I won’t sugar-coat (if you'll pardon the pun) my opinion of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s catalogue up to this point. I’ve always found her to be the weakest link of Yasutaka Nakata’s acts with her work after the masterpiece “Moshi Moshi Harajuku” often veering into the twee, spluttering Akihabara territory that irritates me on a visceral level, with some platinum nuggets always buried within the coal.
Her last record “Japamyu”, though controversial within the fanbase, was in my opinion a much more mature and well-rounded project. I looked forward to hearing more songs going back to that Dance pop style and it turned out that I was right
about the direction, but also wrong.
On “Candy Racer”, Japanese pop starlet Kyary Pamyu Pamyu delivers her most eclectic, mindbending experience, yet with some glaring inconsistencies that halt me from fully embracing it as a J-pop classic.
Off the bat, we begin with insane, hyperkinetic gabber techno with Kyary’s deranged chipmunk coo panning into either ear in just the 1 minute intro alone.
This launches into the title track and Dodonpa’s explosive underground Berlin rave, with a sparse emphasis on rhythm and atmosphere previously unheard in any of Kyary’s work to this point.
Other standouts include the bittersweet jazz-infused pop jam “Gentenkaihi” which brings the Brill Building sound into what sounds like 31st century Japan, and an absolute classic in “Perfect Oneisan”, perfecting the kawaii R&B of “Gentenkaihi” with some added synthetic panache.
The main issue I have with this record, is that her and Nakata easily could have went the whole hog and made a truly avant-garde piece of mainstream pop music, but chose to pad out the good moments. Wether this be with the heinous Japamyu b-sides that she released as standalone singles after leaving the main Warner Bros label or the tacked on off-key CAPSULE cover.
