Over the course of two astonishing albums, Perfume Genius, aka Seattle native Mike Hadreas, cemented his place as a singer-songwriter of rare frankness, creating songs that, while achingly emotional, offered empathy and hope, rather than any judgment or handwringing. Sparse, gorgeous and with Hadreas’ quavering vocals often only accompanied by piano, they were uncommonly beautiful tales of a life lived on the dark side – scarred, brutalised, yet ultimately, slowly but surely reclaimed.
“Too Bright”, however, is something else altogether. Less self-conscious, and less concerned with storytelling and easily-digested melodies, it is a brave, bold, unpredictably quixotic exploration of what Hadreas calls “an underlying rage that has slowly been growing since ten and has just begun to bubble up”. Recorded with Adrian Utley of Portishead and featuring John Parish on several tracks, it is a stunning about-face which brings to mind audacious career-shift albums like Kate Bush’s The Dreaming or Scott Walker’s Tilt, records which walk the tightrope between pure songwriting and overt experimentation.
WOW! I wasn’t able to find info about this record so I uploaded the single but you’ve done a great job @totoro81… you even found the art cover, very nice
waiting for this album with high expectations
Very excited about this, love his previous stuff and this new material is shaping up nicely!
Got a promotional copy today! It is incredible, possible AOTY for me!
wow! I envy you so much… I’m listening Grid and my expectations for the album keep growing
Saw him last night, My Body is amazing. Can’t wait for this album
Available at LeakedAlbums @ Pastebin.