Now, on "Happy End of the World," Pizzicato Five have combined the disarming quirkiness of "Made In USA" with all kinds of slick tricks to make a record that's wildly diverse in influence but unified in its joyful, surrealist hipness. It was a hit at fashion shows, and "Groovy is My Name" was featured in the Isaac Mizrahi documentary "Unzipped," but the band's hyper-glamour, which was so witty and captivating on "Made In USA," here sounded as vapid as any throwaway club music - you might have danced to it all night long, but you sure wouldn't remember it in the morning. Perhaps American indifference is what led to their disappointing second American release, "The Sound of Music," where the band was overproduced until it sounded like a dull Dee-Lite. They were played mostly on college radio, though the fluffy, ethereal "Baby Love Child" got some attention from commercial "alternative" stations. When Pizzicato Five released their first American album, "Made In USA," in 1994 (in Tokyo, they have 14 records and are top-40 staples), their sound was way ahead of the country's tastes. Their new album, "Happy End of the World," revives some of the exuberant experimentation of their earlier work and coats it with a shiny, sophisticated gloss. The Tokyo trio's combination of disco, lounge, '50s sitcom jingles and techno would scream Zeitgeist even if they weren't fronted by a gorgeous supermodel type who sings in Japanese and French with a voice that goes from diva deep to wide-eyed and whispery. Pizzicato Five just might be the trendiest band on the planet.
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