"Magic of Love" is a song by Japanese girl group

Perfume Perfume (, ; french: parfum) is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agreeable scent. Th ...

from their fourth studio album '' Level 3'' (2013). The song was released as the album's fourth and final single on 22 May 2013. It was written, composed and produced by

Yasutaka Nakata is a Japanese DJ and music producer. He formed the band Capsule in 1997 with vocalist Toshiko Koshijima and himself as composer and record producer when both were 17. The band debuted in 2001 with the song "Sakura". He is known for being the ...

. The song is a calm and mellow

dance-pop Dance-pop is a popular music subgenre that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit radio. Developing from a ...

and

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

track, which features instrumentation of synthesizers and keyboards. "Magic of Love" received positive reviews from music critics, whom complimented the song's production and composition. Despite peaking at number two on the Oricon Singles Chart, it became the group's third single to top the ''Billboard Japan'' Hot 100. An album version of the track was re-composed and re-arranged by Nakata for the parent album. Yusuke Tanaka commissioned the accompanying

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for the single, which shows Perfume dancing in a room and features multiple figures of the members in different rooms.

Background and composition

Japanese girl group Perfume have released three studio albums. All three albums, ''

Game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...

'' (2008), ''

Triangle A triangle is a polygon with three Edge (geometry), edges and three Vertex (geometry), vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, an ...

'' (2009) and '' JPN'' peaked at number one in Japan. The albums were certified platinum by the

Recording Industry Association of Japan The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include pr ...

(RIAJ) with shipments of 250,000 units; the first was awarded double platinum. While working on their third album, Perfume departed from

Tokuma Japan Communications is a publisher in Japan, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. The company was established in 1954 by Yasuyoshi Tokuma in Minato, Tokyo. The company’s product portfolio includes music publishing, video game publishing, movies, anime, magazines, m ...

and signed a deal with

Universal Music Japan , often referred to as just Universal Music Japan or UMJ, is a Japanese subsidiary of the Universal Music Group founded in 1990. It is the largest subsidiary for a foreign company in the country regarding music distribution. The company is resp ...

in order to release their work through global markets. They began work on their fourth studio album not long after. As with the rest of ''Level 3'', Japanese producer and Capsule musician

had written, arranged and composed the song. Nakata has collaborated with all of Perfume's records and songs from 2003 onwards. It was recorded in Tokyo, Japan and was mixed and mastered by Nakata. It is a "calm"

and

song, and incorporates instrumentation of a

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

and keyboards. Writing for ''Land of Rising'', Alex Shenmue commented that its "mellow mood will be there for most of the track’s length, replacing the more instrumentally complex parts and offering a calmer and slightly melancholic feeling, ...

Reception

"Magic of Love" received favorable reviews from most music critics. Shenmue highlighted the track as an album standout. Patrick St. Michael, writing for ''

The Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

'', said the composition wasn't an "improvement" but commented that it was "simple, catchy pop"; he felt the track was better than the two other album mix tracks. ''Selective Hearings writer Nia felt "50/50" with the song, saying "It’s not a horrible mix but… were the bagpipes really that necessary?". A writer from ''CDJournal'' labelled the track "cute" but also "painful." Ian Martin, who had written their extended biography at

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, had highlighted the song as an album and career standout. Konno Asami from ''nihongogo.com'' praised the outcome after the release of Perfume's "childish" single "

Mirai no Museum "Mirai no Museum" (Translation: "Future Museum") is a song by Japanese girl group Perfume from their fourth studio album '' Level 3'' (2013). The song was released as the album's third single on 27 February 2013. It was written, composed and prod ...

", stating "it’s a fun song with a great dance and funny lyrics." The song charted in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Reaching number three, it broke the group's eight consecutive singles to stall at number two; all their previous singles " Spring of Life", " Spending All My Time" and "

" peaked at two. The song also peaked at number three on Japan's

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

chart. The song reached number seventeen and seven in South Korea and Taiwan Overseas chart. The song was certified gold by RIAJ for shipments of 100,000 units in Japan.

Release and promotion

Selected as the fourth and final single of ''Level 3'', the song was released as a stand-alone digital download on 22 May of that year. Two

CD single A CD single (sometimes abbreviated to CDS) is a music single in the form of a compact disc. The standard in the Red Book for the term ''CD single'' is an 8 cm (3-inch) CD (or Mini CD). It now refers to any single recorded onto a CD of any si ...

s were issued; a standalone CD with all four songs, and a CD and DVD edition with a card slipcase. "Magic of Love" was used as in TV commercials o
Pure Gummy
by Kanro (the second song used for advertising this product after "

Communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

"). The spot started broadcasting on April 1, 2013 on Japanese television. The song was also used as theme song of TV Tokyo's progra
''Sukkiri''
in May 2013. The official

was directed by Japanese director Yusuke Tanaka and premiered on Perfume's YouTube channel in June 2013. It shows Perfume sitting in miniature room, singing the track. Several shots of the group have them holding frames, opening doors and looking through windows, changing each scene once it happens. During the choruses, it has the girls dancing together in a room with

confetti Confetti are small pieces or streamers of paper, mylar, or metallic material which are usually thrown at celebrations, especially parades and weddings. The origins are from the Latin ''confectum'', with ''confetti'' the plural of Italian ''co ...

and features duplicate figures of the girls every. It ends with the "Magic of Love" title. The video is the group's highest viewed music video on YouTube as of April 2015, with over seven million views to date.

Credits and personnel

Details adapted from the liner notes of the "Magic of Love" CD single.

Song credits

Ayano Ōmoto , nicknamed , is a Japanese singer and dancer. She is known as one of the members of the Japanese electropop group Perfume. Biography Ōmoto was born and raised in Fukuyama City, Hiroshima Prefecture, and attended Actor's School Hiroshima wit ...

(Nocchi) - vocals *

Yuka Kashino (born 23 December 1988), nicknamed , is a Japanese singer and dancer. She is known as one of the members of the electropop group Perfume. Biography Kashino was born and raised in Hiroshima, Japan, where she attended Actor's School Hiroshima wi ...

(Kashiyuka) - vocals *

Ayaka Nishiwaki , nicknamed , is a Japanese singer and dancer. She is known as one of the members of the Japanese electropop group Perfume. Biography Nishiwaki was born and raised in Hiroshima, Japan, where she attended Actor's School Hiroshima with friends ...

(A-Chan) - vocals *

- producer,

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

, arranger, mixing, mastering.

Visual credits

* Yusuke Tanaka -

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

* Takahiko Kajima - video producer * Kazunali Tajima - camera * Mikiko - choreographer

Track listing

Charts

Certifications

Release history

Notes

References

External links

* {{Authority control Perfume (Japanese band) songs Japanese-language songs Songs written by Yasutaka Nakata 2013 singles Song recordings produced by Yasutaka Nakata Universal J singles