Kyary Pamyu Pamyu to release her 5th studio album Candy Racer in October

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is releasing her fifth studio album this year. It's coming in October. And it has the Wreck-It Ralph sounding-ass title of Candy Racer.

I did not expect Kyary Pamyu Pamyu to drop a new album this year, even though it makes complete sense that she would. Kyary has now released 5 singles post Japamyu. This year is her 10th anniversary. She announced an anniversary tour. And she's not released enough singles since her last Best album to release another one.

And one thing about being an artist and having Nakata Yasutaka produce all of your music is that there's a chance your shit will release close to another artist that Nakata produces for. Whenever there's a Perfume release, there's usually a Kyary release around the corner and visa-versa. Right now we're getting new Capsule singles, Capsule re-masters and a maxi single release from Perfume. So of course a Kyary album would be imminent. And to tie in with this even further, Candy Racer is also the first album of Kyary's since her debut album Pamyu Pamyu Revolution to feature Nakata Yasutaka's name on the cover.

Candy Racer | Limited Edition: Hardcover digipak with a 64 page booklet

Candy Racer | Regular edition

1. DE.BA.YA.SHI. 2021
2. Candy Racer
3. Dodonpa
4. Kamaitachi
5. Gentenkaihi
6. Kimi ga iine Kuretara
7. Gum Gum Girl
8. Perfect Oneisan
9. Jumping Up
10. Natsuiro Flower
11. World Fabrication

I need that sweater on the cover in my life. I like me a geometric pattern moment.

Ever since her 4th studio album Japamyu, Kyary has been making a clear effort to try and distance herself from the Kyary we were introduced to on Moshi Moshi Harajuku. But the music hasn't fully managed to catch up with Kyary's gradual image shift. "Gentenkaihi" is a song explicitly about Kyary's efforts to move on and close a loop on herself, but the singles leading up to it were pretty much what you'd expect from Kyary regardless. So it's going to be interesting to hear the album cuts and how this fares as a whole album. Because whilst Japamyu was made up of decent enough songs, it was light on standout, memorable, defining songs, and it pretty much felt like a collection of material rather than a body of work as I felt her previous albums were.

It really is unfortunate that we've already heard half of Candy Racer already, and that one of the album cuts ("DE.BA.YA.SHI. 2021") will inevitably be an album intro and another ("World Fabrication") is a Capsule cover which will yield no surprises if Kyary's previous Capsule covers are anything to go by. And slapping all of the singles smack bang in the middle of the album certainly was an interesting choice.

I have no expectations for this album whatsoever, which is how I go into all of Kyary's albums. I can't even set my expectations based on Nakata's output, because even when his sound has been all over the place, he's consistently done better by Kyary than he has Perfume and even Capsule.

Candy Racer will be released on October 27 physically and on all major streaming platforms, and will mark Kyary's first studio album release on her very own record label KRK Lab.

💿 Pamyu Pamyu album reviews: Japamyu | Pikapika Fantajin | Nanda Collection
📀 Pamyu Pamyu Special edition: Super Pamicom