Pizzicato Five Metro, March 3
The lyrics—sung either in Japanese or sweet, stilted English (sometimes combining the two)—speak the universal language of bubblegum: happy, sappy puppy love, self-absorbed nihilism, or trippy utopian fantasies. Pizzicato Five’s U.S. debut album, last year’s Made in USA (Matador), supplies English translations for all the lyrics. Not that American fans are missing any important semantic nuances when Nomiya sings about blue Afros and miniskirts, but the translations enable the listener to hear the irony in her Barbie doll delivery. During the song “Catchy,” Nomiya’s husky whisper might lead you to think she’s talking to a lover until you read that her evident pleasure is for a “new shop that accepts a credit card” and “a brand new hairstyle, a brand new mascara.”
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Last year’s Made in USA is a compilation of recent releases from the group’s immense Japanese discography. Beginning in 1985 with the 12-inch single “Audrey Hepburn Complex,” Pizzicato Five has released 15 full-length albums, plus EPs, remixes, and outtakes. A couple of videos and Japanese TV appearances have earned Konishi and company some mainstream success in their native country. (To dispel any doubts, the Metro screen screamed, “Pizzicato Five: Very Famous in Japan.”) But you only have to remember the mainstream success of Devo in the early 80s to understand the phenomenon. Devo’s mechanical mannerisms, goofy lyrics, and flower-pot hats were often regarded as wonderfully outre while the band enjoyed a huge gag on their audience’s gullibility.
When Nomiya surfs such poetry in her own language over the timpani rolls of “Hawaii Five-O” and plundered bits of Bacharach, meaning hardly matters.
