Perfume’s music video for “Moon” is as dusty as the surface of the moon itself

So, Perfume have released the music video for “Moon”. And…it’s dusty y’all. I’m not shocked, nor surprised. I figured that it would be, given Perfume’s track record of music videos since “Sweet Refrain”, which was their last great music video.

“Moon” deserved better than this…

The problem with Perfume’s music videos now is that they are just the single covers in motion. And, yes. I know, I know. Perfume’s music videos have (almost) always been a case of being the single covers in motion. But even so, the videos always featured some cool visual element or twist. Think of the likes of “Magic of Love”, “Spring of Life”, “Laser Beam”, “Love the World”. Now I feel like I may as well just be staring at the single cover art in full screen whilst I’m listening to the song on streaming, because the video isn’t giving me much more anyway. And it’s so unfortunate that it’s happening now, at a time when Perfume’s music is consistently good again.

Perfume – Moon | Universal Music

Perfume’s music videos these days just look lazy, which I know is crazy to say given they are dancing an entire song in heels. It’s like something which could be really cool on paper is reduced down to ‘What will be the quickest and easiest way to get this done?’. And then we end up with the most boring version of the music video imaginable. It’s always cool concepts, but executed in the most sterile way, with the same types of shots and no energy shift. And as a result, all of Perfume’s music videos all end up feeling the same. “Moon”, “Flow”, “Polygon Wave”, “Time Warp”, “Future Pop”, “If You Wanna”, “Tokyo Girl” – they are all basically the same type of video.

The concept of the stage in “Moon” becoming a sort of Armillary Sphere is really cool. But it came so late in the video and nothing was really done with it. it was also an easy chance to actually introduce a sphere (because we know Perfume love a sphere) and have it represent the moon. But, nope. The play on light and dark could have been cool, if it wasn’t all jump cuts between the two. Having the lighting change from one to the other in real time, and having shadows be cast and manipulated as Perfume are dancing could have created something really striking visually. But, nope. Having more than one setup also would have been nice. Go camp and have Perfume in space, in astronaut suits. Have Perfume actually dancing on the moon; with their moves being at normal speed, but the dust and everything around them being low gravity and in slow motion. Drop an Easter egg of Perfume coming across their Cosmic Explorer selves. Re-enact the moon falling from Majora’s Mask. Bitch. ANYTHING more than Perfume dancing on a giant microwave plate.

Perfume – Moon | Universal Music

Perfume’s team are too creative to be phoning in these music videos and giving us the most basic concepts which do absolutely nothing for the songs. The sets are super clean. The visuals are super crisp. The VFX is slick. But nothing about Perfume’s videos are memorable any more, and they have so little rewatch / replay value.

Perfume are such a visual group. And yet in a day an age where YouTube is huge and such a key platform, where all music videos are debuted globally, and Perfume have the budgets; they are releasing music videos which do not showcase the level of creativity that they are known for.