PIZZICATO FIVE, “Made in USA” ( Matador...

PIZZICATO FIVE, “Made in USA” ( Matador ) ** 1/2

Yes, I am unreliable, capricious, cheeky, willful, luxurious, affected, lying, dubious and random. But I am allowed because I am cute. But I am loved because I am cute.

With lyrics like those, who needs a record reviewer?

This decade-old Tokyo trio arrives via America’s alternative-rock label of the moment, but don’t come looking for more than a novelty kick and surface appeal. In fact, this album is virtually all surfaces--texture-free, brightly lit space-age surfaces of white plastic and chrome.

Pizzicato Five’s shamelessly synthetic, swingin’ jingles encompass styles from spy film score to diluted jazz, disco to go-go, lounge-pop to Burt Bacharach pop. There are plush, ABBA wannabe productions and a Sly & the Family Stone-quoting soul number whose whole point is its soullessness.

Maki Nomiya sings celebrations of Western pop culture (“Twiggy vs. James Bond”) and enigmatic love lyrics mostly in Japanese, with translations into endearingly fractured English provided in the CD booklet. It’s only sporadically as much fun as all this sounds, but at its most effective, Pizzicato Five’s meta-Muzak conjures a digital dreamland where you might find people doing the twist in supermarket aisles. Way cute.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).