JPN

Perfume’s third album, 2011’s JPN, is wall to wall synths and ultra-precise digital production, including tons of finely chopped editing of the girls’ vocals, but melodically, it’s all over the place. “Natural ni Koishite” has an almost R&B strut, while “Glitter” and “Toki no Hari” are built around sing-song melodies with the hypnotic power of music aimed at preschoolers. “Laser Beam” is berserk cyber-chip-pop that explodes briefly into a stuttering, spasming explosion of inhumanity, as the girls’ voices are used as sampled percussion instruments and the whole thing breaks down into a digital stutter at the end of the bridge. It leads seamlessly into the Underworld-ish rave anthem “Glitter.” Gradually, the album’s pace builds and then slows, until the final single and closing track, “Spice.” A midtempo throb built around a hypnotic vocal line shared among the girls, and synth lines more reminiscent of ’80s dreamy pop than hard urban cyber-R&B, it’s a softly smiling wave goodbye.