Step into the Alice in Wonderland-like fantasy world of Perfume Genius' new "Slip Away" music video, offering our first glimpse into his fourth studio album No Shape, out May 5 via Matador. Starring queer singer/songwriter Mike Hadreas himself and dancer Teresa "Toogie" Barcelo, the visual combines dreamy surrealism with camp sensibility.
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"There's something freeing about how I don't have it figured out," Hadreas said of his forthcoming LP, which was recorded in LA, produced by Blake Mills and mixed by Shawn Everett. "Unpacking little morsels, magnifying my discomfort, wading through buried harm, laughing at or digging in to the embarrassing drama of it all. I may never come out the other side but it's invigorating to try and hopefully, ultimately helpful. I think a lot of them are about trying to be happy in the face of whatever bullshit I created for myself or how horrible everything and everyone is."
Eye-poppingly colorful and wonderfully theatrical, Perfume Genius' new video was directed by longtime Bjork collaborator Andrew Thomas Huang, and provides the exact escape we needed from reality (for a couple minutes, at least). Watch "Slip Away," below, and get lost in Hadreas' stadium-sized queer soul sound.
No Shape will follow Perfume Genius' 2014 breakthrough Too Bright and has been compared to "church music" by writer Choire Sicha in the album biography. "Some of these songs are about being equal and some are about the witchcraft of believing," he wrote. "This is church music the same way Prince's Black Album is--too dirty. It's femme art pop the way Kate Bush's The Dreaming is--too scary."
No Shape Track Listing:
01. Otherside
02. Slip Away
03. Just Like Love
04. Go Ahead
05. Valley
06. Wreath
07. Every Night
08. Choir
09. Die 4 You
10. Sides (feat. Weyes Blood)
11. Braid
12. Run Me Through
13. Alan
