May 2025
Matador Records—OLE2105CD
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Perfume Genius is the stage name for Mike Hadreas, a singer and songwriter whose music is delightfully unpredictable. His music defies categorization, but certain themes recur in his work, especially the mysteries of sexuality and the horrors of homophobia. The latter motif isn’t surprising, given Hadreas’s background. He was bullied in high school and dropped out in his senior year. Two years later, while studying art at a school in Seattle, he was hospitalized after being attacked by a group of young men.
Glory is Perfume Genius’s seventh album, and the multitalented Blake Mills is in the producer’s seat—as he has been for every Hadreas LP since his fourth, No Shape (2017). Mills also plays a battery of instruments on Glory. Alan Wyffels has played keyboards on every Hadreas release since his second, Put Your Back N 2 It (2012), and appears in that role again. Drummers Tim Carr and Jim Keltner, bassist Pat Kelly, and guitarists Meg Duffy and Greg Uhlmann have all recorded or played onstage with Hadreas in the past.
A sliding guitar riff helps usher in “It’s a Mirror,” a song that captures the feelings of anxiety and neurosis that grow out of isolation. An acoustic guitar sets down the structure of the song, and electric guitars bounce and stutter across two channels as the song gathers steam. “What do I get out of being established? I still run and hide when a man’s at the door,” Hadreas sings, his voice mingling tenderness and fear. Thick layers of distorted guitar create a sense of walls closing in during the chorus, but they cradle Hadreas’s voice and don’t overpower it.
Singer and songwriter Aldous Harding joins Hadreas on “No Front Teeth.” They each take a verse and harmonize beautifully on the chorus. The song looks at the difficulties of life’s changing seasons, beginning with youth (“No front teeth where they all used to go / Broken apart and shinin’”). The chorus carries a message of hope (“Better days, nothing touch me”) but is followed by an aggressive, guitar-driven instrumental section, repeated in the closing of the song. In those moments, the song evokes a feeling of both triumph and uncertainty.
“Me & Angel,” dedicated to Wyffels, is the most affecting song on Glory. Hadreas accompanies himself on piano and sings a heartfelt declaration of love, with Mills providing understated drums behind him. Hadreas overdubs harmonies at points, and when he sings “He’s an angel” in the closing moments, it’s sincere and very touching.
On “Left for Tomorrow,” Hadreas considers the effect that losing someone close will have on him. Wyffels’s synth lines provide the funereal background, and Meg Duffy adds various processed guitar sounds to help create an ethereal feel for the song. As with so much of the album, though, it’s Hadreas’s voice, fractured and pained, that gives the song its strength and resonance.
“In a Row” finds Hadreas “Locked inside a moving car / Flopping in the trunk.” Hadreas has told various interviewers that a fantasy of being kidnapped has been with him since he was young. I don’t really understand the fixation, but he jokes in the song about suffering for his art: “Take the long way around / Think of all the poems I’ll get out.” Danger and uncertainty flow through many of Hadreas’s songs, and those feelings often contrast against the beauty of his melodies.
Perfume Genius albums range from the simplicity of Learning (2010) to the often lushly arranged Set My Heart on Fire Immediately (2020). Glory shows how much Hadreas has learned over seven albums and how adept he is at moving through genres and styles. This newest album defies categorization while presenting a single, unified musical vision.
Mills and the musicians on Glory collaborated closely with Hadreas to help develop the song arrangements. The experience they’ve had playing and recording with him allows them to build layers of effects and instruments to create moods that help bring across the meanings of his poetic, evocative lyrics. They also know when to move out of the way. Hadreas can go into a falsetto on “Capezio” and not sound forced or unnatural, aided by the musicians enhancing his delicate singing with unobtrusive but effective backing.
Hadreas recorded Glory at Sound City in Van Nuys, California, with Joseph Lorge engineering the sessions. He and Mills mixed the album, and instruments register clearly, even on the busiest tracks.
The seven Perfume Genius albums demonstrate a willingness to try new things and a talent for memorable songwriting. Glory is the work of a confident musician who doesn’t shrink from strong emotions and disturbing images, and it deserves a wide audience.
. . . Joseph Taylor
josepht@soundstagenetwork.com
