So yesterday I received two packages: One was Perfume’s “Polyrhythm” single, the other Goto Maki’s last album, How to use SEXY. Since I ordered them off YesAsia, they came with a cute lil’ Japan mini thing which is basically a cheesy keychain-type character. (I chose one in the emoticon series.)

Besides the weird premonition I had that morning about foreseeing the ordered items arriving, I was mostly pretty thrilled. I have discovered that there is something that still keeps purchasing the singles/albums in their physical format desirable — the extra eyecandy, mostly, but exploring the CD cases is always a treat for me since I never seem to find any scanned pictures except for the front covers of the limited and regular editions. “Polyrhythm” is what I’m going to review today, and tomorrow I’ll probably tackle Maki’s album, since my opinion on this single by Perfume was already pretty solidified even before I got to hear the entire CD for myself.

(Also, sadly, I don’t possess a digital camera, so pictures of the CDs/obi are unobtainable. Just use your imaginations, or better yet, buy the CDs for yourself!)

Regular edition cover

Tracklisting:
1. ポリリズム
2. SEVENTH HEAVEN
3. ポリリズム ‐extra short edit‐
4. ポリリズム～Original Instrumental～
5. SEVENTH HEAVEN ～Original Instrumental～

As I expected I would, I ended up choosing the regular edition rather than the limited one. Why? The DVD is Region 2, so it won’t play on my DVD player, though it probably could on my computer (stop whining, Radicalpatriot, you can change the settings on your computer so it’ll play your DVDs, if yours works that way), but I only ever watch DVDs, like, once. So really, it would’ve just been unnecessary extra money, and people have uploaded the PV to YouTube a million times. I’ll never see it in high definition, sure, but somehow, that’s not an issue to me. It might bother others, but…it’s up to them what edition(s) they want their stuff to come in.

The CD booklet isn’t really much of a booklet at all. It’s basically a piece of cardboard folded in half, front side has the regular edition cover printed on it, the interior bears the lyrics to “Polyrhythm” and the B-side, “SEVENTH HEAVEN”, and the back of it is another picture of Perfume, but this time you can see more of their outfits (which are rather different from the ones in the PV; Nocchi’s got denim shorts which look quite fetching on her, Kashiyuka’s wearing a dark blue skirt, and A~chan has dark leggings, and all of their tops are different stylistically — oh, and A~chan’s dress isn’t quite as…spotty). It’s very lovely and I enjoy changing the cover for my own general amusement. There’s only so much entertainment you can get out of flipping over what is basically a piece of thin cardboard, but for some reason, I really enjoy how basic this single is. It’s not frilly like Hello! Project’s releases tend to be (even moreso with Morning Musume’s now, as they’ve got editions A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, all which come with photobooks or keychains or a T-shirt or sixty photocards or a lock of a random member’s hair), packed with some little extras which I guess means they want to bribe you so you keep buying their CDs and boosting their sales. It’s a bit sad, since it sort of shows that management isn’t comfortable in letting singles stand alone without any unnecessary add-ons anymore. That, or they just want to do something for the fans, but that in itself also makes me go “bzuh?”, because it just ends up costing a little more to create extras and then reprint them a million times. A person new to Morning Musume, or any other H!P group for that matter, isn’t going to care if they get a Reina card or one of Jun Jun. But I guess physical appearance is really what’s important in a business like the kind H!P is in, as opposed to actual vocal (or other) talent. Vulpi explained this further in her blog post here, which I highly recommend to fans of H!P and other Japanese groups.

On-topic: The back cover of the CD case is pretty colorful, although generic. It just looks like oranges, reds, yellows, and greens were spliced onto it, which makes it pretty, though I do wish a little bit that there was another picture of Perfume there… The tracklisting is also jiving there as well (of course), and the title of the group (Perfume!) and the single. They blended Perfume’s name with the katakana of “Polyrhythm” very nicely, in my opinion. Since “Perfume” is written in plain English, the ‘E’ leads off into the horizontal line of the ポ character, or “po”. The handakuten, or the little circle up there, is placed on top of the first リ, on the small vertical left-side stroke. (It’s times like these I sincerely hope my blog readers have a Japanese font pack installed on their computer.) Otherwise, it just looks really stylized, which I’ve heard is difficult to achieve with Japanese characters, since they’re so particular in their strokes/shapes.

Baby cruising Love PV

I’ve seen the PV for “Polyrhythm”, which is also nice in how basic, yet pretty, it is. I do have to express extreme HAAAAAATE for the choreography, though. God, it looked so thrown-together and random and it still does to me, these months later. I didn’t like the choreography for their newest PV release, “Baby cruising Love”, too, but it’s grown on me, compared to “Polyrhythm”’s.

Anyway, onto the actual single… I guess I’ll do a track-by-track review, since that’s the easiest way to keep things in order here.

Perfume holding the limited ed. CD

• TITLE: Polyrhythm (ポリリズム)
• RUNTIME: 04:10
• REVIEW: Ah, the title track. So many things could be said for this song. It’s not my favorite by Perfume (hi, “Electro World”), but it’s definitely up there in the top five. Its simplistic PV takes a more holisitic look at technology, tying it in with nature, and painting Perfume as something more…good-natured, in the process. It’s definitely interesting to see how this trio has evolved through their time together as a musical group: they’ve gone from plain, typical idolpop, to something more techno-influenced yet still relatively cutesy/harmless, to the major-label debut that brought us the epic trio of singles “Linear Motor Girl”, “Computer City”, and “Electro World”, to more greatness with “Chocolate Disco” and “Twinkle Snow Powdery Snow”, to (now) what may be their final state as a group. But even I can’t say that for sure — Perfume will probably continue evolving, showing the different sides of the techno genre and what can be done with it. They’ve definitely matured as a group, however, which is what I think I enjoy noticing the most. :) And Nakata Yasutaka is a great producer.

Back to “Polyrhythm”: The first time I heard this song, I felt the repetitive section was a bit grating and even downright annoying sometimes, but now I’m comfortable enough with it that it’s not a pressing matter anymore. This is kind of sad, as it means the “extra short edit” is of no real use to me, but eh… The more Perfume, the better. Next track.

• TITLE: SEVENTH HEAVEN (it’s really capitalized like that!)
• RUNTIME: 04:45
• REVIEW: This song surprised me initially by opening with a few beautiful piano keys! I was really not expecting such a lovely, ‘non-techno’ song from Perfume as the B-side to this single, but it honestly drives the holistic view presented in the PV for “Polyrhythm” straight home. It is still pretty danceable on its own, I suppose, and has a central beat, but is definitely much more stripped-down than your typical Perfume number. For the chorus it acquires the same techno sound they’re known for, and also features the repetitiveness that they’re known for with the endless repeating of “seventh heaven”, but otherwise, the song is filled with piano and acoustic guitar. The girls’ voices, however, are still “digitalized” throughout the entire song, much to my slight chagrin (I would really like to hear their natural voices on a track some day), but it’s a tiny drawback to what is really a nice song and one of Perfume’s best B-sides because it so lacks that B-side sound to it (come on, you know they generally have put less effort into their B-sides than in their A-sides in the past).

• TITLE: Polyrhythm ‐extra short edit‐ (ポリリズム ‐extra short edit‐)
• RUNTIME: 03:40 (compare with 04:10)
• REVIEW: Not much to say on this. Same “Polyrhythm” song, just with that repetitive section partway-through the song removed and the rest of the audio stitched back together as to not disturb the flow too seriously. For those of you who still hate the endless “poririzumumumu” and “poriiruupuruupu”, this was probably included for you.

• TITLE: Polyrhythm ～Original Instrumental～ (ポリリズム～Original Instrumental～)
• RUNTIME: 04:10
• REVIEW: This single is notable as being Perfume’s first to include instrumentals! I was personally pretty happy with this, not because I want to do karaoke, but because I’m such a big fan of techno music that I’ve always considered the instrumentals to be a huge part of the appeal Perfume holds for me. In their upcoming double A-side release “Baby cruising Love / Macaroni”, there will also be instrumentals on that, and while I’m not planning to purchase that single, I’ll definitely look into hearing those extra tracks.

• TITLE: SEVENTH HEAVEN ～Original Instrumental～
• RUNTIME: 04:45
• REVIEW: Another instrumental. “SEVENTH HEAVEN”’s is also a big deal to me because, as I mentioned before, the piano and acoustic guitar really create a pleasant harmony inbetween the moments of beat-heavy chorus. It also stands alone pretty well.

OVERALL, I give this single ★★★★★ out of five. Great effort, Perfume, and good luck on the sales with your next single. I’ll be looking forward to it, and thinking it over, I may even be asking for it as an early birthday present. :)