Pizzicato Five

Many people call the early Pizzicato Five the best, naming albums such as Soft Landing on the Moon (1990) and Couples (1987) as their favorites. To me, Romantique 96 is the epitome of the band's latter-day success, perfecting the blend of pop, rock and techno concepts and melodies into a compelling package that had a massively wide appeal.

"Contact," an interpretation of Serge Gainsbourg's song, shows off their sensibility to the avant-garde techno music of the time, with Tei Towa (Dee Lite) as a collaborator. "Ice Cream Meltin' Mellow" is a foray into hip-hop music. "Welcome to the Circus" is the typical Pizzicato Five song at the time, a raucous show tune with big beats and catchy melody � Pizzicato's version of arena rock.

Romantique is also one of band leader and producer Yasuharu Konishi's more successful concept albums. The whole album flows nicely from one song to the next, with even those seemingly irrelevant songs cleverly weaved into the overall narrative. It starts with a thematic refrain in strings from "Good" (a cover of punk-techno band the Plastics mid-album. The Plastics original member and songwriter Hajime Tachibana plays guitar for the song). The next song tells the story of a girl in a happy relationship waking up ("Awakening"). The album ends with a guy's confession, also set in the morning, that the love between him and his girl is over ("Triste"). In between, you can hear love's initial outward excitement slowly turning inward and dark, to the point where both the female and male voices echo the fleeting nature of it all. It's an oft-repeated story, but executed with a finesse and careful juxtapositions reminiscent of French New Wave films.

Pizzicato Five to many provided perfect background music to the end-of-century decadent lifestyle. For that, there are plenty of better albums and compilations. But every once in a while, I'd recommend listening to this one. Let the craftsmanship of Konishi take you away to his strange vision of Tokyo, love and pop music.