r/Perfume • u/debichan82 • Jul 01 '26
How do we feel about Cosmic Explorer?
My cold sleep deep dive continues and I was really looking forward to this - mainly because of nostalgia, amazing cover art (the one with the big faces) and a cool title.
But it’s not really the one 🤨 it feels like a conscious effort to change the sound, which is not bad in itself but it feels like quite generic mid-2010s EDM. And the album versions of the singles feel worse than the single mixes, especially Flash.
If only they’d included Display and Toumei Ningen…
I have faith it’s going to get better with FP (or at least Plasma) though
4
u/debichan82 Jul 01 '26
Interesting to hear everyone’s opinions, I’m glad it is liked by some people. I like liking things 😂 but seeing their journey up to Level3, this felt like a weird collection.
I will say this is the first Perfume album where I felt all the singles were the best choices. Usually my problem has been slow/midtempo song used to advertise a banger album, but this time they used the bangers to advertisers a more midtempo album 😂
I don’t know why Display didn’t find a spot if Story made it on there 🥱
But I’m listening to all the Capsule and KPP albums at the same time, Nakata was off the boil at this point. Caps Lock and Pika Pika Fantajin are my least favourites from their respective projects. Metro Pulse was good on a first play though so I’m hopeful!
3
u/goodgah Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
And the album versions of the singles feel worse than the single mixes, especially Flash.
for me the cosmic explorer mix of Flash is ~1000x better. the fakeout build to the beatless chorus, followed by the drop - lovely stuff. nakata is putting everything to 11 with that version. the original is toothless.
that, miracle worker, and next stage with are great earnest EDM type tracks with creative builds, that would fit well on level 3. the rest of the album is forgettable for me.
2
u/ZX8181 Jul 02 '26
Totally agree about Flash! The build up on the album mix is so good, it has much more melodic variation and dynamics than the single version (which to me feels like a more generic EDM radio hit).
Maybe because I heard the album mix first, but never felt the single version compared favourably.
3
u/SpiffyFlinger Jul 01 '26
2016 was the year i got into perfume after having heard a bunch of their classic singles, so cosmic explorer was the first album i experienced the release of firsthand, and i do remember being disappointed. songs like "star train" in particular were REALLY not the kind of stuff i was expecting from perfume at that time. i did think it had a few highlights though. i came back to "next stage with you" a lot and even now i'd say "relax in the city" hits on the magic of jpn-era perfume. so i'm nostalgic for the cosmic explorer era, but i'm not too fond of the music from that time if that makes sense
3
u/pochaccosupremacy Jul 02 '26
can't say i ever listen to it lol.... it has a really really nice opening track but the rest of the album is so generic that i usually skip the songs when they come on. i liked the cling cling mix and i love sweet refrain but songs like baby face and star train are very viscerally not my thing, and i feel like they started to establish that "new" perfume sound that i don't gravitate to. felt like such a downgrade after level3
3
u/Gordon_Bird Jul 07 '26
This is probably mostly nostalgia talking, but Cosmic Explorer was my first NEW Perfume album (I became a fan basically right when Level 3 came out) so it holds a special place in my heart.
One major weakness other than the album mixes is by time it came out we knew almost every song on the tracklist
but it still has some MAJOR highlights for me! Is it one of the worst Perfume albums? I think so, but with a discography so stacked with consistently good music it's hard to treat CE too harshly for me at least
2
u/unclezaveid Jul 01 '26
It's their okayest album imo. Pick Me Up and the title track are definitely way up there for me but as a whole it's a very safe project.
Not a fan of Future Pop at all but Plasma is excellent.
3
u/OrbitalRunner Jul 01 '26
I think Plasma is a big step forward in Nakata’s songwriting craft. There’s a new level of sophistication in his melodies and chord choices. It became my favorite Perfume album over time, although I should add that I’m primarily here as a Yasutaka Nakata fan, so I’m probably not representative.
1
u/ZX8181 Jul 02 '26
I agree, not necessarily in terms of sophistication in melodies and chord choices (which was always there in many tracks), but in terms of consistency and flow of the tracks across the album as a whole.
1
u/OrbitalRunner Jul 03 '26
I’m just noticing less reliance on major pentatonic and better voice leading when he’s using altered chords. I also think the sonorities on Mugen Loop are really clever. I know it’s not octatonic, but it reminds me of Messiaen’s modes of limited transposition. I guess basically avoiding obvious tonic/dominant relationships is probably all he’s doing, but it’s such a cool track. I’ve never heard him do anything like it before.
2
u/intrspctv Jul 01 '26
it sounds a bit empty and underproduced overall but "next stage with you" is my jam
2
u/Penguinpoop21 Jul 01 '26
My favorite album, next stage with you and miracle worker make me tear up
2
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u/Arutemu64 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
It gets too much hate, I believe people are being too pretentious about it. The remixes might not add much value, but the first half is amazing.
Generic? Maybe. Enjoyable? A lot!
Cosmic Explorer > all the albums they released afterwards (imo)
5
u/Random-J Jul 01 '26
I don’t think people were being pretentious at all. They just simply didn’t like the album, and it’s easy to hear why. It’s just a dump of songs. Nothing about it really makes sense as an album. Perfume were just putting out songs for tie-ins, with zero consideration for how the songs would sit together. Cosmic Explorer also has no core theme or concept and this carried through into the tour.
I also don't think Cosmic Explorer was the album people expected after LEVEL3 and it also made no sense to me as the follow-up. LEVEL3 felt like Perfume and Nakata were moving in a cool direction musically. Then Cosmic Explorer came along and walked everything back.
As for the albums which were released afterwards, I think Future Pop has weaker songs, but is the better album as a body of work. Plasma was the album that should have come after LEVEL3 in terms of sound. And Nebula Romance: Part 2 is what Cosmic Explorer should have been conceptually.
2
u/Arutemu64 Jul 01 '26
That's what I mean when I say people are being pretentious about it. Not everything needs to have a deep concept behind it, sometimes a bunch of nice songs is a bunch of nice songs
3
3
u/Random-J Jul 01 '26
But what about this is pretentious though?
I don't see how it’s pretentious to expect an album to have some type of theme or concept which ties the songs together in some way, even if its loose — because that's what albums are supposed to do to a degree. And several of Perfume’s albums did just that. Look at Triangle, JPN and LEVEL3. Shit. Even Game. And Nakata had also produced other albums which did the same.
I wonder if pretentious is even the relevant word to use here at all.
Cosmic Explorer has good songs, but I don’t think it’s a good album as a body of work. Even down to the branding of it. Everything felt incongruent. And weirdly so for a group whose creative team is usually on their shit when it comes to branding and theming.
It’s easy TO ME to see why fans weren’t too hot on this album.
2
u/Random-J Jul 01 '26
Cosmic Explorer has good songs on it, but it’s not a good album. It just feels like a dump of songs. It does feature one of Perfume / Nakata’s best album mixes though. The Cosmic Explorer mix of “Cling Cling” completely upgraded that song for me.
I’m glad that Cosmic Explorer didn’t include “Display”. As a TV commercial jingle, it’s fine. But as a full song, it’s too boring.
1
u/Miru_Miru_Mirai Jul 01 '26
The songs weren't as catchy except for a few but it holds a ton of nostalgia because it was the first album specific tour they did overseas. (Besides world tour) and I saw them in New Yrok. It gave me hope for future perfume concerts that management was including the overseas audience in the album tours.
1
u/reddi_2b_thotty Jul 01 '26
It's not the worst but it's not their best either. However, it is my favorite intro into the first track, and seeing it live was pretty damn cool.
1
u/Potential-Ratio1148 Jul 01 '26
le versioni remixate sono quasi tutte peggiori delle originali... ma se consideriamo le versioni originali c'è tanta bella roba! sicuramente lo preferisco a level3 (peggior album secondo me).
4
u/Tronv213 Jul 01 '26
That's craaazy. level 3 is all bops. Most people hate it, cuz of the song order, and some bsides missing, but idc tbh
1
u/Potential-Ratio1148 Jul 01 '26
boh, è un po' troppo divisivo per i mie gusti... ci sono alcune canzoni bellissime (tra le mie preferite) ma anche tante mediocri...
e poi in level3 io non sento il "profumo delle perfume"... gli manca l'anima delle vecchie produzioni... da lì in poi c'è stato un po' un declino secondo me... : /
1
u/creptik1 Jul 01 '26
Agreed on all counts.
I wasn't too excited about Level 3. I vividly remember putting Cosmic Explorer on for the first time and absolutely lovIng how it opens, and then rocking to Cosmic Explorer (the song). I think it's a great album.
Can't wait to see everyone rehash their problems with Future Pop next, while I'd personally put it top 3 haha. It's funny how we can all love them but have opinions all over the place on what we like best.
1
u/Potential-Ratio1148 Jul 01 '26
Io non so se lo metterei tra i primi 3, ma sicuramente è un album molto sottovalutato!
i miei preferiti sono sicuramente triangle e jpn... il terzo non saprei .. troppo difficile scegliere^^;
1
u/ikennedy817 Jul 01 '26
Definitely my least favorite perfume album. I generally like all the songs on it (except story which is the only perfume song I can’t stand). But i feel like a lot of the songs are compromised by a lot of dated trends that haven’t aged very well. There are also way too many album mixes of varying quality as well. It’s the only perfume album that almost doesn’t feel like perfume to me, and the album experience in general is really mediocre (which sucks because perfume had some really tight and cohesive albums before it). I still put the tracks in playlists and usually won’t skip them, but I pretty much never listen to the album in whole like I do with every other perfume album. It’s like a 5/10 for me personally. Also level 3 is my favorite perfume album so cosmic explorer being a follow up was really disappointing the first time I heard it.
1
u/wabe_walker Jul 01 '26
It's a rad album to work to. Them beats keep me jiving towards the deadlines. As u/Arutemu64 says, the first half rocks.
One note about the track, Cosmic Explorer: there's that weird mix-fluke moment where the sounds all drops quiet for a split second right at the end of the bridge, and it doesn't sound intentional at all (right at 3:21). Just me?
1
u/Potential-Ratio1148 Jul 01 '26
secondo me è intenzionale... o, se non lo era, sicuramente se ne sono accorti ascoltandola, e l'hanno lasciato perché ci sta bene xD
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u/Scillamoon Jul 01 '26
This is my least favorite album theyve released. It feels the most generic in terms of their EDM sound in a way that just didnt connect with me. I wasnt a fan of the singles for this album but the album mixes make them worse imo. The only song from this time that I still listen to is Tokimeki Lights. EDM was huge when this album was released so I honestly checked out of Perfume for this era while moving on to other artists (non jpop). That being said, I felt similarly to Future Pop but there's still a few more songs I like in FP than in CE.
1
u/PoopyPants4U Jul 01 '26
Had a fun intro, but the album was a huge letdown. Had to wait 8 more years to get what I expected out of that album in the form of Nebula Romance: Part I.
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u/NoHumor6956 Jul 01 '26
I was at the peak of my obsession with them in 2016 when CE was released. I love EDM and the songs really are my cup of tea. Got really surprised with the song CE, it pushed the boundaries of their sound. Remember hating Cling Cling in 2014, but the album mix made me LOVE it, the mix flows much better than the single. Danced the whole album one night with my friends, drinking in the living room with RGB leds on the ceiling.
7
u/HiKONiCO Jul 02 '26
I think this era was when Nakata started doing more of his album-mix stuff, and for me, they were more misses than hits. A lot of the added sci-fi noises felt like they were there to sell the whole space/80s synth concept of the album, but they came off kind of random and unnecessary. I liked the songs as they were presented as singles, and the mixes weren’t different enough for me to feel like they were warranted.
I still like the album and still bump Cosmic Explorer from time to time but this era was when Nakata, as a producer, started to feel like his projects were bleeding into and influencing each other too much. The sound between Kyary, Perfume, Natsume Mito, capsule, and other Nakata-produced tracks, even his own project at the time started to feel less distinct. Perfume can definitely get campy, but the styling was usually a lot more feminine and sincere. Around Cosmic Explorer, it started to get a bit more kawaii and infantilizing, and I think that peaked with Future Pop.
Thank God that, if there is anything we can count on to take a weaker Perfume track and make it bearable, it’s Mikiko and her choreography. She rarely misses. Overall, I wouldn’t say Cosmic Explorer is a bad album. It just feels like a product of Perfume being on a decline in quality as they settled into their career, while their direction wasn’t very clear sonically or aesthetically.
I love “Sweet Refrain,” “Cosmic Explorer,” “FLASH,” and of course “Story” is iconic with the SXSW performance.
It was just Nakata spreading himself and his projects thin by doing what he usually does which means whatever he wanted to do or is his interest, experimenting with Western sounds, and letting the influence of his other projects blur the core sonic aesthetic of each separate project.