Highlights: Queen, Fool, No Good, All Along
8/10
Christ I feel old. In the Mojo magazine from 2010 I remember
Perfume Genius looking like this:
And now we are
looking at a glittering homeboy who would scare me to no end if this album hit my eye
in a record store:
Thankfully, album
covers do not shock me anymore. I saw the Patrick Wolf of Lycanthropy transform into the Patrick Wolf of Lupercalia, so I can live with many things now. Including slick,
well-groomed boys with raised eyebrows. In the end, what counts is the simple
fact that Too Bright is Perfume
Genius’ best album so far.
Sonically, Mike Hadreas
is going for something less vulnerable and more complete. Emotionally and
lyrically, this is of course still very raw, but in terms of the sound and the
arrangements – we’ve changed. It’s not just affecting, broken piano notes slung
through your psyche (even if we do have plenty of those; the pained and painful
“All Along” will not leave you for days); this is altogether more diverse.
The booming yet
strangely subdued “Queen” is almost glammy in nature. The dark and mysterious “My
Body” is not unlike something you could find on an early Timber Timbre record –
except for that vocal freakout in the middle. “Fool” is funky in the best way
and “Longpig” is irresistible synthpop for people who do not necessarily want
to dance. Lovely piano melodies provide a fine backdrop to all these (largely
successful) experiments, but you would have to be deep in this territory to
enjoy the disturbing, minimalist, funereal “I’m A Mother” that may initially sound
like a sorrowful requiem played at the bottom of the ocean.
Too Bright is what an ideal third album should sound like. It
preserves all the elements that made Perfume Genius so good and yet gives him
the chance to move forward. Intriguing, intimate chamber pop. You’d be a fool
not to look out for more.
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