Top 20 Albums of 2012*

1. Perfume Genius - Put Your Back N 2 It
Heartbreaking, delicate, beautiful yet strangely uplifting Perfume Genius’ second album showed that his incredible debut wasn’t just a fluke, but the product of a rare genius.
Listen to: ‘Sister Song’

2. Grimes – Visions
Sublime electronica combined with vocals that dodge between haunting and strangely baby-ish. Enveloping and enduring.
Listen to: ‘Oblivion’

3. Cloud Nothings - Attack On Memory
Subtly rousing emo-indie, dreamy in places and simple but effective indie rock in others.
Listen to: ‘No Future/No Past

4. Stumbleine – Spiderwebbed
Atmospheric combinations of weird electronic noises and Cocteau Twins-esque vocals. It carries you away on gradually layered waves, surreal and addictive.
Listen to: ‘The Beat My Heart Skips’

5. Sigur Ros – Valtari
Pretty much everything that you could hope for from a new Sigur Ros album.
Listen to: ‘Ekki Mukk’

6. Tall Ships - Everything Touching
Including a fantastic (if at first surprising) revamping of EP track ‘Ode To Ancestors’ this album cements Tall Ships in their place as one of the most exciting bands around.
Listen To: ‘Books’

7. The Bronze Medal - The Bronze Medal
A release I’m unlikely to ever grow tired of listening to, it blends together into one mass of sublime yet powerful vocals and melodious guitars.
Listen To: ‘Womb'

8. Joyce Manor  - Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired
Combining raw angry energy and furious guitars with melodies that wouldn’t seem out of place in the charts Joyce Manor were always going to be a hit. This album does feel pretty short, but there’s certainly something to be said for their directness.
Listen To: ‘These Kind Of Ice Skates’

9. The-Dream/Terius Nash – 1977
Originally released as a free download  last year, this album is hopefully finally going to get the notice it deserves. Nash’s lyrics are as clever as ever, laying his feelings bare in a way that’s almost difficult to hear.
Listen To: ‘Form Of Flattery'

10. Taylor Swift - Red
Swift has moved away from the more mediocre pop fare she favoured, growing into a powerful pop phenomena. This album is frankly just bangin’ (except that track with Ed Sheeran. We pretend that hasn't happened).
Listen To: ‘The Lucky One’

11. How To Dress Well - Total Loss
12. Drake - Take  Care
13. First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar
14. Frightened Rabbit - State Hospital*
15. The Heartbreaks - Funtimes
16. Ace Bushy Striptease - Outside It's Cold Just Like Your Body And
17. Lucy Rose - Like I Used To
18. Sfumato – These Things Between
19. Peace - EP Delicious*
20. The Twilight Sad - No One Can Ever Know                                    
*A couple of these are admittedly EPs

Honourable mentions to:

• Keel Her

Listen to: 'With Me Tonight'

• Kitty Pryde

Listen to: 'Okay Cupid'

Perfume Genius - Put Your Back N 2 It

Mike Hadreas’ first album as Perfume Genius was ten short songs of pain, whispered out in his trademark delicate voice and recorded in his mum’s house without any particular intention to be released, it’s intimate in a way that can be almost difficult to hear at times. Hadreas himself is a shy, almost damaged seeming character, singing of awful things with a smile and a shaking voice, over a gentle piano. ‘Put Your Back N 2 It’ does not show much deviation from this effective formula, even using a couple of re-recorded demos from before ‘Learning’, the beautiful piano arpeggios and hushed vocals remain.

Hadreas’ words seem to be precisely shaped from an almost exquisite hurt, but they’re never complicated, no overwrought metaphors or vivid descriptions, instead, his words almost tumble out, and seem obvious once they’re said – the sign of a true lyrical talent. The second track, ‘Normal Song’ opens with an uncomplicated line that somehow manages to communicate a whole lot more; “hold my hand, I am afraid” he asks plaintively. It’s not all doom and gloom though; often what makes these songs seem so upsetting is the glimmer of hope they describe. For example, on ‘Dark Parts’ (written as a present for his mum) he promises “I will take the dark part of your heart into my heart”. This album also shows a little more instrumental variety than ‘Learning’; a dark bass riff that wouldn’t sound out of place on the Twin Peaks soundtrack opens ‘Floating Spit’, and the gentle pounding drums on ‘Dark Parts’ add a sense of urgency, when things could otherwise have felt a little too heavy. It closes with ‘Sister Song’, the Perfume Genius version of an arena-filling anthem – a reverberating guitar picks out a melody that sounds patriotic in some strange way, with typically revealing yet mysterious lyrics, and a sense of anticipation.

Bands like Snow Patrol and singers like Adele are often lauded for the ability their songs have to induce emotion (…and how well their songs go with sad montages on the TV). But true heartbreak, true grief – almost at the point where it seems cathartic, wretched and destructive – is to be found in this album.....

Read the rest on GoldFlakePaint

Perfume Genius/Lonely Galaxy at The Cube cinema in Bristol.

The Cube is a small, independent cinema and is perhaps more used to putting on films than the kind of thing I was there for (EDIT: they actually put on at least two gigs a week). It's hidden away down a little side street in Bristol. The building itself is a little confusing - it's all on different levels. While we waited outside the actual room where the gig was going to be, we watched at least seven people ask where the toilets were, only to be sent back out the door from where they had come. (The toilets had some of the best graffiti I've seen in a while, which I posted just below).

There were only about fifty people there in the end, in a small theatre style room. Considering the buzz there's been around Mike Hadreas and his music, I was quite surprised, and even more astonished when I overheard someone saying they hadn't actually listened to any of his music before coming.

The support act, Lonely Galaxy, are signed to Transparent Records which means they're label mates with bands like Yuck and The Smith Westerns. Main member, Harry Granger-Howell, has an incredibly beautiful, powerful voice; accompanied by just his guitar playing and a viola, creating a really mesmerizing and haunting atmosphere. Their best tracks were 'Waiting', 'Time' and 'Have A Heart' - including the lyrics "I've been feeling pretty low". Unsurprisingly quite obvious, but if gloom can produce music like that it might not always be such a bad thing.

In between Lonely Galaxy and Perfume Genius was some quite perky jazz, which I assume was played so that people didn't start crying while the lights were on. Once Lonely Galaxy finished playing, they sat in the crowd to watch Perfume Genius.

When Mike Hadreas and Alan Wyfells walked on stage, it took a while for people to notice because Hadreas is a small, unimposing guy. Even after all the hype, the live sessions I've seen online etc, it was a surreal feeling to see him on stage. Seated nervously behind a keyboard, draped with dark material, he started playing the first song of the set, 'Lookout, Lookout'. Very quiet, whispery singing, close enough to the mic that you could hear everything perfectly, even his shaky intakes of breath. After only a few lines, he started giggling and had to pause before continuing. Considering the dark subject matter of the song, this was a little strange, but endearing. He played a variety of songs from Learning, as well as some of his rarer demos, including 'Put Your Back Into It', an emotive track.

During the gig, Hadreas and Wyfells continually glanced at each other, their eyes meeting rarely. Nervously adjusting the microphone, in a low voice Hadreas mentioned that he couldn't see the audience at all it was so dark saying that, "it's like a nightmare, a beautiful one though".

There was just something about his naked vulnerability on that stage, singing about such personal, and often-horrific things that really reached out to me (and the rest of the audience), almost painfully intimate perhaps, but far from awkward. His final song was 'Never Did', the lyrics of which were almost like the light at the end of a dark and beautiful tunnel, "it's all part of his plan, it's all in his hands". Wyfells and Hadreas shared the same keyboard for this one, their chemistry an important part of the success of the performance, seeming to support each other through what cannot have been an easy performance, dealing as Hadreas' songs do, with such deeply personal material.

The encore was 'Write To Your Brother', and for this Hadreas came out on stage alone. His eyes flickered towards the door whenever someone came in late, perhaps drawn in by the music, adding to the performer's slightly uneasy, timid demeanor.

Afterwards, Mike Hadreas walked past me, I'd been considering this throughout his performance, and it sounds strange, but as he walked past it appeared as though he was illuminated by a different light to everybody else. His pale skin and dark hair give a beauty, that when combined with his singing and piano playing, is striking. Due to a lack of confidence, I didn't go over and say thank you to him, but I wish I had, as it was an implausibly brilliant, heartbreaking, yet uplifting night. I will be praying that he comes on tour again, soon.

Artist of the month- Perfume Genius

July

Mike Hadreas, (also known as Perfume Genius) by all acounts has not had an easy life. Quoted as saying “I spent my whole life hiding from the things that happened to me, to my family and friends...The entirety of all these experiences: abuse, addiction, suicide, all that cool stuff, I couldn’t bear to look at it.” As Perfume Genius, he has transformed all of these things into some utterly fantastic music.





His sound is sparse with an ethereal feel, normally just his vocals and a piano, or very occasionally a guitar. The lyrics are desperately honest, and his voice is gentle, almost breaking in places but with a haunting strength to the sound. Several of his songs were floating around on the internet before the release of his debut album, Learning. These songs (such as Mr Peterson) caught the attention of many, and by the time the album was actually released on Turnstile he had quite a following, and not without reason, the music he makes is really something very special.

Every song I have heard by Perfume Genius is genuinely heartbreaking in some way, he's playing his first live show in London soon and it has almost, if not actually sold out, promising to be an evening that will not be forgotten.
Not bad for someone who's bio used to read "might be dead, cool guy".