Perfume Genius
You know how when a song comes on the radio, a song from your youth (perhaps a song you never even liked very much), and you still somehow remember all the words? Nowadays, I listen much less for lyrics and much more for music and production. I don’t search for meaning in song lyrics anymore. But pay attention to the words here, they are stand-alone poetry. No Shape from Perfume Genius is absolutely my choice for best album of the year thus far. From the opening plinky plink piano keys, to the spookily lush orchestrations and spectral choirs, every track is my favourite. Mike Hadreas’ breathy choirboy voice is unsettling (the spoken voice song Choir, with its sawing violins, sounds like a scary movie soundtrack) and even when reedy is still affecting, and that falsetto is straight up Prince. Or maybe Kate Bush. And sometimes Sade. And Just Like Love could be Bobby Vinton warbling Blue Velvet. Seriously. No Shape is a trippy, queer-positive, haunted carnival fun house. Listen on headphones otherwise production sounds a bit flat.
Read my rant The Empress Has No Clothes: a Review of I Hear She’s a Real Bitch by Jen Agg and make some pecan brittle…
Photo credit: _Perfume Genius Live Concert @ Botanique Bruxelles-0096, by Kmeron, is licensed by CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, cropped.
