Perfume Genius - No Shape ALBUM REVIEW

No Shape is Perfume Genius' grandest and most eclectic musical statement to date.

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FAV TRACKS: OTHERSIDE, SLIP AWAY, JUST LIKE LOVE, VALLEY, WREATH, CHOIR, SIDES

LEAST FAV TRACK: RUN ME THROUGH

PERFUME GENIUS - NO SHAPE / 2017 / MATADOR / ART POP

Y'all know this is just my opinion, right?

[MrJfergs]

I feel like arca and perfume genius would make an amazing song together.

[ToshBerman]

You are a superb critic. There is not that much criticism in music journalism anymore. Just bite sized views - but you give it the full attention. I really appreciate that. You're a really good active listener.

[donotcallmeahipster]

This album is unbelievably good. I light 9 for me

[DihStyle]

i didn't have an opinion about this album but now i'm feeling a light to decent 8 because this is easily perfume genius' grandest and most ecletic musical statement to date.

[irustlejimmiesbrah]

"... and a variety of other tingling, tangling, sounds."
Truly the most gifted music critic and reviewer of our time. :^)

[youdbettertube]

"Alan" is an intimate goodnight song to his long-term boyfriend (and keyboard player) of the same name, so it makes sense it would sound stripped down ;p

[CheckeredFedora]

Glad you liked it. This is one of my favorites of the year so far, such a gorgeous album.

[pyroVoid]

Thank you melon for making me aware of this beautiful music.

[TheAndrewj]

Honestly, "Otherside" might be the single best opening track to an album I heard in the entirety of 2017. The points where those walls of instrumentation burst in are so beautiful that they actually make me want to weep.
The only thing from last year I can really think of that rivals it is "DNA., " and that's not even the opening track on _DAMN._

[Maximillion]

This has to be one of the best and most interesting albums I've heard this year. One of the few albums I've heard in awhile that seems to take you to a different place. It also has a little Erasure in it especially with the song "Just Like Love". And songs like "Die 4 You" makes me miss my Mom even more because she was a Sade fan and would have loved that song. This album is well worth listening ...

[JasonWrightArt]

This album has some damn transcendently dreamy breaks in it! He did not let me down on this one at all.

[TheWarrrenator]

Just when I think, "SAY INSTRUMENTAL ONE MORE TIME" and then he quits. This album is pure ear candy like a lot of Radiohead albums. From the beginning to end, it is an audio garden that Mike has been growing since Too Bright. Pretty flowers and sweet fruits. What's missing is Too Bright's cynicism and menace. Let's face it, the man's in love! (Alan) He's much more confident as an artist this time around which is great because a lot of times when performers find success (artistic, financial, emotional or otherwise) they don't know how to translate that into good art. Only a Robert Smith could write a song and call it "Just like Love" and compare something to love without it being about love...maybe? Then again the title would suggest the double entendre between amorphousness and vulnerability. It would be great to hear a solo piano version of all these songs without the strings and guitar voice settings on the Casio. So far, this is ALBUM OF THE YEAR. However, if you listen closely for the clues, you can hear musical and lyrical references to, perhaps, his inspirations: PJ Harvey's Stories and To Bring you My Love (listen for the sand block), Kate Bush and Prince to point out a few. The latter I hear on the quixotic time signature and funky attitude of Go Ahead and the 80's retro guitar of Sides. Choir ALMOST doesn't fit here, it sounds claustrophobic, like an unfinished song from Too Bright but does add to PG's skewed, David Lynch-like perspective of the world on this record. To take one's sources and tear them apart and rearrange them into new work is the task of any musician, and Hadreas does this splendidly.

[kaiga]

the first time I listened to otherside I was emotionally damaged on a level few other songs have achieved

[cheesecakelasagna]

Why isn't Die 4 You in your favourite list? The sound is so beautiful and poignant, takes my breath away every time.

[samuelhabib]

I love this channel. thank you anthony for creating this community for underground music lovers.

[theguy]

when i first listened to no shape it was about 2am and it kind of scared me in a way just because it was so disorientating; but it has grown on me quite a bit.

[heythere]

FOR EZRA POUND
IL MIGLIOR FABBRO
I. The Burial of the Dead

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the arch-duke’s,
My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
Frisch weht der Wind
Der Heimat zu
Mein Irisch Kind,
Wo weilest du?
“You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;
“They called me the hyacinth girl.”
—Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,
Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not my ni🅱️🅱️a
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.
Oed’ und leer das Meer.

Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante,
Had a bad cold, nevertheless
Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe,
With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she,
Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor,
(Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!)
Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,
The lady of situations.
Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,
And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find
The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.
I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.
Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone,
Tell her I bring the horoscope myself:
One must be so careful these days.

Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.
There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying: “Stetson!
“You who were with me in the ships at Mylae!
“That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
“Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
“Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
“Oh keep the Dog far hence, that’s friend to men,
“Or with his nails he’ll dig it up again!
“You! hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable, —mon frère!”

[glowingmolecule]

In his interview to pitchfork Mike said that he’s "been obsessed with David Lynch" since he was a kid and that Miles Davis's “Générique” was the inspiration behind “Die 4 You”, so that theory about Sides and Falling is intriguing me

[lennon]

Real thicc vegans check the score and dip

[TheMarkoPolo]

I'm feeling a strong 8 to decent 9 on this album. While I can't say I like it more than Too Bright, I do think that Mike has never been more experimental.

Fave tracks: Otherside, Slip Away, Just Like Love, Wreath, Die 4 You

Least favorite track: Run Me Through

Overall, this album is stunning

8.9.