Release Date: February 21st, 2012
What changes when an artist steps into a studio? Is the change a chemical one, rendering the artist a different person? Or is it one of perception, a change affected within the listener recognizing that this is not the basic, intimate artist that we have come to know? This recognition is essential to the idea of the sophomore album, especially in this, the day of unreasonable expectation levied upon unproven lo-fi or bedroom artists. In the case of Mike Hadreas, aka Perfume Genius, the question is whether, on his first release Learning, we valued the intimate, close-at-hand DIY-ness of the production, or Hadreas’ budding and frequently beautiful artistry? And which side of that coin would be more important when the time came for him to choose between one or the other?
Put Your Back N 2 It, the sadly twee-titled follow-up to Learning, is a bit of a cypher in this regard. Hadreas certainly buffed up his fidelity; everything here is eminently accessible, sometimes even reasonably anthemic. Opener “AWOL Marine” is all echo-laden dreamscape, replete with the gentle cooing of, “AWOL Marine/Turn toward the camera/Slowly.” But the first shock takes hold on the album’s second song, the quixotic waltz “Normal Song,” which is abnormally built from a consistent guitar melody. Hadreas speaks his aesthetic mind early and often on the record, modulating his voice and employing wall-of-sound drums on the reverent turn-away ballad “No Tear.” There’s nothing markedly different from Hadreas’ approach on Put Your Back N 2 It, but each song plays off the others more cohesively. As can be common with sophomore albums, Back is the first indication that Hadreas can craft a cohesive album. Where the difference between “Write to Your Brother” and “No Problem” is jarring, the transition between the plaintive, growing up ballad “17” to the gospel-inflected “Take Me Home” bears out much more grace.
The problem, then, is that the songs don’t seem to be growing up any further. They all have the same nose-to-nose intimacy to them, but halfway through the record, there’s a bit of icy cool to Perfume Genius’ method. Here, Hadreas is more clearly expressing his soul. The results are as bleak and frail as they were on Learning, but the haunting effect of the songs is less real, more constructed. Perhaps Hadreas’ magic was in requirement of a certain hard-looking musical ear; the only reward is the one we have to reach for, after all.
More pressing, however, is that many of the songs feel unfinished. While Learning felt completely fleshed out, Put Your Back N 2 It feels almost too slight, the songs ending sometimes just 10 seconds before they should. Take, for example, the closing lullaby. While no one would presume to say the song deserves a full three-and-a-half minute treatment, its ending is just that small bit too short. Many of the songs take on this aura: “No Tear,” “All Waters” and the propulsive (!) “Hood” most glaring among them. All of the songs are ably executed, and none particularly miss the mark (“Dirge” being the lone exception). At the end of “Sister Song,” however, Put Your Back N 2 It doesn’t so much beg repeated listens to discover hidden gems as much as it asks whether you’ll dive back in to discover why it’s so short.
On a whole, however, Hadreas’ beautiful dreams still spring to life across the expanse that is Perfume Genius’ second record; he just may have prematurely approached a studio. The best track on the album, “Dark Parts,” hints at a possible, if distant and dreamlike, mentor for Hadreas: Sufjan Stevens. The intimacy with which Hadreas croons his “oh-woahs” on “Dark Parts” has beautiful communion with Stevens, and indeed Perfume Genius’ rise mirrors Stevens’ in a way. So the questions of his hi-fi turns on this record are rendered moot; by sticking to his own formula, Perfume Genius has illumined a possible career path that is both attainable and highly laudable. Put Your Back N 2 It isn’t the record to get there, but it’s testament to Mike Hadreas’ cloudy-eyed songwriting smarts that he’s still on the path after stepping into a studio.
Perfume Genius – Put Your Back N 2 It tracklist:
- “AWOL Marine”
- “Normal Song”
- “No Tear”
- “17”
- “Take Me Home”
- “Dirge”
- “Dark Parts”
- “All Waters”
- “Hood”
- “Put Your Back N 2 It”
- “Floating Spit”
- “Sister Song”
