Too Bright
"Queen," the anthemic single released earlier this year by Mike Hadreas (a.k.a. Perfume Genius), is one of the most compelling songs the Seattle indie-pop artist has written. His ambitions are even greater on his third album, which demands attention in a way his quietly heartbreaking music hasn't in the past. The pathos of "My Body" uses noises that verge on industrial, and the pitch-shifting of "I'm a Mother" is ominously surreal. Baring his insecurities while rising above them, Perfume Genius ends his most aggressive album yet on an unusually triumphant note: "Deep down I never did feel right," he sings on the postbreakup lament "All Along," before adding, "That feeling's a lie."