The last
Pizzicato Five release of the decade, this 12-track CD is tainted with a little melancholic
fin de siècle, especially in tracks such as "20th Century Girl" and "Goodbye Baby and Amen," the latter a duet with once-
Pizzicato Five lead vocalist
Takao Tajima. But other than that, this is typical late-period
Yasuharu Konishi, a breathless collage of distorted organ, speed lounge, dense rhythmic pile-ups, even
Faust-like metal ("Loudland!"). Only "Wild Strawberries," with its riff stolen from
Francoise Hardy, is reminiscent of their sound at the start of the '90s. Nods to the past:
Konishi indulges his own fan-boy wishes by working with '60s Japanese idol singer Mieko Hirota, letting her sing "Perfect World" in a
Spencer Davis Group-type arrangement;
Konishi polishes off a song from 1987's
Couples, "Serial Stories," for Nomiya Maki. An improvement over their previous album.
–
Ted Mills, Rovi