I did not like Perfume’s “Sweet Refrain” at all. Well, the video is cool…but I think the song itself just isn’t particularly good. What makes that song interesting (at least in theory) is how it sets the bass-wubs of brostep against a relatively skippy pop melody. Whereas most pop songs around the world featuring Skrillex-aping sounds let the drop stick out like rotting wood, Yasutaka Nakata was weaving the sounds of American dubstep into a song without disrupting the flow.
Problem to me is he’s played around with the sounds of EDM in much more interesting ways over the last year. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s “Invader Invader” wasn’t as subtle as “Sweet Refrain,” yet Nakata deliberately matched up the meatheaded electronics with what sounded like a kindergarten class playing recorders. It made…STILL makes…for a great listen, a legitimate subversion. Perfume’s Level3 has these moments too – many of the songs on that album tease typical EDM structure, but always defy it. “Sweet Refrain” wasn’t as interesting as any of that – it comes off as Nakata using EDM as a way to spike a rather hum-drum pop number, leaning on the “nowness” of the sound rather than doing anything interesting with it (especially compared to all the great stuff he’s already done with it). “Sweet Refrain” isn’t much better than Koda Kumi’s “Go To The Top.”
B-side “Koi Wa Zenkeishisei,” isn’t nearly as complicated (or trying too hard), and it definitely makes this “Sweet Refrain” single worth it. It is easy-breezy, and a bit of a departure from the sound dominating the arena-friendly Level3. The vocals are muted, and the bit right before the chorus where Perfume’s voices overlap with one another is particularly lovely. It isn’t blazing any new ground for the group…it features that synthesizer sound post-chorus that is the same sort of “Digital Love” loving sound Nakata has been loving since the mid-2000s. Yet this song is also unconcerned with anything trendy – no forced-in EDM, no wubs, no concerns about having to serve as theme music for a TV show – and, in a year where Perfume has been trying to figure out who they are moving forward in 2014, a nice moment of pause. Listen here.