Though officially regarded as a compilation album (mostly due to its title), this is for most intents and purposes the first Perfume studio album. That said, this wasn't humble beginnings for either Perfume or their producer, Yasutaka Nakata.
A lot of people don't know that Nakata actually started out way back in the late 90's before eventually forming his own band, Capsule, in the early 2000's. He started out making loungy Shibuya-kei music that was probably influenced by Pizzicato Five, though it already featured the big infectious choruses that have become his trademark.
As for Perfume, they actually released their first two singles back in 2002 on an indie label called Momiji. If you only know them for their more recent music, those early tunes will sound practically unrecognizable. Neither single was written or produced by Nakata, and it shows. While not bad, they are a bit more in the generic bubbly vein, more akin to what Morning Musume were doing around that time. Despite the fact that these singles had extremely limited runs (pretty much exclusive to their hometown in Hiroshima) and did nothing on the charts, Nakata somehow heard them and decided to take them under his wing.
They started releasing singles together as early as 2003, which brings us to this album. The fact that this album collects material they did over a span of three years is part of the reason people tend to see this album as a compilation. While that makes sense, I feel like those songs were all initially intended to be on album like this of some kind, not to mention there's quite a bit of new material on here as well.
But anyway, let's get to the songs themselves. The album opens with 'Perfect Star Perfect Style' - more like perfect song if you ask me! This is legitimately one of my favorite Perfume songs, downright euphoric melodies all around with a really great synthy house arrangement. Though I guess that describes like half of Perfume's discography. Of all the songs on the album, it's probably the one most akin to their later material, though the Rhodes and general bubbliness help give it its own identity.
'Linear Motor Girl' is the first single to come up in the tracklist, though its funnily enough, much quirkier than the previous last track, particularly arrangement-wise. You have these big house drums paired with all these wacky synths and sampled bass. The verse kind of, weirdly, feels like a 60's psychedelic raga thing. And then of course you explode into yet another great euphoric chorus. The whole thing actually feels very reminiscent of early Capsule, which is a great thing in my book. It's honestly probably my favorite single on the album.
Another single comes next in the form of 'Computer City'. This song and 'Electro World' (the next track on this album and yet another single) are somewhat unique in Perfume's discography in that they seem to combine their trademark choruses with some... mid-2000's power pop influence? Especially 'Electro World', which deceptively starts out with some atmospheric synths, only to explode into a crunchy guitar-driven chorus. Neither song are amongst my favorites, though of the two I prefer 'Electro World', just for having a catchier chorus and more varied arrangement (i.e. the aforementioned synth intro).
Coming up next is another one of my favorite tracks on the album (and once again, one of my favorite Perfume tracks in general), 'Inryoku', which translates to 'Attraction'. Perhaps one of the most Shibuya-kei/picopop-influenced songs in Perfume's discography, with some great bossa nova-sounding chords and Pizzicato Five-inspired arrangement and of course, more super infectious melodies. Sorta funny how most of my favorite tracks on this album weren't singles.
'Monochrome Effect' (another single) closes out the first half of the album, and it's kind of an interesting one. I kind of get an 80's J-pop/synthpop vibe from the verses, with the galloping YMO-style rhythm and synthy laser noises. That's followed up by an extremely sugary, major-key melody that while extremely catchy, feels somewhat atypical for both Perfume and Nakata. It sounds more like an anime theme song or maybe a Morning Musume song. That said, it is still fairly infectious, and the chiptuney synthy arrangement is excellent.
'Vitamin Drop' starts out the second half of the album, and it's a contender for my second favorite single off the album. I just love that chorus, which once again sounds extremely Shibuya-kei inspired. But then you have the verses, which sound a lot more typically like Perfume. They're pretty good, but honestly this song is all about that chorus. What a killer chorus, especially when followed by that heavenly 'la-la-la' section.
The peppiness of that song is followed by perhaps an even peppier song: 'Sweet Donuts', the earliest single on this album (dating back to 2003). Not bad, but probably my least favorite of the singles on here. It does have a catchy chorus, but it's just not as intriguing as the other stuff on display here, and definitely an inauspicious start to the Perfume-Nakata partnership.
However, that is followed up by another killer album track, and perhaps one of their most underrated songs - 'Foundation'. It actually sounds extremely similar to the stuff they'd be doing on Game not too long afterwards. Just beautiful melodies all around, and I love the transition from the verse to the slightly woozier chorus.
I'm not as big into the next two tracks, 'Computer Driving' and 'Perfume' (yeah, that's right - they have a song named after themselves! Black Sabbathin' it up!). They both follow the same kind of atypical peppy vibe that 'Monochrome Effect' had, with a bit more of a picopop feel I guess. The arrangements are excellent as always but the melodies just don't do it as much for me. I could see 'Computer Driving' growing on me though.
Closing out the album, you have an excellent ballad called 'wonder2'. Don't worry - this isn't your standard kind of ballad. Instead, you have some more beautiful atmospheric synths and dreamy reverby la-la backing vocals. It's like dream pop with synths! Kinda like New Album by Boris, I guess. A perfect ending to the album. And you gotta love that title. That's exactly what I'd name an Audacity file or something, and heck that's probably exactly how it came about.
So, Complete Best by Perfume! What do I think of it overall? I have to say, it's scary how many good melodies there are on this album. Even the tracks I perceive as weaker have some kind of infectious chorus going for it. So on that front, it's an extremely solid album. Yeah, there are lows and highs, but the lows are only like 7/10 and the highs are at least 11/10. And it is really cool to hear Perfume go for the Shibuya-kei/picopop thing so heavily on a few of these tracks, considering from here on out they would hardly ever return to it. Shortly after this album, the group would release 'Chocolate Disco' and 'Polyrhythm' as singles, which would pretty much change everything for them.
But anyway, speaking as a big Nakata fanboy, I can easily say this is one of my favorite albums by him, and perhaps in my top 3 Perfume albums. And they were just getting started.
TRACK PICKS:
- Perfect Star Perfect Style
- Linear Motor Girl
- Inryoku
- Vitamin Drop
- Foundation
- wonder2
OVERALL RATING: 8/10
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