Photo Credit: Luke Gilford
Perfume Genius, a.k.a. Mike Hadreas, is back with his third studio album, Too Bright, and in anticipation of the Sept. 23 release has shared its first single, "Queen." In the song, Hadreas croons: "Don't you know your queen?" with a backing track of keyboards, then follows that up with "no family is safe when I sashay" and some sexy synth. The video for the single is directed by the equally subversive Ssion.
It's meant as an anthem of defiance, according to Hadreas, who explains that if there are "faces of blank fear when I walk by...if these fucking people want to give me some power--if they see me as some sea witch with penis tentacles that are always prodding and poking and seeking to convert the muggles--well, here she comes."
So far, the promotional photos for the album seem to have Hadreas in full-blown Bowie androgyny with a side of Melanie Griffith realness for good measure.
As press notes state:
"Too Bright, however, is something else altogether. Less self-conscious, and less concerned with storytelling and easily-digested melodies, it is a bold and unpredictably quixotic exploration of what Hadreas calls 'an underlying rage that has slowly been growing since age ten and has just begun to bubble up.' Recorded with Adrian Utley of Portishead and featuring John Parish on several tracks, it is a stunning about-face which brings to mind audacious career-shift albums like Kate Bush's The Dreaming or Scott Walker's Tilt, records which walk the tightrope between pure songwriting and overt experimentation."
Watch the video for "Queen" below:
