Perfume - Triangle Review
Brett | August 26, 2009 | 11:51 pm |
Triangle is the third and latest release by the cute technopop trio Perfume. A band with an upbeat and charismatic sound, Perfume is definitely the type of music some people may love but others may hate. Triangle, containing 12 songs with 3 singles, was released on July 8, 2009 and reached 1 on the Oricon Daily Charts, 1 on the Oricon Weekly Charts, and 2 on the Oricon Monthly Charts. Perfume was something new to my ears when I first started listening to them about a year ago. Triangle hasn’t strayed far from the previous Perfume albums, which in my opinion is a good thing.
The album opens up with a short, 49 second, instrumental then countdown called Take off obviously representing the start of the album.
The next song, love the world, is an album single. The song is catchy and enjoyable in typical Perfume fashion.
Following love the world is the song Dream Fighter, another single off the album. In my mind it is another enjoyable song, with a tune that I always find myself humming. This might be my favorite track on the entire album.
Next up is the album version of the b-side on the love the world single edge. It starts of with about a minute of techno beats and instrumental and heads into a repeated vocal session for about 30 seconds to break into another techno beat and instrumental session. This is by no means a bad thing, the song remains chatchy and listenable, but it is not nearly as strong as the previous two songs.
NIGHT FLIGHT is the 5th song on the album and as with edge it isn’t a particularly great song, it isn’t bad.
Kiss and Music follows NIGHT FLIGHT and definitely goes with a different beat and style type than previous and most typical Perfume songs. It is a more laid back song with slower beats. It is nice to see a change in pace around halfway through the album.
Zero Gravity changes the pace set by Kiss and Music. I am glad it isn’t an extremely fast paced song, but it picks up the speed and is an overall enjoyable song.
Following Zero Gravity is I still love U. The song beings with about 30 seconds of instrumental to a digitalized voice. Once again, the song isn’t nearly as fast paced as some previous songs. At about 1:15 the song picks up into various voices over-lapping. This is truly a unique sound to me, and I love it. While the verses may not be as strong as the song’s chorus it is still one the best songs on the album.
Next up is The best thing which doesn’t do much different from the usual Perfume song formula.
Coming in at track number 10 is the song Speed of Sound. Essentially Speed of Sound is a four minute instrumental track. It is nothing special, and I do not view it as a waste of a track, but it just doesn’t do much for me.
The third single on the album is One Room Disco. Which along with the other two singles, is a great song. I keep saying that the songs are catchy because they really are. I find them to be the kind of songs that I put on repeat constantly, racking up the play count.
The last song, Negai, is a slower paced song that definitely gives closure to the album as a whole. The track has some nice sounds, but may seem like it is starting to drag on towards the end.
The final verdict: 8/10
Triangle as a whole is a good album from Perfume. I can definitely hear the maturity the group has gained over the past eight years in their vocals. The songs are catchy. I can’t get away from that fact, and I personally find that to be a good thing. It is hard to describe Perfume without listening to the music. With three greats singles and only two tracks I didn’t really care for, Triangle does a lot right. I just wish that the non-single songs were on par with how great the singles are. While I understand that singles are suppose to be the recognizable selling point of an album, thus being the best sounding. I find this a problem is American and Japanese music, whether the genre be Visual Kei, JPOP, JROCK, or indie-rock. While there are some albums, that I cherish, that are almost perfect, where every song is great, it is a rare thing to come across. Regardless, Perfume is a love or hate group, but if you don’t hate the initial sound, I think you will enjoy the music immensely.
Hopefully I didn’t go over board on the YouTube videos, I guess it can’t be a bad thing. ;)
