Single Review: Perfume - Nebula Romance

I really did not think we would get a second song from Nebula Romance: Part 2 as soon as we did — especially not the album title track. But, bitch. Here we are.

Now, I’ve not been too hot on Perfume’s singles for a while now. I’ve consistently found them to be a bit underwhelming. The singles are never flat out terrible. But I’m always overcome with a sense of ‘If only this song had more to it’. “If You Wanna” coulda been great, if it had more to it. “Polygon Wave” coulda been great, if it had more to it. “Flow” coulda been great, if it had more to it. “Moon” coulda been great, if i had more to it. “The Light” coulda been great, if it had more to it. “Temu Factory -Denzo Ningen-” coulda been great, if it had more to it. You get the picture. So it’s nice to have a Perfume song come along, where I’m like ‘THIS IS IT’. But “Nebula Romance” is just a digital release and not a promotional single. This is truly an unfortunate thing. Because not only is this song really good, I think it’s the best song Perfume have put out since “Spinning World”. It is just the kind of song Perfume should be pushing heavily at this point in their career — to move them out of seeming stuck in the likes of “Chocolate Disco” and “Polyrhythm”. Especially given that they don’t update these songs in any significant way. But also, “Nebula Romance” is so fucking perfect for the Summer and the current landscape of music, where 80s sounding shit is still popular. Also, with city pop still growing in popularity, this song would go over with those fans too and those in Japan who remember when such records were dropping — especially those who are into songs of a similar sound to Hideki Saijo’s “Sweet Surrender”, which “Nebula Romance” shares a lot in common with.

“Nebula Romance” sees Yasutaka ‘Yasutussy’ Nakata with his foot still firmly in the 80s, and I ain’t mad at it. He can keep his Birkenstock’d foot there if he wants, because the 80s vibe suits both him and Perfume down to the wireframed ground. Perfume’s core sound has always been 80s. Some of my favourite Perfume songs are of this sound — “Night Flight”, “Dream Fighter”, “Spice”, “1mm”, “Starlight Dreams”, “Spinning World”. And despite Perfume and Nakata having done so much in this space, there’s still so much unexplored in it, as “Nebula Romance” highlights. “Nebula Romance” manages to feel new for Perfume, which is reassuring to me as a fan who constantly questions whether Perfume’s sound will ever actually get to move forward and evolve. This song gives me hope that it could and that it just might.

It’s almost as though Perfume and Nakata have been reading my blog posts, because a few issues I addressed in my Nebula Romance: Part 1 review, which were also issues I addressed in my Plasma review, which were also issues I addressed in my Future Pop review — they are almost all addressed in this song.

I kid. I know they ain’t reading my posts, and it’s probably for the best that they don’t. But listening to “Nebula Romance” did make me go ‘OH’. Although having said all that — there was that one time the official Perfume Instagram account posted a screenshot of one of my posts as an Insta story.

One thing about Perfume’s songs I began to tire of was that Perfume so frequently sang in unison across entire songs. This wouldn’t have been so bad if the vocals were arranged in interesting ways, but they so rarely are. It’s just a-chan, Kashiyuka and Nocchi all singing in the exact same way. No harmonies. No layers. No nothing. And without the autotune and Nakata playing around with the vocals as he used to, songs can end up sounding really flat — particularly those where the song structure is boring and the energy in the production doesn’t shift. So it’s nice to have “Nebula Romance” come along and ride the same train as “Cosmic Treat” and “Starlight Dreams” — where a-chan, Kashiyuka and Nocchi get lines and verses to themselves. The major difference here being that the line distribution feels far more even than it did on both of those songs. It’s nice to hear Nocchi not get sidelined on, as she has consistently been post Triangle. Although I’d bet the only reason Nakata gave Nocchi decent airtime on “Nebula Romance” is because she has the better English in the group and is the best at singing through her R’s without heavily rolling them — it’s no coincidence that her lines in “Nebula Romance” feature the most amount of Rs and English. But, whatever. I’ll take it. Perfume also sings lower on this song than they usually do, which is a sweet spot for Nocchi, who tends to sound crusty when she sings high in her Perfume voice without the autotune to smooth it out.

The members of Perfume all have VERY different voices, regardless of whether they are singing in their Perfume voices or their natural voices. And Nakata not frequently highlighting the differences between them is such a waste, because it adds so much more texture to the songs — so it’s nice that he actually does so here. I’d still like Perfume to sing more in their natural voices. A-chan is the only member who is really pushing it more and more these days. Nocchi is still like ‘Girl, lemme just do these vocals and go home’. She doesn’t care, which is a shame. Nocchi’s feature on Sheena Ringo’s in 2024 made everybody aware that she has a far better voice than these Perfume songs had them believe. But still. It’s nice to hear her not be sidelined on “Nebula Romance”. Kashiyuka is just…there. She sounds really flat and can barely sing on key on this song. But the problem is less about her vocal ability and more about Nakata not bothering to lean into the strengths of how each member of Perfume sings — which is the same issue with Nocchi sounding flat and crusty on certain songs. Perfume needs better vocal production. And if Nakata can’t deliver that, then Perfume need to work with somebody that can. A different approach to how Perfume sings is a big part of what would push their music forward. “Nebula Romance” is proof of that. Still have Nakata produce the music, but have somebody else produce the vocals.

The mixing of Perfume’s vocals on this song is weird though. And this was also something I remember standing out to me during the bridge of “Polygon Wave” and on “Cosmic Treat”. I don’t know whether it’s the microphones in Nakata’s studio, the room Perfume’s vocals are being recorded in or just Nakata’s mixing. But the vocals sound really flat and compressed, as though they were recorded through a phone. The sound of the song is so damn good, and hearing Perfume’s vocals be far more front and centre and even give us some lil’ harmony moments distract from any mixing shortcomings. But it is a shame that the engineering and mixing on Perfume’s vocals were not a little better, just to make the colour and vibrance of the song pop that little bit more. But this isn’t something most will notice, given that there has always been somewhat of a lo-fi vibe to how Perfume’s vocals sound on songs. So when you pair this with the 80s sound, it’s easy to chalk the lo-fi vocals up to a creative choice. And on top of that, Nakata’s mixing can sometimes feel like a wall of sound, so the vocals sounding a little rough gets lost in that anyway. But on Nakata’s more recent productions where songs have more space in them and there aren’t as many effects on Perfume’s vocals, the fidelity (or lack there-of) and some of Nakata’s strange mixing choices are more noticeable. It’s not as bad on “Nebula Romance” as it is on the bridge of “Polygon Wave”. But there are moments when I’m like ‘Oh, okay. That was a bit rough.’

“Nebula Romance” isn’t beating the ‘Nebula Romance is just Perfume on Metro Pulse songs’ allegations. Nebula Romance: Part 1 definitely had that vibe and it’s really heightened on “Nebula Romance”. This song truly does sound like a Metro Pulse song, even down to it feeling like a song you would play on a cassette in a car — which was the vibe for several of the songs on Metro Pulse. But it’s hard to knock “Nebula Romance” for this, when the song is so good. And one of the first thoughts I had upon hearing Metro Pulse for the first time was ‘I wish Perfume were given some of these songs’ and Plasma would have been better for it. So I’m glad the sonics of Metro Pulse have been carried through into Perfume’s songs and albums, because it makes so much sense for them.

“Nebula Romance” continues this cool trend of Perfume’s songs sounding cool again. There was a bit of a period with Perfume during Cosmic Explorer and Future Pop, where Perfume’s songs just didn’t sound cool. We had a few cool cuts here and there. But generally, their sound just was not cool. There was a complete disconnect between how their performances looked and how some of their music sounded. But ever since “Polygon Wave” there has been this shift to Perfume’s songs sounding genuinely cool, a bit fresh and also very vibey. Songs on Nebula Romance: Part 1 such as “Ima Ima Ima”, “Jikuuka” and “Starlight Dreams” took me aback at how vibey and smooth they were. As somebody who adored Plasma’s vibey cut “Drive’n the Rain” — I’m all for vibefume. I think it works for them. It always has. “Macaroni”, “23:30”, “575”, “Spice”, “Furikaeru to Iru yo”, “Jikuuka” — each great songs which tap into something different for both Nakata and Perfume, but still feel very Nakata and Perfume. And “Nebula Romance” builds on that, whilst also managing to feel like it pulls from each of Perfume’s good albums. We get the sharpness of Game, the 80s of Triangle, the pop of JPN, the bounce of LEVEL3 and the vibes which were at the core of Plasma. Everything about this song just feels so right for Perfume right now. It’s just a shame that it wasn’t released as a promotional single and that Nakata cannot deliver consistency when it comes to his productions for Perfume.

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💿 Album reviews: Game | Complete Best | Triangle | LEVEL3 | JPN | Cosmic Explorer | The Best “P Cubed” | Future Pop | Plasma | Nebula Romance: Part 1

🎛️ Extended Mixes: Mawaru Kagami | Moon | Cosmic Treat | Nebula Romance