Marcel Winatschek

Kira Kira Killer

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu makes pop music that shouldn’t work but does, backed by videos that look like someone fed a synthesizer LSD and asked it to direct a commercial. PONPONPON, Fashion Monster, Invader Invader—each one a new way to make you forget what you’re doing and just stare at the screen. Her latest, Kira Kira Killer, is more of the same: all sparkle and color and good vibes, the kind of thing that could only come out of Harajuku.

What gets me is the complete commitment. There’s no irony, no winking at the absurdity—she just goes all the way in, every time, which somehow circles back around to being genuinely catchy. The weirdness is the whole point, and that’s why it works.