Perfume’s song “Moon” to feature in Fuji TV’s live-action adaptation of Barakamon. And Nakata might still have a toe in a bag...

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A promotional image for Fuji TV’s adaptation of Barakamon, featuring Ririsa Miyazaki and Yosuke Sugino.

Perfume ain’t wasting no time. From the Plasma tour, to Primavera, to Code of Perfume (where they debuted a new song), to now the news that another new song of theirs will be featured in a J-drama.
Get money bitch.

Barakamon releases on July 12, and following the announcement that a new Perfume song would be featured in it, a teaser featuring a snippet of said song is already doing the rounds.

The official website for Barakamon features a YouTube embed for a trailer, but it’s region locked. So, it’s a raggedy Twitter embed of the trailer instead I’m afraid. Only a Japanese broadcasting company would set up a website for their upcoming J-drama which features a song by Perfume, a group who JUST performed in Spain and London, and then region lock the trailer.

Because, Japan.

I’m glad that “Moon” isn’t some completley cutesy bullshit. Especially off the back of “Spinning World” and “Love Cloud”, which might be the pussiest song Perfume have recorded since “1mm”.

BUT.

I already know from the snippet that my issue with this song is going to be Perfume’s vocals. I like the sound and the vibe of the song. And I actually like that Perfume are singing in a lower register. But the vocals sound so flat and crusty. And the whole ‘Mooon, mooon, mooon’ sounds like some nursery rhyme shit, and I want Perfume to move away from songs which sounds like nursery rhymes, which was one of several issues I had with Future Pop.

There is always something, huh?

Something interesting I noticed in the teaser is that “Moon” was credited as being a Polydor Records release. This isn’t a huge deal on the surface. Perfume were signed to Universal J, which it turns out was once called Universal Polydor 10 years ago. But as of January 1, 2023, Universal J had split into two record labels: UJ and Polydor Records. Polydor Records is now the new home of Perfume Records, Perfume’s own label which was established following their move from Tokuma Japan Communications to Universal for the release of LEVEL3. Nothing should change other than perhaps a new logo at the end of their music videos. Hopefully. Sometimes there can be all manner of fuckery which comes with a label reshuffle. But this seems to have a bigger impact when it happens in the US, than when it does in Japan. But this doesn’t mean it’s not possible. And this could potentially be what was behind the kerfuffle back in 2019 / 2020 when some of Perfume’s albums were removed from streaming.

HENNYWAY.

Barakamon starts airing on July 12, 2023. And whilst there has been no news of “Moon” being released as a single YET, Perfume could announce next week that it will be releasing digitally. But if it doesn’t, I’m sure Perfume will appear on some radio show and play the song in full.

Now. Let’s speculate what the timeline will be for Perfume’s next single proper.

My prediction is that we will get a new single announcement around the end of July / early August. This will be a physical release, which will drop in mid September, and it will feature “Moon” and “Love Cloud” as B-sides. “Love Cloud” will end up being tagged as the ‘Code of Perfume version’, because Nakata will absolutely tweak that shit for later performances and an album release, given that he was pushed to finish off the song so Perfume could perform it at Code of Perfume.

Dropping a new single in mid September would give Perfume a window to promote the song, do televised performances of it and promote their P.T.A.15th&10th Anniversary tour which starts at the end of September and ends in November. They will more than likely participate in Kōhaku Uta Gassen, where they will perform this new song and “Doo-Doo Disco”.

Then in January will get an announcement for another single, which will drop in February.

This is the same timeline as when Perfume announced and released “Time Warp”, which was also right before some oddly titled anniversary shenanigans.

Let’s see how it all shakes out. Whatever happens, fans are getting it good this year.

🎛️ Perfume megamixes Cosmic Explorer megamix | LEVEL3 megamix | Game megamix

🎧 Playlists: The Rest “P Cubed” | Perfume Pussy Poppers

💿 Album reviews: Plasma | The Best “P Cubed” | Future Pop | Cosmic Explorer | LEVEL3 | JPN | Triangle | Game | Complete Best

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