Perfume Genius - Too Bright
Critic Score
Based on 35 reviews
2014 Ratings: #16 / 1042
Year End Rank: #12
User Score
2014 Rank: #43
Liked by 108 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
Tiny Mix Tapes

Perfume Genius has never sounded more intimate. In its most forward-looking moments, he is still reflecting on himself; but at its most insular, he seems to be speaking for multitudes.

91
Entertainment Weekly
Even the moments between the standouts float by with a strange beauty. Don’t miss them.
91
Pretty Much Amazing

It takes him – and the listener – way out of the comfort zone, a shift that suits his tendencies wonderfully.

91
Consequence of Sound

Despite its heightened complexity, Too Bright still fosters an intelligible world where Hadreas can bridge the distance between his vulnerability and self-assuredness.

91
A.V. Club

Too Bright is the gloves coming off, the curtain that once was gently pulled back now ripped from its rod and set on fire. What results is at times noisy, at times beautiful, and always captivating. 

90
The Line of Best Fit

Hadreas finally appears to have found a sound palette as provocative, forward-thinking and confrontational as his vehement, brave lyrical style.

90
The 405

Too Bright is a strident and bold statement from an artist who has finally undone the knot of his past.

90
PopMatters

Equal parts lyric and mood, the two create a dynamic tension on Too Bright that, regardless of sexual orientation, should be taken as a treatise on human frailty and the need for reciprocity in life and love.

90
musicOMH

It’s not the easiest of pop albums to listen to but its raw power makes it a dazzling triumph.

85
Pitchfork

These songs feel less like songs and more like treasures, ones that fill you with power and wisdom, and as a result, Too Bright seems capable of resonating with, comforting, and moving anyone who's ever felt alienated, discriminated against, or "other-ized," regardless of sexual orientation.

83
Paste

If the first two Perfume Genius albums played something like nightmares—beautiful, full of danger, guided by pristine internal logic—then Too Bright is where Hadreas finally yells himself awake.

80
Clash
The material more than matches the ambition on these 11 bewitching songs.
80
The Skinny

It’s still that effortlessly histrionic tumble and soar vocal of his that grabs the headlines on Too Bright, but it has to compete with an overcast atmosphere and a turbulence beyond the fragile sorrow of his earlier work.

80
God Is in the TV

In the end for all the dressing placed upon Too Bright, that naked heart still beats and its rhythm is still as hypnotic as ever.

80
The Needle Drop
On Perfume Genius' third album, singer-songwriter Mike Hadreas uplifts his emotionally charged piano dirges with even more backing instrumentation.
80
Time Out London

Still tender, increasingly triumphant and often transcendent, ‘Too Bright’ represents a violent flowering of talent. Until now, we’ve only seen Hadreas’s filament flicker. Here it burns.

80
Exclaim!

Perfume Genius has begun to spread his wings, delivering a breakout release that relies on much more than his manic/mopey persona.

80
DIY

There’s a fast pattern emerging here, which applies to the entire album; ‘Too Bright’ is a diverse, multi-faceted and all-absorbing slice of sheer mastery. 

80
FACT Magazine

Too Bright creates a captive audience in its effusive refusal to let you look away.

80
Under the Radar

The songs here may vary in tempo and orchestration but they all sound as coiffed, sheeny, and slick as Mike Hadreas (aka Perfume Genius) looks on the cover.

80
No Ripcord

Few artists in this day and age take self-expression through art to heart like Hadreas does as Perfume Genius, and with the sensitive confidence that radiates from Too Bright, he’s mastered it in a way few artists never do.

80
NME

‘Too Bright’ isn't quite as tough as Hadreas made it seem. Rather, it's a collection of enthralling confessionals where stabs of bleakness mean that heavy bleeding dominates.

80
AllMusic

Equally bold, vulnerable, concise, and expansive, Too Bright dazzles.

80
Drowned in Sound

The darkness was always there, in Hadreas, in the songs, but now it’s in the music, Too Bright, to sound ridiculously over the top, has darkness in its soul.

70
Rolling Stone

His ambitions are even greater on his third album, which demands attention in a way his quietly heartbreaking music hasn't in the past.

frienderman
83

This album makes me feel so gay and heartbroken I love it.

FearFlour
95

It's hella gay and I love every single moment of it. I can't think of anything I don't dig about this album.

Host
85

THANK YOU GUYS FOR 200 FOLLOWERS!!!! YOU ROCK!!!!

This guys hair is cool. "Too Bright" is a true artistic statement by perfume genius. Sonically it sticks in it's lane, not really going crazy with any of the instrumentals. The vocals are good, but they're not mind blowing or anything. The album as a whole just screams basic art pop record. So why do I love it so much? The way "Too Bright" weaves all these components together makes it an amazing experience by itself, but ... read more

notchkninspnish
100

Petition to put "Queen" into all pride parade playlists to help decorporatize it and get back to our protest roots.

Kiwo
73

an intimate cry in struggle against reality in the form of art

QDOERTY
85

He finally doesn't sound like Sufjan Stevens!
FAV: Grid, I'm a Mother.

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Track List

1I Decline
1:58
87
2Queen
3:50
96
3Fool
3:55
88
4No Good
3:49
87
5My Body
2:17
87
6Don't Let Them In
2:21
85
7Grid
2:39
87
8Longpig
2:50
87
9I'm a Mother
3:30
82
10Too Bright
3:25
87
11All Along
2:34
88
Total Length: 33 minutes
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Added on: July 15, 2014