Perfume Genius Has Found Himself
Semi-slumbering or dancing, Mike Hadreas is all there
BY STEVE ERICKSON
Perfume Genius, the musical
pseudonym of gay
singer/ songwriter Mike
Hadreas, has a knack
for pop hooks. He can run off lush
melodies with ease. But he’s also
interested in subverting them. The
fi rst half of “Your Body Changes
Everything” could play on Top 40
radio alongside retro-‘80s hits like
Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now” and
The Weekend’s “Blinding Lights.”
In fact, “On the Floor” is starting
to get airplay, and a dance mix by
Initial Talk should help it achieve
even more. Halfway through the
song, however, the beat falls apart,
becoming increasingly complex but
simulating a drummer who speeds
up without being able to keep accurate
time. “Describe” starts off
in a similarly accessible vein but
ends with 90 seconds of ambient
hum and drift.
His latest album, “Set My Heart
on Fire Immediately,” feels like
it was intended for a half-asleep
listener. That’s no knock on its
quality, but songs like “Leave”
and “Moonbend” capture the eerie
quality of listening to music in
a hypnagogic state. “Leave” is an
odd collage reminiscent of British
producer Leyland Kirby’s work as
The Caretaker, which was inspired
by “The Shining” and Alzheimer’s
disease. Almost everything in the
song has faded into memory; it’s
impossible to get a fi rm handle on
“Leave” even while it’s still playing.
Using harp, violin, his own
mumbled voice, and distant background
sounds, Perfume Genius
made a distinctly American form
of the hauntological music of British
artists like Boards of Canada
and Burial.
“Moonbend” has a similar feel,
with its music plodding so slowly
in the wake of Hadreas’ reverbdrenched
vocals that it sounds like
an enormous cart full of instruments
being dragged uphill. The
title of “Some Dream,” although
it starts out slow and hazy and
throws in percussive piano and
loud guitar, make this hazy, nocturnal
“Set My Heart on Fire Immediately,” the new album from Perfume Genius, the musical pseudonym of
gay singer/ songwriter Mike Hadreas, is out on May 15.
connection explicit.
Perfume Genius doesn’t make
dance music in the conventional
sense, even if he records some
songs with four-on-the-fl oor beats.
But dance is crucial to his aesthetic.
It’s part of his most impressive
videos. In “On the Floor,” a sweaty,
dirty young man in a tank top
dances outside for several minutes,
then is joined for an erotic pas a
deux. The couple never quite pantomime
sex, but the video’s charge
(akin to Christine and the Queens’
visuals) is unmistakable. No wonder
that it ends with one man lying
on the ground exhausted!
Dance is also crucial to Perfume
Genius’ 2017 videos “Slip Away”
and, even more, “Die 4 You.” The
premise for the latter sound absurd
on paper: Hadreas engages
in an elaborate courtship ritual
to woo a lump of white goo. But
he and director Floria Sigismondi
play it totally straight, and it works
as a continuation of some running
themes in her visuals: questioning
beauty standards and emphasizing
personal transformation. Hadreas
created a full-fl edged evening
of dance with 10 new songs, performed
by himself, choreographer
Kate Wallich, and the YC dance
company (including his partner
MATADOR RECORDS
Alan Wyffels), last year.
“Slip Away,” from Perfume Genius’
2017 album “No Shape,” has
recently been used in many TV
shows and fi lms. It’s always been
chosen to serenade teens, and in
that context one suddenly realizes
it’s the indie pop equivalent of a
power ballad. A few songs on “Set
My Heart On Fire Immediately” are
equally accessible. “On the Floor”
looks back to a Michael Jackson
and Madonna funk/ pop sound.
Perfume Genius’ early music
expressed a dark view of life. He
spent his teenage years struggling
with homophobia and illness, then
developed a drug problem. When
Hadreas got sober and met Wyffels,
his lyrics became more optimistic.
MUSIC
Hadreas presents himself with a
fairly femme image and sings with
a vulnerable quaver. His love songs
are explicitly addressed to men.
But “Nothing At All” and “Describe”
offer Perfume Genius up as a swaggering
rock star. Still, “Nothing At
All” shows the emptiness underneath
such boasting: “I’ve got what
you want, babe/ nothing at all.”
“Queen,” from his 2014 album
“Too Bright,” fi rst brought Perfume
Genius to national attention
when it was used on “Mr. Robot.”
On it, he sings “no family is safe
when I sashay,” and in its video
he disrupts a corporate meeting
by jumping on a table and treating
it like a runway. The song both
mocks conservatives’ fears about
gayness and calls for confronting
and challenging them. His interest
in dance ties into this. Both in its
most popular forms — think of the
resistance of disco and the “disco
sucks” slogan – and in famed artists
from Vaslav Nijinsky to Alvin
Ailey, dance has long been associated
with queerness.
Whether heading toward earworm
or fuzzy drone, “Set My
Heart on Fire Immediately” always
sounds entirely certain about what
it’s doing. The romanticism behind
Perfume Genius’ vision has grown
clearer as the fog of his early pain
has lifted. On “Just a Touch,” he
sings, “Take my song and hide it.”
That’s unlikely to happen with an
album this powerful.
PERFUME GENIUS | “Set My Heart
on Fire Immediately” | Matador Records
| tinyurl.com/y7m5elm5
GayCityNews.com | May 21 - June 05, 2020 37
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