There are always those times that I feel sad and emotional to an unfathomable degree. I am unable explain the reasons for why I am sad on most occasions, and other times I know exactly why this mood has come along. This is how I define to you “Learning” by Perfume Genius, the one-man project by Mike Hadreas, and boy, does he have some feelings to share with you. “Learning” is an album that is angry, distressing, and most of all, heartbroken. Perfume Genius is maybe the most frail-sounding artist I have heard all year. The moment you hear his voice, you can understand the emotion he is trying to evoke from his songs extremely well, despite it being a little irritating during the listen of its first half. I believed after hearing it, that Hadreas had gone through an ungodly amount of pain in his twenty-six year-old lifespan. And that’s exactly what this album does best.
The album starts with its self-titled track. The chorus goes “No one will answer your prayers until you take off that dress. No one will hear all your crying until you take your last breath.” These couple of lines are especially rough when played out in words outside of hearing it. It insinuates a disdain towards turning to religion, even in times of dispair. When heard, Hadreas creates some compelling personal touches in his playing of the song. As he sings the word “breath”, he gets a bit closer to the microphone and spits out a little air. It’s stuff like this that make me appreciate solo acts since he didn’t use his production skill (which isn’t all there) but rather his skill as a single performer.
“Mr. Peterson” describes a disturbing, secret sexual relationship between himself and a teacher, which comes to a shattering end after his teacher commits suicide. This is the album’s absolute peak of being able to get in your head and kind of ruin you for a bit. Everything about this track is so direct and even though the language used is basically a narrative, it doesn’t feel at all robotic or fake. I think it might have happened.
“Gay Angels”, I don’t particularly like as a song, but it provides a fitting enough continuation into the album’s ultra-hurt thematic material. The end of the track is pretty special, however, when Hadreas attempts to sooth a panic attack over breathing and chanting “it’s okay.”
Something else I might change just for the enjoyment of the album on a full listen is how shrill he can sound at times. The song “Perry” stands out to me from the album simply because of its well-written piano chord progressions, and I’m now a fan of how Hadreas does some of piano work.
WINNER: “Learning” by Perfume Genius
WHY: If you can bare a sad album and some androgynous vocals and undertones, you can find something special in Perfume Genius’s work. He shows good potential for the future.
Fermata over Whole Rest 