A new Perfume song “Flow” to feature in the TBS Tuesday night drama, Fight Song

Perfume said ‘Roll all the shit out whilst Nakata’s output isn’t completely trash’. Because they have a new song on the way titled “Flow” which will feature as the theme song to the TBS drama Fight Song, which starts airing on January 11th. 

I hear the word ‘Fight’ in the context of Perfume, and I think a-chan trying Kashiyuka how she tries Nocchi and getting slapped. But I also think Chihayafuru and “Flash”. So in my mind, that’s the type of song I was expecting. BUT NOPE. Nakata is still in his 80s bag, as evidenced by Capsule's last three singles and Kyary’s Vroom Vroom Pussy Pamyu's Candy Racer. But in the case of Perfume, rather than the Game throwbacks we got with “Polygon Wave” and “Mirror Ball”, we're getting a lil’ JPN “575” throwback. A song which always felt mad out of place on JPN and would've been a far better fit on either Game or Triangle any way.

しっとりした曲だな🤔#prfm #火曜ドラマ#清原果耶 #ファイトソング pic.twitter.com/Cf0DuPwLOc

— まーくん𝟐𝟐® (@djmarkn_jpn) January 4, 2022

“575” is a highlight in Perfume’s discography, and it's a sound I've always wanted them to touch on more, so I like what I'm hearing. But Nakata's song structures for Perfume are a problem, so I’mma need to hear the whole thing. And as is a common thought I’ve been having with Perfume’s songs for years, this would sound so much better if Perfume were singing it in their natural voices. Just think of how much smoother and sexier it would sound.

Fight Song | © Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Inc.

Fight Song stars Kaya Kiyohara, Fuma Kikuchi of the Johnny’s boy band Sexy Zone and Shotaro Mamiya. And the synopsis for the show is that the main girl used to compete in karate, but an injury fucks up her career and now a bitch is sad and works in a shop. She meets some guy who turns out to be the writer of the song she used to listen to to psyche her up before every match (the titular Fight Song', but he’s a flop who only has the one hit. The two of them will obviously end up having some type of ‘thing’. And then there’s some other guy, because of course a J-drama would feature some other guy for the sake of a love triangle which drags out for 12 episodes.

Kaya Kiyohara also starred in the third Chihayafuru movie, although not the one which featured “Flash”. But that’s still a thread, I guess.

There’s currently no release date for “Flow”, but regardless, we’ll be hearing more of it on January 11th when Fight Song airs. And if this goes how things usually go, we may get to hear the song on the radio School of Lock a little earlier. I don't think “Flow” will be a single though. It's too slow for a Perfume single, although I'd like for Perfume to buck a trend and go with it as a sole A-side release. What I think will happen is that we'll get a whole new single around March / April which will be a cute uptempo song that'll get a physical release, and “Flow” will feature as a B-Side.

And at this rate we could get a new Perfume album by August / September. Not only has it been 4 years since Future Pop, but Perfume had mentioned in an interview that Nakata has been cranking out songs. I don’t think Perfume’s team are planning too far ahead. But if Nakata manages to get an albums' worth of material together over the next couple of months, then I think Perfume’s team will say ‘Fuck it’ and release an album. Or maybe they won’t, and they’ll just put out a couple of singles and another EP for 2022, which I wouldn’t be mad at.

Perfume’s music isn’t doing enough for me at the moment to be clamouring for an album, even with Nakata having done good by Capsule and Kyary, and that’s simply because nothing of Perfume’s post Future Pop has been particularly great. Unless Perfume cull singles and B-Sides, then we’re getting “Saisei”, “Time Warp”, “Polygon Wave” and either “∞Loop” or “Android&” (maybe even both) and “Mirror Ball” on an album, which is half an album already, and I'm not really feeling this.

I either need a string of consistent singles where I get some sense of Perfume’s music actually evolving, or an album which shows it from front to back, and I can't see either happening in 2022. But it’s good to hear Perfume's music is slowly clawing it’s way out of the ditch...for now.

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