Per­fume Genius’ Too Bright.

Too Bright is the third album from Mike Hadreas who per­forms as Per­fume Genius. He’s the lat­est to be offi­cial­ly anoint­ed by the grown-ups in the music press, but hap­pi­ly, after the dis­ap­point­ment of the recent and sim­i­lar­ly laud­ed FKA Twigs album, this time round it’s the real deal.

Hadreas has brought in the Por­tishead gui­tarist Adri­an Utley for pro­duc­tion duties, while long time PJ Har­vey col­lab­o­ra­tor John Parish sits in on drums for a num­ber of tracks. Hadreas has said that Har­vey is a major influ­ence, the oth­er being Nina Simone. And that com­bi­na­tion of raw, emo­tion­al pain and care­ful­ly wrought musi­cal tex­tures with a decid­ed edge are what best describe the feel of the album.

PJ Har­vey.

But there are also qui­eter more lyri­cal moments, as with My Body (T5) where he seems to be chan­nelling Ricky Nelson’s Lone­some Town. And oth­ers where the pres­ence of Antony and the John­sons can clear­ly be felt.

The boys from Pitch­fork give it an impressed 8.5 here. And you can see the video for Grid here, and for Queen here. And you can read Sasha Frere-Jones piece on him in the New York­er here.

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