By Hillary
Perfume Genius (solo artist Mike Hadreas) does not make the sort of music you listen to when you're in an upbeat mood. His first album Learning (released in 2010) is full of haunting, piano-driven songs like "Mr. Peterson" which tells the tale of a suicidal, pedophile teacher. It's not joyful but it's honest - brutally honest - and it is beautiful.
The title of his new album Put Your Back N 2 It is almost misleading in its whimsy. There is a certain lightness not found on Learning but his melodies are fragile and tender and his lyrics remain bruised. And yet where Learning is a skein of devastation and turmoil, Put Your Back N 2 It shines through with a sweet sense of hope. My heart breaks in a good way when he sings of holding his boyfriend's hand in public without fear in "All Waters."
Perfume Genius may be morose (his music is kind of a combination of Jeff Buckley / Damien Rice / Cat Power / Bon Iver-esque fragility and dysfunction) but he is also extremely talented. He sings poems and makes me want to shelter him from the cruel world in which we live.
Perfume Genius is currently touring Canada and the US.
{Photo credit: amazon.com}
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Posted by: Olivia | April 26, 2012 at 09:17 PM