Perfume Genius' Set My Heart on Fire Immediately
Self-acceptance is difficult, and self-reflection even more so. Many of us will spend our lives vacillating between a capacity for neither, only in moments of strange lucidity able to grasp the true meaning of our thoughts, feelings and potential for transcendence. Throughout his ten years as Perfume Genius, Mike Hadreas has uncovered more of himself to listeners than most of us will be able to do for ourselves in a lifetime, bearing his soul with a confident fragility that inspires. This gift makes Hadreas one of the singular musical talents of our time, furthered revealed on his fifth and latest release, Set My Heart on Fire Immediately. Reuniting with producer extraordinaire Blake Mills, whose technicolor arrangements helped 2017’s No Shape secure a Grammy nomination it should have won, the contents of Set My Heart on Fire Immediately’s track list display an unrivaled sonic lavishness that subvert and expand the bounds of musical possibility.
“Whole Life” begins Set My Heart on Fire Immediately with a meditation on life and time, kickstarted by an audible sigh. “Half of my whole life is gone,” Hadreas sings, mournfully. “Let it drift and wash away / It was just a dream I had.” The breathtaking beauty of the instrumental arrangement that follows backs up that assertion, the majesty of its strings and staccato twang of its guitars immediately transporting the listener into a surreal state of bliss, broken only by the entry of “Describe” and the foggy, lumbering moaning of its guitars. There has always been a glam inherent to Hadreas’ music, and on this, and the standout Cyndi Lauper meets Stevie Wonder dancefloor funk of “On the Floor,” the results of it are simply awe inspiring. These songs bob with an irresistible joy equaled, perhaps, only by the passion of Hadreas’ lonely desire.
This desire manifests itself in a number of captivating ways throughout the first half of Set My Heart on Fire Immediately. “Without You” boasts a sweeping melody buoyed by an Americana nostalgia that feels informed by decades of memories. The confessional “Jason,” with its pronounced bassline, dedicant harpsichord and shimmering synth, remind me of the similarly coy ballad “Tongue” from R.E.M.’s Monster. The amorphous “Leave” builds with all the intensity of the second movement of a classical symphony before giving way to the excellent aforementioned “On The Floor.”
“On The Floor” and the dark swaggering “Your Body Changes Everything” deliver a satisfying transition into the album’s more focused, and just as outstanding second half, where the exploration of the body becomes paramount. Hadreas’ belief in the body to transmute new realities has always been evident in his music, to be sure, but the source of Set My Heart on Fire Immediately’s considerable power is derived from the fact that this is his clearest manifesto to date. “Moonbend” explores its intricacies with a ballet-like delicacy. “Just a Touch” pleas for the acknowledgement of touch with an almost aching tenderness, eventually broken by the vacillating hum of guitars on “Nothing at All.” As Hadreas sings “I got what you want, babe / I got what you need, son” repeatedly in the song’s chorus, the menace of his voice sounds almost as likely to be directed toward himself as his lover.
This lust is broken by the Roy Orbison reverb of “One More Try,” as Hadreas’ vision is one again distorted, co-opted by dreams and the chaos they bring. Nowhere is this more clearly distilled than on the thrilling symphonic wonder of “Some Dream,” or, as the album draws to a muted close, with “Borrowed Light” with the acknowledgement that “…there’s no secret / Just an undertow.”
The best music allows us to not only come to a deeper understanding of the artist making it, but also ourselves. On this, and almost every other conceivable metric, Set My Heart on Fire Immediately is an undisputed triumph of musical and personal exploration; an album with the potential to be the best of the year. As of the writing of this review, it is.
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