the song doesn't really change or switch at all. But it's brilliant because the melody which permeates the song is so solid. There is a definite sense that Nakata didn't want to do the unnecessary with the songs on this album simply because he can. And it's this reason why the album mixes feel so odd to me, because it was just Nakata extending songs for absolutely no reason and going against his work on the other songs.

But Nakata does more right here than he does wrong. LEVEL3 shocked me purely because I wasn't in love with the singles from this era and therefore thought the album as a whole would be weak. I couldn't for the life of me think of how an album would hold together when Nakata was throwing around so many different and seemingly disjointed sounds for Perfume, meanwhile he was delivering a consistent string of quality singles for Pussy Pamyu which I much preferred. But when you listen to LEVEL3 as a whole, there is an over-arc which binds the songs together. LEVEL3 is the first Perfume album which features songs of a quite distinct genre which falls very cleanly outside of just pop and electro. "Party maker" and "Spending all my time" are Euro house / rave cuts. "1mm" is pop, with 80s R&B undertones. "Furikaeru to iru yo" is dub heavy. "Point" is dabbles with drum 'n' bass. "Handy man" is swashed in Turkish and Middle East style instrumentations. LEVEL3 feels almost like it is self aware. As though it is the culmination of fans who have made their voices heard around the world and somehow had that transfer into this album. Game, Triangle and JPN felt very self contained. But LEVEL3 feels like it has been coloured by Perfume's experiences over the past year and a half, and as a result their music feels much more tangible. JPN was criticised for not featuring hard hitting club tracks, so Nakata gave bitches "Party maker". A 7 minute Euphoric masterpiece, 4 minutes of which Nakata seems to forget he is producing a song for Perfume and not Capsule. Fans were quick to push "Mirai no museum" and "Magic of love" into the fire for the B-sides, both of which we get here. Fans complained Perfume's voices were too heavily autotuned, so Nakata strips it away on every track. Nakata often says he doesn't take into account what others say when it comes to his music, but there is a sense of him having done so here. Thankfully so.

This marks Perfume's first album where their vocals aren't completely smothered in autotune. The girls still sing like anime characters, but they now hit more than two notes per song and run through verses and choruses in a different rhythmic flow than before. The next evolution for the group would have to be the vocals. There is a sticking sense with some of the songs on this album (notably "1mm", "Clockwork" and "Daijobanai") that they would have been better had the girls sang with their natural singing voices. Despite Nakata being the one who insisted on the girls singing so lifelessly, even he is beginning to let the girls vocals emerge more and arranges the songs in a way which makes their vocals much more prominent. Well, except for "Sleeping booty". Perhaps in two albums time we'll get Perfume's natural singing voices on a track. It feels like it's where things could be headed.

LEVEL3 is a decent album. It marks one of Perfume's first albums which I liked instantly on a first listen. It is also the Perfume album which I feel has album tracks which outshine the singles like hell. The tracklist is also saved in great part due to the inclusion of the B-sides which delivered what the A-sides had failed to. The album feels like a nice step up from a group that at one point I was wondering could ever evolve musically. It's great to hear Yasutaka hasn't converged Perfume's sound with Pamyu Pamyu's, which is probably why "Communication" was left off. Fans were quick to throw that song under a steamroller for sounding too much like a Pussy Pamyu track (which it did). If there is one thing LEVEL3 lacks it's a constant spark. This album is Perfume's most mood evoking, but it peaks and troughs with its vibes far more than Game did - which upheld a constant energy and maintained it more unless until the very end. Even JPN (for all of its inconsistencies) featured those big electric songs which slapped you in the face. LEVEL3 never really tries to grab you straight away. It instead opts to take you on a ride on each track and have you feel your way around it in the hopes you'll see the eventual greatness within them. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. But it's a different take on the immediacy of Perfume songs that we're often granted.

I waver between which album I think is best between this, Triangle and Game, and my choice may differ depending on the time of day. Game was a much more straight shooting album and was great because of it. Where-as LEVEL3's feels much more textured and layered. It almost feels like Perfume and Nakata are on a journey to try and find something, which is a nice afterthought for the album and something which the Chrono Trigger-esque "Dream land" also alludes to. They have definitely come a long way together and this album is a step up from JPN, which featured strong singles, but was weak as an album.

This album features a nice variation of sounds without ever feeling alienating. Feeling familiar without ever sounding samey. Not only will LEVEL3 please long term fans, but it will win them a slew of newbies.

VERDICT: WHERE IS "HURLY BURLY"?

Highlights:
■ Spring of life (Album mix)
■ Clockwork 🔥
■ 1mm 🏆
■ Party maker 🔥
■ Furikaeru to Iru Yo 🔥
■ Daijobanai
■ Handy man 🔥
■ Dream land