J-pop trio Perfume has been on the cutting edge for the bulk of its career. The group established themselves as a techno-pop force in the mid Aughts by embracing the sounds and software of the 21st century. The group’s long-term producer Yasutaka Nakata created music buzzing around them via synths and percussion conjured out of then-new digital tools. The member’s voices, meanwhile, would be electronically manipulated to give them a robot energy. Yet despite the computer-generated soundscape, Perfume located humanity in the busiest sonic breakthroughs of this new era.

Perfume still positions itself as a pop project on the forefront of digital developments. Live shows remain visual spectacles, while it recently held a special exhibition in Tokyo called “Disco-graphy” celebrating its 25th anniversary with a focus on its tech side. Yet eighth album — or at least the initial half of eighth album — Nebula Romance Part One finds the group turning to one of the most tried-and-true approaches to spicing up a release cycle. For the first time, Perfume has made a concept album.

Sorta kinda. Official press materials for Nebula Romance as a “grand concept album divided into two parts,” complete with movie-poster-style cover art and a sci-fi-indebted trailer hinting at a whole Perfume Expanded Universe. The actual physical release arrives later in October, and perhaps it will offer more clues to what, exactly, the central story here is. Until that or some streamer announces Nebula Romance The Series, listeners only have the out-now songs to go by, and these 10 numbers shed little light on what the “concept” is supposed to be. It’s ultimately more of a space-themed collection with ample use of the words “cosmic,” “starlight” and other celestial terms.

In the big picture of Nebula Romance the musical experience, it isn’t a dealbreaker — given the history of “concept albums” often barely clinging to their concepts or outright abandoning them midway through, it’s tough to knock Perfume. The songs here range from pleasant albeit somewhat static dance-pop to flashes of retro-tinged directions courtesy of producer Nakata. Yet it’s also hard to shake its presentation, especially accounting for where Perfume and Nakata are at in their careers, and what has changed for the project.

The highs of Nebula Romance can be dizzying, though. “Love Cloud” provides dance-pop ecstasy through synth squiggles and a tight bass line. It’s boosted by a sax-assisted breakdown that sets up for a playful final passage that even finds the members nearly ad libbing over the groove.  “IMA IMA IMA” brings out the joy of repetition, recalling numbers such as “Have A Stroll” or “Foundation,” while adding an extra urgency via its melodic changes come the chorus. Closer “Mobius” offers the one instance on the album that feels cinematic, with Nakata crafting a dramatic rush of synths topped off by 8-bit notes. It practically makes Part One feel like pure setup for the sequel that actually delivers on the action.

However the project is presented, Perfume knows how to spark fun. Despite providing the clearest example of the space-centric theme clunking up the lyrics (“get ready to blast off, feel the funky beat / it’s an interstellar party, it’s a cosmic treat”), “Cosmic Treat” delivers twinkly dance-pop concealing some great sonic details, including guitar. “Sumikko Disco” mucks up the theming more than anything else — it’s a song made for a movie starring the cuddly-but-anxious characters of Sumikko Gurashi, with zero connection to space —   but it’s also a nice mid-tempo shuffle. 

As a Perfume album, Nebula Romance Part One is a fine listen marked by a handful of highlights and some welcome diversions into sparser construction (the near-beatless meditation of “Jikuu Hana,” the minimalist groove of “Time Capsule,” a song starting out with a synth melody highly reminiscent to “Macarena”). 

It’s also further evidence in a greater shift in Nakata’s creative process. In the 2000s and 2010s, he was someone on top of if not chasing sonic trends — Perfume’s breakout songs were shaped by blown-out, Europe-born mutations of house, while he’s explored EDM and th“future bass.” His approach to production for all his projects stemmed from physical locations — clubs, livehouses and festivals, places that he frequented over those two decades.

Yet since 2020, Nakata has become more nostalgic, looking back rather than seeing what’s coming up. The last Perfume album, 2022’s PLASMA, is the closest the trio have sounded to its GAME days in quite some time, while also housing detours into city pop. Nakata’s own CAPSULE, meanwhile, got especially retro sonically on that same year’s Metro Pulse. It wasn’t a pure exercise in remember-whens, but did mark a drastic change in where he’s at and what’s seemingly on his mind.

Everything about Nebula Romance — from the throwback sci-fi artwork to the production choices —is an exploration of the past. Nakata has sprinkled in ‘80s-style sonic elements for years, but songs such as “Starlight Dreams” and “Morning Cruising” feel particularly indebted to the era, while the synth melodies come off as more reverent to the period than trying to adjust to modern times. The very idea of a concept album feels retro, and really what Nebula Romance most closely resembles is Nakata-influence TM Network’s 1988 conceptual work Carol - A Day In A Girl’s Life 1991 -, which aimed for narrative epicness but isn’t quite fully formed…and, similarly, features a song originally made for a movie just appearing in the middle of the tracklist. 

There’s plenty of strong songs and catchy moments on Nebula Romance, and a certain amount of grace should be extended to it, as the second half and whatever supplemental materials accompany it could boost it up further. The live show alone might, indeed, be a cosmic treat. Yet it also finds a project accustomed to being on the forefront of J-pop developments in more uncertain territory. What is Perfume after 25 years? Like the concept itself, that’s not quite clear.