Perfume premiere "Cling, Cling" on their radio show

Perfume - Cling, cling | Random J Pop

To help quench the thirsty of the Perfume fandom, the holy trinity debuted their new single "Cling, cling" on their radio show and it's not quite what I expected based on the preview.

Firstly, the song is not quite as China-centric as the teaser and the outfits led us to believe it would be. The whole thing starts off sounding like a polyphonic ringtone version of a variation of Chun-Li's theme from Street Fighter, before launching into what sounds like a theme from a Double dragon game and then a couple of key changes which sound like something from Final Fantasy VI. Secondly, it sounds a heck of a lot like a Pamyu Pamyu song.

"Cling, cling" is pretty much a NES China remix of Pussy P's "Ninja re bang bang". Perfume and Pussy Pamyu producer Yasutaka Nakata has come under under fire for blurring the lines between two of his most prolific clients every now and then. With Pussy Pamyu and Perfume's Nanda collection and LEVEL3 albums respectively, he did a good job of drawing the line between them. But "Cling, cling" blurs this line and dry humps all over it. Nakata was producing music for Perfume and building their sound long before Pamyu Pamyu came along and the definitions in their sound was clear and it worked, so I don't get why he's shoehorned Pussy P's sound onto Perfume's when he never seems to do the reverse. The lyrics, the sound, the way in which they sing - "Cling, cling" is a Pamyu Pamyu song sung by Perfume.

The production on "Cling, cling" is as tight as you would expect from Nakata. The music never settles; constantly changing and shifting, as though it's on the run from itself. It's also nice to hear Perfume lace a song with harmonies and vocal layers. There's a greater sense of melody in their singing and I really like that this is becoming more of 'a thing' with Perfume's songs. But as with "Hold your hand" their voices are shrill to the point it kills the cool factor of the song.

"Cling, cling" isn't the strong offering I was hoping for. Their music video will scalp the nation and their live performances will shut Japan right the way down, but I am not loving this song.

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