Too Bright
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.
Mike Hadreas' third album as Perfume Genius is Hadreas' most extroverted album to date, a record about shattering illusions, defiantly looking away when you feel like it, and boldly staring back at those who hate you. Portishead's Adrian Utley and PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish contribute.
When Perfume Genius—the solo project of piano-playing songwriter Mike Hadreas—first caught attention for the 2010 debut Learning, the wide-spread praise centered around Hadreas’ stark lyrical content. Drawing on years of drug addiction and personal turmoil, Learning’s home recording-style only added to the immediacy…
Hadreas finds a myriad of new ways to look both inward and outward on a sonically turbulent third suite.
There's so much horror strewn across the first two Perfume Genius albums, it's amazing it took this long for Mike Hadreas…
In some ways, Perfume Genius' intimate, unflinching balladry reached its logical conclusion on Put Your Back N 2 It.
Promises that Portishead’s Adrian Utley has helped Mike Hadreas turn his sound on its head for his third record may be a little exaggerated – but not by much. It’s still that effortlessly histrionic tumble and soar vocal of his that grabs the headlines on Too Bright, but it has to compete with an overcast atmosphere and a turbulence beyond the fragile sorrow of his earlier work.
On Too Bright, Mike Hadreas' third LP as Perfume Genius, the Seattle songwriter attempts to move past his fragile, capricious style to release his most straightforward collection of songs to date.
Every year deserves a keyboard record crying out to be performed in a concert hall instead of a club. In 2014, Perfume Genius's Too Bright is that record.
On 'Too Bright,' Perfume Genius operates with far more flamboyance and panache, granting the album the feel of a second debut.
Perfume Genius' new album 'Too Bright' reviewed by Northern Transmissions, the lp comes out September 22 on Matador the latest single is "I Decline"
The Seattle-based artist’s third album continues to feature melancholy sweetness with piano and strings, but there’s a new glittering defiance, writes <strong>Maddy Costa</strong>