Mike Hadreas, aka Perfume Genius has certainly recorded one of my favorite albums of this year, and he had already released two videos when I discovered the album. However, he could make a video for each of his songs and I would write about each of them! Plus you have to admit that the visuals for ‘Queen’ and ‘Grid’ were quite astonishing.
‘Fool’, a really exceptional song by its unconventional construction, got a new video on Monday, so I couldn’t pass on this one. Directed by Charlotte Rutherford, who also did the aforementioned one for ‘Grid’, the movie is as imaginative, creative and provocative than the previous ones. There’s certainly something unique that transpires from each Perfume Genius’s video, may be it is the cold stare, the red lipstick, or the manicured red nail polish, but I can’t stop watching and I am not even gay! Hadreas sashays over town with his golden skates, wearing a white jacket that reads ‘Extra Special selection’ and he has never emanated more swagger.
Soon, he stops his rollerblading and the video slows down during a profane-meets-sacred moment just when Hadreas has that emotional shriek that breaks your mind in a thousand pieces. And whatever inspired all the imagery that follows, the Ugly Duckling, a negative version of the Black Swan or the famous audition scene in Flash dance, the whole clip channels many things from Bowie (didn’t he have a scene in a grocery store in a recent video?) to a mysterious cult à la Kubrick, or some glam videos from the ’80s.
A video gives a new life to a song, which wasn’t really necessary in the first place, but my only complaint is that it is a collaboration with Urban Outfitters. Yikes!
Don’t miss Perfume Genius if he comes around, here are his tour dates:
2/15 Richmond, Australia – Corner Hotel
2/18 Darlinghurst, Australia – Oxford Art Factory
2/19 Fortitude Valley, Australia – The Brightside
3/16 Columbus, OH – Wexner Center *
3/17 Washington, DC – Black Cat *
3/19 New York, NY – Stage 48 *
3/20 Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair *
3/21 Providence, RI – Columbus Theatre *
3/23 Hamden, CT – The Outer Space *
3/24 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer *
3/25 Kingston, NY – BSP Kingston *
3/27 Pittsburgh, PA – Andy Warhol Museum *
3/29 Knoxville, TN – Big Ears Festival *
6-10 London, England – Royal Festival Hall
* with Jenny Hval
