With her face plastered across advertisements across the streets of Harujuku, the eccentric and quirky Kyary Pamyu Pamyu has become a household name by turning weird into unbelievable cuteness. Her debut album, Pamyu Pamyu Revolution, which was released on May 23rd, reached first place on both the US electro charts and Japanese charts on iTunes as well as Oricon Daily Album Charts upon the day of release.
The album begins with a short minute long instrumental intro, Pamyu Pamyu Revolution, sounding similar to Kyary March that featured on her first mini-album, Moshi Moshi Harajuku. Soon after her debut album was released, Warner uploaded a short promotional video for Pamyu Pamyu Revolution to their YouTube Channel that shows Kyary dancing in a cute ‘80s inspired outfits in front of a series of mirrors.
Pamyu Pamyu Revolution includes previously released singles PONPONPON, Tsukema Tsukeru and CANDY CANDY; the rest of the album is all new content. Minna no uta and Drinker are very simple but catchy songs. Drinker highlights that Kyary’s work is produced by the same producer as Perfume and capsule, in that the instrumental track sounds similar.
The album brightens up with a very bubblegum-pop sweet track, Onedari 44℃, that was used in a commercial for KFC’s latest line of frozen fruit drinks, Krushers. Kyary also features in the commercial—take note of her stunning hair! A short clip can be seen below.
Giri Giri Safe borrows some baseball lingo (safe and out!!) in the first line of the chorus—very cute and possibly the high point of the album. Yet later, Oyasumi, a timid lullaby, unveils Kyarys gentler side of her work. The placement of Oyasumi at the end of the album is a little odd though, as one would think it would follow Chan Chan Chaka Chan, a much more upbeat song, but it did not.
Chan Chan Chaka Chan, however, strings together the very recognizable main melodies from PONPONPON, Tsukema Tsukeru and CANDY CANDY in the instrumental portion of the track. Kyary bids goodbye to her listeners with the repeated lines “see you, see you, see you again!” throughout the latter half of the song—a nice, fun way to conclude the album.
Pamyu Pamyu Revolution is available in both limited and regular editions, as well as digitally through iTunes US, iTunes UK and iTunes France.
On May 23rd, 5pm JST, Kyary held a special live event in Shibuya in celebration of her first album on the same day, broadcast via KyaryPamyuPamyuTV’s YouTube channel. All audience members cosplayed a wide range Kyary's costumes and wore Kyary inspired outfits of her many fashionable looks as the only way to attend by invitation was to dress up in a Kyary inspired outfit and/or cosplay. Additionally, Kyary performed a few of the new tracks from Pamyu Pamyu Revolution as well as her hit singles, PONPONPON, Tskuema tsukeru and CANDY CANDY for a sizable audience. Next, Kyary presented showbags to five winners of a cosplay contest that were chosen by her and her staff; the show bags contained Kyary merchandise ranging from shoes, accessories, clothing and Kyary’s book, amongst other Kyary themed products.
