Oh sure, this is hardly a perfect record by normal-folk standards, but it is a perfect Half Japanese record. And why do you care about normal-folk standards, anyway? Were you expecting a Richard Marx album or something?
The band’s second LP after its 13-year hiatus, Perfect finds Jad Fair and Co. at peak weirdness, showing that the years have not straightened out their skewed sense of rock ‘n’ roll. Fair’s beat-poet delivery has every ounce of his oddball naiveté, which is impressive considering he has been the Pope of the Weird Kids for more than 40 years.
The band continues its unflagging refusal to stick to one style for more than a song, which means that the way-out world rhythms and flute solos of the title track sidle up to the earnest acoustic yearning of “Listen To Your Heart” and the bubblegum rumble of “We’ll Go Far.” Perfect finds a singular band doing its thing in the way that only it can; and that, frankly, is perfectly cool with us.
—Sean L. Maloney
