All that's old is new with Perfume's P cubed (P³) song "Challenger"

Fans who were looking forward to P³ were only really waiting on hearing the second new song on the Best set, because they / we have already heard everything else.

I honestly imagine that however y'all felt about "Nananananairo" is how you'll probably feel about "Challenger" as it's cut from the same cloth. Or so you think.

If Kyary Pamyu Pamyu were to record a song for a Mario Kart commercial, "Challenger" is what it'd sound like. And with that, I immediately thought 'Here we go again. Perfume with another Pussy Pamyu song'. But when "Challenger" had finished and then "Linear motor girl" came straight after, I noticed that they sounded similar sonically and that it can't have been a complete coincidence.

Then coincidentally, I saw an interview that Natalie had done with Perfume, not even 15 minutes after I'd heard the song. And everything made sense.

It turns out (if Miss Google is being reliable) that "Challenger" was a song that Nakata had originally made back when he first started working with Perfume, but they'd never recorded it. So when the discussion came up about including new material on P³, Perfume's manager floated the idea to the girls of actually recording this old as hell song to bridge the gap between Perfume then and Perfume now. He then asked Nakata to rework the song and re-write the lyrics and that's how we have "Challenger" as the first song on P³ and why it fits so well alongside "Linear motor girl".

Perfume referred to P³ as 'Putting a lot of memories in a treasure chest. Perfume story starts again from here.' Which also gives "Challenger" a greater context, as it's them drawing a line under an entire period of their lives as well as their careers.

The sentiment behind "Challenger" is great and it even manages to make "Nananananairo" make sense, especially with it being the last song on P³. But it's still not a song that I'll play. And I still hate that it sounds like a Pussy Pamyu song, even though it was originally made before anybody other than Mr. and Mrs. Pamyu even knew who she was. And even if Manager-san hadn't suggested that Nakata pull out that an old song for Perfume, he woulda given them some shit like this anyway, because apparently it's Perfume's sound now.

Whilst it's very easy to just skip P³ as a whole, something to note is that all of the tracks have been remastered. The differences between the P³ versions of songs and the originals are small. So much so they're non-existent in cases. But some of the songs definitely feature improved mixing and clarity. So be sure to give P³ a listen through your headphones. And as P³ goes as a Best collection, it's pretty stellar. It flows really well despite every song running in release order.

🎧 Stream Perfume: The Best "P cubed": Spotify | Apple Music | Google Play Music

🎧 Random J Pop Perfume playlist: P.P.P
📝 Perfume album reviews: Game | ⊿ | JPN | LEVEL3 | Cosmic explorer | Future pop