Deciding to do something so avant-garde and so heavily art-focussed is a brave move and so perfectly Perfume Genius.
On its own, it’s one of the most challenging and rewarding releases Perfume Genius has ever attempted .... The compositional risks and oblique poetry from Hadreas never waver throughout the album’s methodical pacing, with his voice bringing urgency to every subtle change as the songs progress.
Hadreas is a masterful, theatrical album arranger, and makes album closer Cenote a cooling exhale, the final savasana. Ugly Season is a scenic route to the world’s end that finds hope in bodily beauty, however ravaged.
Michael Hadreas of Perfume Genius delivers his most experimental, wandering, and gorgeously unkempt album to date with Ugly Season.
The best thing any devotee of Perfume Genius can do is lovingly dissect Ugly Season’s strangeness and beauty in hopes of finding the thread Michael Hadreas will follow next.
The most compelling elements of his work remain, and the album is a culmination of one of the most consistent and emotionally generous artists today.
Ugly Season borrows from classical approaches, chamber- and baroque-pop templates, and the diverse canon of industrial/dystopian music.
Ugly Season is a powerful statement as both an album and a score for a dance piece, and its intertwining of self-expression and healing is peak Perfume Genius.
Only time will tell how Ugly Season fits into the Perfume Genius canon. Whether or not it gets accepted as the true follow-up to Set My Heart… may well come down to whether Hadreas and co try to insert these songs into live shows, whenever they go on the road again.
Ugly Season neither gets nor needs a real conclusion. It’s about open possibilities, not fixed forms or closed statements, and moreover, it’s the kind of music that speaks perfectly well for itself.
As the sixth album in Hadreas’ discography, Ugly Season deserves credit for taking the risks it does, trusting the audience to follow along with each step of its dance.
Ugly Season is as bewildering and bizarre as its cover art, but without the accompanying short film, its wild ideas sometimes become untethered. It’s unclear whether it’s an album hardcore fans will revisit often, but its boldness and innovation aught to be celebrated.
Ambient, baroque-pop and neo-classical are the connective tissue on the album, though those experiments often fall into the background.
Though some tracks really need the context of performance or visuals on the astral fourth-world funk of "Eye In The Wall", Hadreas sets sail on his own Arthur Russell style "African Night Flight”.
Mike wades into even more abstract waters on Ugly Season.
Without the accompanying visuals, Ugly Season makes the most sense when there's a vocal to centre it.
It's ultimately overshadowed by the monotonous electronic pulse of Eye In The Wall and the jarring quasi-ragga of the title track. White those songs may have worked onstage, on record they fall sadly short.
I love when an artist takes such a big turn in their carrier and it works. Talk Talk with Spirits Of Eden, Radiohead with Kid A, Sufjan with Age Of Adz, Bon Iver with 22, A Milion. Now it’s time for Perfume Genius and i’m here for it!
Friendly reminder: it's pride month and rating it below 80 is homophobic.
Hadreas manages to render imperfection into something perfectly majestic and seductive..
[Hello AOTY, I recently participated in the "Best Albums of 2O22 So Far" list for Spectrum Culture, supporting the latest Perfume Genius album "Ugly Season", so here's the whole of my work + a complementary exclusive version especially for you. Love]
https://spectrumculture.com/2022/06/28/best-albums-of-2022-so-far/
Two years ago Mike Hadreas a.k.a Perfume Genius seemed to have ... read more
1. Just a Room [8/10]
2. Herem [9/10]
3. Teeth [10/10]
4. Pop Song [10/10]
5. Scherzo [5/10]
6. Ugly Season [9/10]
7. Eye In the Wall [8/10]
8. Photograph [9/10]
9. Hellbent [7/10]
10. Cenote [8/10]
TOTAL: 83 / 10 = 8.30
Gay Thom Yorke is killing it. Seriously this album is so full of interesting textures and landscapes. I haven’t heard music like this before, it’s that beautiful miracle of avant-garde experimentation that actually works!
1 | Just a Room 3:29 | 81 |
2 | Herem 7:21 | 85 |
3 | Teeth 4:13 | 85 |
4 | Pop Song 5:05 | 89 |
5 | Scherzo 3:50 | 75 |
6 | Ugly Season 4:40 | 84 |
7 | Eye in the Wall 8:42 | 89 |
8 | Photograph 4:41 | 88 |
9 | Hellbent 6:41 | 87 |
10 | Cenote 3:32 | 81 |
#11 | / | A.V. Club |
#19 | / | Spectrum Culture |
#23 | / | Paste |
#26 | / | Northern Transmissions |
#26 | / | Pitchfork |
#43 | / | PopMatters |
#69 | / | Under the Radar |
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