Perfume Genius is a Seattle chamber pop solo act from the mind of Mike Hadreas his second release Put Your Back N 2 It, came out in just this past week and has been generating a fair amount of blogger buzz.
When I gave it a listen I didn’t quite know what to expect. This is the first time I had really listened to Perfume Genius. Hadreas seems to have patented a very unique and emotional sound. The vocals on this album are downplayed a bit, almost with a filtered sound. Where some heavily produced studio albums really have vocals that push to the front of every song, Perfume Genius allows the vocals to echo and become just like another instrument. It’s an older sounding record and I like that.
Awol Marine fades in from nothing. I had to make sure that my speakers were on when I started the album. Twinkling keys seem to hesitate as if they are holding back emotion as well. The instrumentals sound like a cleverly thought out Casiotone For The Painfully Alone arrangement only with Sufjan Stevens singing the lyrics. Synth and a classical piano work with the spacey vocals to make this track sound like the next great sad sack anthem.
Take Me Home reminds me a bit of Dead Man’s Bones. It has older swing style vocals and the lyrics that seem to be plucked right out of a graveyard love story. The guitars added in have a very cool ghostly reverb effect and make this song very spooky sounding.
Dark Parts is an ongoing piano roll and stands as one of the more uplifting songs on the album. While other tracks have a down in the dumps feel this one is a bit more happy. With Celtic sounding drums and a very faint sound of a heavily distorted guitar in the background this track builds and suddenly stops into a beautiful freeze-frame moment where Hadreas comes in clear as day. “I will take the dark part of your heart into my heart.”
The title track Put Your Back N 2 It couldn’t be much more of a confusing "getting it on" song. The main chorus is “Let me be the one to turn you on.” But the delivery of this line is done in a way like someone just died. I don’t know whether to lay someone down by the fire or burst into tears. This is probably one of the least interesting tracks on the album.
Sister Song sounds like it could be in a movie soundtrack. The lyrics are delivered so softly over one of the quietest piano tracks on the album. The whole thing sounds as traditional and familiar as an old folk song. It is the perfect track to finish off this album.
8.5/10
Take Away Thought: I really enjoyed this album. Though I recommend you are prepared for one of the saddest sounding albums to come out in some time. I found a bit of a similar sound among a few of the tracks and the album is fairly short at only 32 minutes. The sound quality and emotion put into this album make it worth a listen. If you are a fan of getting a bit emo with your indie pop, give this one a go.
No comments:
Post a Comment