Perfume Genius Too Bright (Crystal Clear)

Reissued on crystal clear vinyl for the 10th anniversary this September, ‘Too Bright,’ remains an early standout of Perfume Genius’s (Mike Hadreas) unparalleled oeuvre. It is a brave, bold, unpredictably quixotic exploration of what Hadreas called in 2014 “an underlying rage that has slowly been growing since ten and has just begun to bubble up.” Recorded with Adrian Utley of Portishead and featuring John Parish on several tracks, it is a stunning about-face which brings to mind audacious career-shift albums like Kate Bush’s ‘The Dreaming’ or Scott Walker’s ‘Tilt,’ records which walk the tightrope between pure songwriting and overt experimentation.