Perfume Genius\u2019 last album \u2013 his 2014 release \u2018Too Bright\u2019 \u2013 was arguably the moment (along with a little old guest spot on Christine and The Queens\u2019 debut album) that transformed Mike Hadreas from a fringe outlier, to a trailblazing leader. Always one to do the opposite of what you\u2019d expect, it\u2019s perhaps no major shock that for his fourth album, Perfume Genius chooses to grow even more musically overblown, while also shifting away from the hater-baiting defiance of his sashaying tour de force, \u2018Queen\u2019. Instead, \u2018No Shape\u2019 is a more inward-gazing masterclass in kitschy indulgence and raw honesty alike; a bold, brash record that veers from shrieking gusts of operatic frenzy to crackling emotion, without batting an eyelid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where Hadreas tackles the personal \u2013 and he does so frequently, with a deft touch of wit and care \u2013 the own limits of his creative mind, and his ease (and, simultaneously, unease) with normality crops up, time and time again. While the diseased bodies that plagued \u2018Too Bright\u2019 were \u201crank, ragged\u201d containers that couldn\u2019t be escaped, \u2018No Shape\u2019 takes a more porous view; the boundaries between boring, limiting old mortality, and trumpet-parping visions of heavenly transcendence are less clearly cut. \u201cRunning up that hill, I\u2019m gonna peel off every weight,\u201d Hadreas quavers frantically on \u2018Wreath,\u2019 \u201cuntil my body gives away, and shuts up\u201d. Meanwhile, \u2018Choir\u2019 trades in a destructive blaze into nothing for the resignation that it\u2019s physically impossible. \u201cI can\u2019t dream, something keeps me locked and bodied, pawing at the edge,\u201d Hadreas sings, a dissonant cacophony of Max Richter-channeling strings further stoking the chaos. And \u2018Die 4 U\u2019 \u2013 a slinking, sexy, unfurling of shadow\u2013dices dangerously on the very edge of life and death, too, putting even the ability to breathe into someone else\u2019s hands. \u201cEach and every breath I spend, you are collecting,\u201d Hadreas confides softly. It\u2019s a love song, of sorts, and an all-consuming one at that<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even in \u2018No Shape\u2019s quietest moments there\u2019s the nagging threat that Perfume Genius falling completely silent is dangerous, and unknown. Perhaps that\u2019s the chief reason \u2018No Shape\u2019 \u2013 which constantly dices with the pros and cons of corporeal obliteration \u2013 is so blimmin\u2019 loud, and it really works. Perfume Genius has always shown a vagrant disregard for convention, but on his fourth record, Mike Hadreas takes a scalpel to the inner-workings of his creative brain, and the love that feeds it. An absolutely flooring record from once-in-a-generation talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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