Perfume to release their 3rd compilation album, Perfume the Best P cubed

Let's get right into this shit.

Perfume will be releasing a new Best album in September. Undoubtedly some fans will (or already have) run rampant with the notion that this could be Perfume's last major label release before they perform at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and then call it a day - something that fans have been speculating for a while. It's certainly very plausible and I'm usually the first to run with a theory and try to predict the future. But for now, let's just take this for what it is. A Best release that is coming out because a Best release from Perfume at this point in their careers, makes sense.

Perfume the Best 'P Cubed' marks Perfume's third best release. Their first of which was released before Game and the second being Love the world (Yes, I'm counting this as a best release), which brought us a music video for their "Nee" B-side displeased pussy anthem "Fake it".

The promo shot in the post header shows more of the Nocchi discrimination we've been seeing since JPN. They told a bitch 'NO' to having her shot in colour. But it's fine. Because her shot is still better than a-chan's, who looks tired and absolutely done with it all.

Perfume the Best 'P Cubed' is the worst fucking name ever. I hope they just go with stylising it as P³. Not wonderfully Google search friendly, but Japan don't be caring about SEO anyway. And nothing on the group shows in Google for shit unless you slap 'J-Pop' or 'Girl group' next to 'Perfume' anyway.

Fuck it. I'mma call it P³.

So. P³ will release in a staggering 7 editions, each of which will come with a standard 3 CD's of music. The tracklist is yet to be confirmed, as it's being voted for by fans. I personally think they'd have been better off not entertaining this voting nonsense and just giving us all of the physical singles, the B-sides, the digital releases and the popular songs that were used as part of product tie-in's that weren't singles i.e "Night flight", "Party maker" and "Future pop". This is probably what the final tracklist will end up being anyway.

Interestingly, the official press release also states that all of the songs will be 'remastered' by Yasutaka Nakata. If this is the same remastering treatment that "Tokyo girl" got for Future pop, then we won't know the fucking difference. But it would be nice if Nakata actually tried and fixed up some of the mixing, because his shit really be like...

It's interesting to see that the Japanese music industry is still big on Best releases, particularly in an age where streaming and playlisting makes them pretty redundant, unless they come with new material. More so if a Best release is coming from an act whose entire back catalog is available on all streaming platforms, as Perfume's is. But still, having 52 Perfume songs on one physical release is a good look for those that want it. And a global physical release is likely given that LEVEL3, Cosmic explorer and Future pop all got as such.

P³ will be released on September 18th. Perfume are doing a second Reframe gig in Shibuya in October. There will be playing a total of 8 dates and tickets will be made available from August 31st. The full lowdown can be found on their official website. And I wouldn't be surprised if we got an announcement for a full blown national Best tour too.

If you want a collection of Perfume's bops in the meantime, I've already got you covered with a Spotify playlist, which coincidentally could also be abbreviated as P cubed.

🔊 Random J Pop Perfume playlist: Perfume Pussy Poppers