Album Review: Perfume Genius - Set My Heart On Fire Immediately

The astonishing Perfume Genius single Eye In The Wall released late last year was a tease, reminding us that it has been a while since No Shape and leaving us longing for more. Although that song is not featured on this new album, Mike Hadreas has confidently dropped an intense album of brilliantly realised pop songs packed with instantly likeable melodies and hooks, but also with great emotional depth.

Eight years ago with Hood, Hadreas came across as a cheeky antithesis of John Grant’s bearish melodrama. Now that he is more grown-up, and noting that he is approaching middle age on Set My Heart On Fire Immediately, Hadreas wears his heart on his sleeve and unapologetically celebrates life with such sincerity and warmth that these tunes will inevitably touch the hearts and minds of listeners.

It's a quick swivel of the hips that kick starts cuts like Without You and On The Floor, which break out irresistible beats while Hadreas sings of the bittersweet trials and tribulations of falling in and out of love. Interestingly these tunes suggest the influence of Elvis and Roy Orbison with modern pop twists. Hadreas and his collaborators have largely worked with a soft palette of sound across much of this album to achieve dream-pop vibes that occasionally dip into restrained flourishes of strings and elegant chamber pop. The ebbing of Borrowed Light tugs at the heartstrings as it flickers and fades to darkness to close the album.