Ugly Season (studio album) by Perfume Genius

Grand and imposing, Ugly Season stands out as my favourite Perfume Genius album because of how effectively it showcases a tension and vulnerability in Mike's vocal delivery. This grandeur can feel very open like on 'Just a Room' or imposing like on 'Hellbent', but by sticking to the same principles of minimal vocals, long droning notes and withdrawn percussion, Ugly Season ties a group of tracks that often vary in tone together into one collective unit. The songs here connect like the same thread passing through different materials. The individual construction of each song is also fantastic. Longer tracks go through a range of movements and stand out as the album's highlights. In 'Herem', Mike's ethereal vocals feel enmeshed with the variety of instruments that slowly move in and out of the song, 'Eye in the Wall' pulls these elements much further apart, creating a dense soundscape where you can pay close attention to any given instrument in the mix, with the song being driven by a mix of energetic drums and slow guitar work. 'Hellbent' goes even further by having a distorted drone break apart the silence that closes its predecessor 'Photograph'. This breaking with the flow of much of the album allows each element to let loose more than on the previous tracks, with Mike's vocals and lyrics building as the tension of the track amps up to a breaking point. The much quieter closer 'Cenote' follows this, allowing for some kind of resolution as softer elements in the mix surround a relaxing piano melody. The other shorter tracks often do a similar job in terms of the albums construction, building paths between the three major tracks to give the record a unified feel.

Album Rating: 70.00
(700/10)

1.Just A Room. 76
2.Herem. 67
3.Teeth. 69
4.Pop Song. 68
5.Scherzo. 64
6.Ugly Season. 72
7.Eye In The Wall. 68
8.Photograph. 77
9.Hellbent. 68
10.Cenote. 71

From Brad1770 11/14/2022 01:44

The first thing to understand about this album is it really isn’t a “Perfume Genius album” as we we’ve come to know and love in the frame of fully accessible shimmering pop treats and more of a Mike Hadreas solo album. Secondly ‘Ugly Season’ is the soundtrack to a dance / performance piece Hadreas directed dating back to 2019 which performed on stages and can be seen on YouTube [look up “Pygmalion’s Ugly Season - A Film”] and is a highly artistic dance sequence where the music takes a back seat to the visuals and choreography

So if your expecting ‘Set My Heart On Fire Part 2” it ain’t here, instead wait for the next P.G album to come out whenever that may be

From ExTeaSea 11/13/2022 17:44

Love Perfume Genius and his last 3 were all in my top 10 the year they came out but this one was sadly underwhelming. I definitely like it and appreciate what he was doing but the flow was all over the place. Some beautifully experimental work but nothing super grabbed me as much as his last 3 albums which were all packed full of songs that slapped, ballads that made you feel things and were just more exciting altogether. Plus the flow of those 3 were fantastic. Back N 2 It is quite great too. Hoping he comes back with a banger album on his next go because he's easily one of my favorite modern musicians.

Perfume Genius embraces ugly musical qualities beautifully. Quietness and dissonant notes are weaved together into pleasant arrangements. The tracks are surprising. The structure will unfold in unexpected ways. For example, “Eye In The Wall” starts as a clattering rhythmic cruise and finishes as a stretched organ reflection. The greatest weakness of the album is the vocal mix. Even with the overall quietness, the vocals are near incomprehensible. It removes a lot of the emotional power of the lyrics. Even with the flaws, “Ugly Season” is a successful experiment.

I found 'Ugly Season' a little harder to get into initially than Perfume Genius's previous outings but in the end it's been just as rewarding a listen as the rest of his albums and I love the experimental direction he's going in.

such a great album, for my is the best album of this year.

From Arthurknight 06/27/2022 10:31

I need to preface this by saying that I saw Perfume Genius live in Melbourne a week out from the release of this album in what was one of (probably actually straight up) the worst international live act performance I've ever witnessed. Never have I been so compelled to complain to a venue because a show was mixed in such an appalling way that it was just unlistenable (PG played the same venue for No Shape tour and were good, the venue is always very professionally sound engineered otherwise). Basically, all the instrumental backing was mixed so high that the PA was distorting, and the vocal mic (not all vocals mind you, backing was loud af) on Hadreas was reverbed to shit and unbearably quiet. I got some vindication when you couldn't even head what Mike was saying as he did stage banter and when the show ended and a guy in front of me got up and said to his partner "did they even do a sound check?" Basically, I'm not in the highest spirits about new PG music rn and so this review might change with time once I get over it.

Ugly Season is good, albeit its best songs are singles from the last decade, and those songs which are new don't have either much coherence or continuity. E.g. Pop Song and Scherzo are both good songs, but don't transition nicely (or interestingly) from one to the other at all. It feels like a thrown together project hastily put together off the back of Hadreas going big.

A disappointing step back from his last album.