_edited.png)
7.4/10
Perfume Genius, or Michael Alden Hadreas, is an American singer-songwriter from Iowa who recently released his new album 'Ugly Season', a mind-opening album that will either leave the listener stunned, confused, or unsatisfied.
"Just A Room", the opening track to this album, is a creepy, eerie, and simplistic yet at the same time hypnotic start to the album, followed by "Herem", a track that very much gave me darkwave vibes. It is vocally very beautiful, however, at some points I felt like the song was dragging out a bit too much, leaving me actually wanting it to end as nothing really changed or happened around the middle/end of the track, with the same feeling with the following track "Teeth" where I enjoyed the mysterious-sounding strings but the track remained bland and uninteresting all the way through.
After "Pop Song", a track with good synth moments but a lack of lyrics, and "Scherzo", which is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “a vigorous, light, or playful composition, typically comprising a movement in a symphony or sonata" is exactly that, but is just an awkward break in the album, the album begins to pick up a bit more. The production of both the beats and the vocals in "Ugly Season" and "Eye in the Wall" is by far the best on the entire album, with my only complaint being how once again dragged out "Eye in the Wall" is. The drums are the highlight of this track but once the lyrics stop you're just left with these drums and you're thinking "what's going to happen next?" I simply cannot sit through the full remainder of this track, however, I found it actually great to listen to in the background while doing work or something else as those drums really put me in focus mode. The album ends well, however, with "Photograph", an experimental-sounding highlight and a breath of fresh air for the album, "Hellbent", an aggressive track with one of Perfume's weirdest (in a good way) vocal performances on the album, and the ending track "Cenote", a luscious and peaceful closer to the album.
This album, I feel like, almost had it. Although it is good, it could've been better. I just feel like it's missing something.
Comentarii