The Thousands

So, confession time…I am completely and totally addicted to the Perfume Genius album Learning. It’s one of those disgustingly lovey-dovey type things where I just can’t get enough of this record and need to hear it all the time every day and need everyone else to feel the same way or at least drive them insane trying.

I think I really fell totally head over heels for Perfume Genius (the moniker for one-man band Mike Hadreas) after hearing the heartbreakingly beautiful ‘Mr Peterson’ on a mix from a pal. I actually thought it was a demo version but turns out that’s just how Hadreas rolls – all sparse and lo fi with minor key piano backing his heartbreakingly confessional lyrics. Joy Division tapes and smoking weed in trucks never felt so right (yet also so wrong).

Another reason I’ve been listening to this album is that, clocking in at under 30 minutes overall, all the songs seem to slip away before I can (as Malcolm Gladwell would say) “figure them out” and by the time the record finishes I just want to hear every micro melodic confessional tale all over again.