Recently,
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu (きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ) released her first best of compilation,
titled “KPP BEST” (May 2016),
featuring all her a-sides, some b-sides, a couple of album tracks and even new
songs. It’s a good collection to see how Yasutaka
Nakata (中田ヤスタカ) managed to put this girl in the
spotlight with his quirky electronic music tricks over five years since her
debut with the magical “Pon Pon Pon”
in 2011. On the other side, it also shows how he kind of lost the magic touch
in her latest singles, which is a pity considering Kyary, alongside BABYMETAL,
is Japan’s most famous act oversea. Let’s see if he’ll be able to create great
songs for Kyary – and even Perfume – again.
“CANDY CANDY”, which was Kyary’s second single, from April
2012, is obviously part of “KPP BEST”.
Not only, it’s a great reminder of how
good Kyary and Nakata’s partnership used to be until around 2014. In fact,
it was with “CANDY CANDY” that Kyary truly won my heart.
Kyary
starts the video running around with a toaste in her mouth, just like a typical anime
character who is late for some important appointment (in Kyary’s case, it’s
a performence in a The Best Ten-like
music show, which is a nice homage to Japan’s classic 80s). Then, at some
point, we meet a masked male dancer
dressed like Kyary who likes to do some break
dance. Finally, there are the great sequences where Kyary dances along the big onion and even shoots it with a pink rifle
while doing a crazy face (all this
in a very pink and fluffy world, of course). Rounding everything, there’s “CANDY
CANDY” playing in the background with its bubblegum-like
synth melody and the repetitive
chorus, which just adds to this kind of psychotic scenario. And I can’t even say it’s Kyary’s most
psychotic video ever.
As a side note, here’s a
good eurodisco song with candy in
the title that don’t have nothing to do with Kyary, but I love it anyway and
wanted to put it here without proper reason. It’s called “Candy Love” (1986) and is sung by Swedish duo Lili & Susie.
Kyary’s “CANDY CANDY” reached #8
on the Oricon charts, selling 16,688
copies. It was later included in her first album, “Pamyu Pamyu Revolution” (ぱみゅぱみゅレボリューション). As always, Nakata was responsible for lyrics, music and arrangement.
Source: generasia.com
I'm starting to regret that I didn't get a chance to see Kyary Kyary Pamyu at the Art Gallery of Ontario downtown she came down for a couple of nights of performances after listening to "Candy Candy". She and Nakata did make a good duo.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Kyary Pamyu Pamyu videos, I think the one to beat for craziness is "Ninjya Re Bang Bang"....those dancing CG robots! Still, the proxy Kyary in the "Candy Candy" video was also quite amazing in his moves.