We’ve all had an album and/or artist that we’ve wanted to discuss on the pod. Often, as written many-a-time, the record release gods simply don’t play ball. With me and Perfume Genius, this is not the case. I’ve actually carefully avoided bringing any of Michael Hadreas’ albums to the pod. He’s mine. I don’t feel the need or the desire to share him. Of course I am joking, except that I’m not. Get your grubby little fingers of my guy.
My relationship with Perfume Genius goes back to late 2010. I had just had my first child, I had a lot of spare time. Pitchfork featured the single ‘Mr. Peterson’ (from PG’s debut album ‘Learning’) on their top tracks of the year playlist. I fell in love immediately. It was odd. It was deeply personal. It probably spoke of child protection offences. It made me cry. I felt it deeply and believed in it and of the Perfume Genius construct.
Then in 2012, PG released ‘Put Your Back N 2 It’. A 12 track, sub-33-min sophomore release. It was brutally beautiful, honest and for me, perfect. I listened to it an unhealthy amount and I still do. However, this is the album that ruined PG for me. There is no way that any album he makes will do to me what this album did. I kind of only ever want to talk about that album on the pod … but that ship has clearly sailed.
PG has since released at least 5 more studio albums including this one, Glory. The 2 albums that followed ‘Put Your Back N 2 It’, ‘Too Bright’ and ‘No Shape’ are incredible. The two that followed ‘Set My Heart …’ and ‘Ugly Season’ are both amazing albums in their own right. But none were ‘Put You Back N 2 It’ and none will be. Basically, what I am saying is, I get properly nervous when a new PG albums is inbound.
Exploring ‘Glory’
On March 28th, Glory was released, 11 tracks (thank you), 41 mins (thank you). The release, as is now common, was preceded by 3 singles, all of which were special. ‘It’s a Mirror’ is full bombastic Hadreas pop and felt similar to lead singles off Too Bright, No Shape and ‘Set My Heart …’, ‘No Front Teeth’ felt different and odd and angular, Clean Heart was, Michael in full on ‘Crooner’ mode which we’ve heard on previous work and has become something of a trademark. What was less special, is that it became clear that these were the 1st 3 tracks on the album. I don’t like this, I have a problem with this. It makes your experience with the album odd on first listen and it perhaps warns of an odd track sequencing?
Despite the album opening with the 3 singles, sequenced in order of release, the album feels like it’s perfectly put together … if you spend enough time with it and learn to understand the flow. We’ve reviewed another album that was similar recently but I can’t recall which one.
- The first ‘new’ track is track 4, ‘Me & Angel’ which is Perfume Genius in full on, traditional, piano driven big ballad mode. This will feel super familiar to PG fans and is reminiscent of some of the tracks that I adore on ‘Put Your Back N It’. The ‘angel’ motif is not new in PG songs either, one of the many little ‘easter eggs’ for those in the know. PG has this habit of writing songs that feel like fucked up hymns, with irreverent angles and beauty available for those willing to give themselves into it.
- Next up is “Left for Tomorrow’ that is an atmospheric track with haunting, wafer-thin, wispy vocals that seems to mesh with the organs and synths that provide the space filling sounds that drive the track. It’s a beautiful thing. There is a real, live, band like feel to this track, a perfectly synced jam session feel to the recording. It’s beautifully produced and instrumented and provides an amazing end to Side A.
- The start to ‘Side B’ is the track that opened this album up for me ‘Full On’. This is one of the two tracks that almost feel like they could belong on ‘Put Your Back N 2 It’. There’s a raw, stripped back energy to the track that I can’t put my finger on. It’s actually quite complex with woodwind and lucious harp plucks but there is something about how his voice is recorded that brings back memories of his 2nd album. I am here all day for US High School imagery and the line ‘I saw every quarterback crying, laid up on the grass, nodding like a violet’ is a line that you could write a whole film around when it’s set in the atmosphere of this track.
- Capezio is an odd, wonky, druggy, David Lynch movie soundtrack song. It re-introdces us to ‘Jason’, a character that has their own PG track named after them (on ‘Set My Heart …’). I feel very at home with PG when he is in this ethereal mood. I don’t think he writes and records tracks like this without first releasing more experimental and challenging albums like ‘Ugly Season’.
- Dion, returns to piano driven balladry but with a large dose of the ethereal, again, similar to tracks like ‘All Waters’ on ‘Put Your Back’ (which is synth driven not piano but still). The soundscape that accompanies the piano threatens to take over, the discordance almost boils over but never does, it resolves perfectly.
- … and it resolves and returns you to my favourite track ‘In a Row’. Yes, you’re right, its a song about being kidnapped and driven around in the boot of a car. Michael talks about the song being about seeking thrilling experiences, making poor choices. The atmosphere that he creates is both spine chilling but at the same time is utterly euphoric. Given the subject matter and his history of drug abuse, addiction and recovery, the final result is a master class in telling complex stories, in simple terms. The line ‘take me the long way round’ is a stroke of genius song writing. I love love love love love this track, the only thing I don’t like is that it only last three and a half minutes.
- The album ends with two tracks that bring the energy down a little from the euphoria of ‘taking the long way round’ a thrilling if utterly dangerous experience. ‘Hanging Out’ returns us to the (even)dark(er) side of Perfume Genius. The track is both small and massive at the same time. This and the final track Glory might be a step into weirdness too far for some. They are both beautiful but in a much more brutal and visceral way to the tracks like Angel & Me.
I think Ugly Season was PG practicing and perfecting the journey into the weird, the wonky and the odd. The end of this album makes the whole thing feel like a soundtrack to a film that we’ve not seen but exists in Michael’s head.
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