[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb3IdLdIc6s”]
On the one hand, “Ponponpon” sees producer Yasutaka Nakata return to the sorta pure-pop sound he does exceedingly well with Perfume, and sometimes with Capsule and Meg. Now he’s working the boards for a fashion magazine model turned J-Pop singer, someone called Kyarypamyupamyu. “Ponponpon” sounds like Bugs-Bunnied-up electro-pop, Nakata coming home from the club bender of World Of Fantasy to make something partially inspired by dance music but also unabashedly pop. It’s a little too Perfume-without-Perfume, the post-chorus basically lifted from “Dream Fighter” but with a few knobs turned different ways. Still, Nakata tracks trend to draw from a relatively small pool of ideas, but he usually manages to keep them interesting. “Ponponpon” certainly has pure sugar pumping through its veins, and just hearing something this immediately catchy in the wake of Nakata’s club album sounds nice.
Yet there is something about “Ponponpon” I can’t quite put my finger on that drives me up a wall. Well, ignoring the video, a contender for “worst video of the year” if I’ve ever seen one. Nope, it’s that chorus…stupidly put, it is hella annoying. Maybe if one were to be locked in a small space with only this song’s repeated utterances of “pon pon pon” to keep them company, it would grow into something charming. Time will tell if this turns into pop genius or the new Gummibärs.