Pizzicato Five The International Playboy and Playgirl Record Matador

Kitsch is passe now, did you know.

Deconstruction everywhere. Retro is getting tired. Until they start making ice cream flavors in Postmodern Pistachio Pastiche, this headlong rush to reassemble everything from its self-conscious rubble can still be stomached. Put postmodernism in your mouth and you'll find it's indigestible. Thankfully, and refreshingly, kitsch-pop masters Pizzicato Five can still render postmodernism an enjoyably tasteful joy ride. They trip through safe and smiley TV-land in a jalopy heap slapped together from '60s and jap pop, hip hop beats, funk threads, classical samples, bossa nova riffs and exotica, running on smooth easy-listening gas. Maki Nomiya and Yasuharu Konishi blend and blush an all-Japanese soundtrack to the imaginary lifestyle of the international playboy/girl set. "Rolls Royce" is experimentally clever but strung on an annoying shrill that detracts from adorable bubbletunes like "La Depression," "Playboy Playgirl" and "A New Song." More schnazzy than riding a carpeted, mirrored elevator to heaven with Audrey's cosmopolitan in your hand.