No Shape

Getting into Perfume Genius' discography in chronological order was the right choice after all, as watching this man's artistry evolve with time has been fascinating to witness. While he first came into the music scene known for his lo-fi, simplistic, and brief piano ballads; "No Shape" is loud, vivacious, and maximalistic. The production is dense, rich, and bursting with color, and to think this night and day difference in styles is merely separated by 2 albums! Yet this change does not feel jarring at all, "No Shape" feels like a natural continuation of what is established on "Too Bright", broadening pop appeal, increasing variety in instrumentation, multi-genre experimentation etc. but also lyrically as well, "Too Bright" showed the first signs of a defiant and proud Perfume Genius, and in "No Shape", he feels truly confident and full of life, songs like "Slip Away" and "Just Like Love" fill me with so much joy when I listen to them, his songwriting is as expressive and infectious as ever.

While this album provides a great holistic listening experience, I did have a few issues with it that makes me like this a bit less than his two previous records, mainly with the production, there are some songs where I think the instrumental is a bit too busy and overpowering, and there are others where I'm just not the biggest fan of the mixing, Mike's vocals are sometimes a bit muffled and the song could sound a bit... squeaky? I don't know how to properly describe it, I just think this album does not SOUND as clean and crisp as his last two. I also think sonically this album is less distinct than them, there are a definitely a few songs where Mike is doing quite blatant Kate Bush cosplay, it doesn't bother me too much as the songs where he's doing that are still great, but it could have been made even better if he subverted his influences just a little bit (like he did on Too Bright)

Despite its issues however, I still think this is another great addition to Perfume Genius' discography, definitely his grandest and most pop-centered release yet, excited to see where he goes next.

Favs: Otherside, Slip Away, Die 4 You, Run Me Through, Alan
Least Fav: Every Night