Perfume Genius (aka Mike Hadreas) has announced the release of his seventh studio album, Glory, which is due out March 28 on Matador Records. Working once again with producer Blake Mills and co-writer-keyboardist Alan Wyffels, he describes this latest collection as his “most directly confessional” and marks the record’s central conflict as the “back and forth between internal and external”. He shares time on this album with a rogues gallery of musicians including guitarists Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) and Greg Uhlmann, drummers Tim Carr and Jim Keltner, New Zealand singer-songwriter Aldous Harding, and bassist Pat Kelly.
For our first glimpse of Glory, Hadreas has shared “It’s A Mirror”, a breathtakingly woozy pop opus that delivers on our expectations while also leaving them to wither in the heat of an Arizona summer. It’s gentle and filled with plenty of space, room enough for his voice to ascend several miles above us, the shambolic rumbles of the music cascading down in ample rivulets. It’s one of his most accessible songs but maintains that raw core of emotional vulnerability.
“I wake up overwhelmed even when nothing is going on,” explains Hadreas. “I spend the rest of the day trying to regulate, which I prefer to do at home alone with my thoughts. But why? They are mostly bad. They also haven’t really changed for decades. I wrote “It’s a Mirror” while stuck in one of these isolating loops, seeing that something different and maybe even beautiful is out there but not quite knowing how to venture out. I have a lot more practice keeping the door closed.”
He’s also shared the video for “It’s a Mirror”, which was directed by Cody Critchloe, a collaborator who first worked with Hadreas on the video for Too Bright highlight “Queen”.
Watch below.
Glory is due out March 28 via Matador Records. You can pre-order the album here. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
