Every Perfume Genius album ranked

‘Learning'<strong> (2010)</strong>

Every artist has to start somewhere, and while some come flying out of the gates with a bonafide classic debut album before losing steam, others are still figuring out where their strengths lie or how to express themselves in the most meaningful manner. While Hadreas certainly didn’t do himself any disservice in releasing Learning, it’s not a patch on any of his later material under the Perfume Genius moniker.

The songwriting and lyricism are both evident, but the pared-back nature of the album’s presentation is ultimately what prevents it from being regarded as anything more than a charming introduction to an artist. Standout tracks such as ‘Lookout, Lookout’ and ‘Mr. Peterson’ both have a tenderness about them that would go on to become a feature of later albums, but these piano ballads are regularly calling out for additional elements that elevate them to a higher level, and this is something that would emerge on later releases.

‘Put Your Back N 2 It’ (2012)

Everything that felt underwhelming and cold about Learning is polished on its follow-up, Put Your Back N 2 It, and the greater focus that is placed on the production and arrangement of the songs on Hadreas’ sophomore record. Of course, some listeners will always be appreciative of a lo-fi quality of a release, but when comparing this album to its predecessor, it’s clear that Hadreas’ songs deserve this extra sheen in order to show their full potential.

The overbearing takeaway from this album when compared to Learning is that it has more of an apparent feel to it. The emotions in Hadreas’ voice have more clarity to them, and the poignance of the lyrics stand out more as a result of this extra buffer. That being said, as good as some of the songs are, they don’t show as much ambition as later efforts do, and while there’s a tremendous passion across the album, it doesn’t take many risks or divert from the formulaic approach.

‘Ugly Season’ (2022)

There’s a reason it’s called Ugly Season. Coming off the back of his career-defining run of albums from the mid-to-late 2010s, the sixth Perfume Genius album is a far darker affair than any of his previous work, and a complete outlier in his discography for how he dramatically removed himself from the alternative pop sphere he had previously operated within and presented himself as something of an avant-garde with a desire to embrace his weirder side head-on.

Initially written as an accompaniment for Kate Wallich’s contemporary ballet The Sun Still Burns Here, many of the hallmarks of Hadreas’ previous work are still here on Ugly Season, but they’re warped into an overwhelmingly haunting neo-classical song suite. From one perspective, it’s the most ambitious album of his career to date, but it’s also the most alienating album of his for how it demands the listener to really sink themselves into its world. It’s perhaps the hardest to rank due to how challenging it can be at times, but if you’re well-prepared for it, then it’s an astounding achievement – just don’t expect that to be a simple task.

‘Too Bright’ (2014)

It might not be his best album, but Too Bright is perhaps the greatest forward leap from one release to the next in the Perfume Genius catalogue. Not only does it take all of Put Your Back N 2 It’s weaknesses and eradicate them, but every song is delivered with so much more exuberance. That doesn’t mean that Hadreas was taking a maximalist approach that draws distance between this album and his previous work, but there’s a lot more stylistic variation that gives each track its own identity and personality.

While the first two albums had highlights of their own, none of them feel quite as anthemic as songs like ‘Queen’ or ‘Grid’. These two examples sit among the most defiant and powerful anthems of queerness released in the 2010s, trampling all over negative stereotypes and ripping apart stigmas with a swaggering confidence that was absent on prior albums. Even the mellower songs such as opener ‘I Decline’ and ‘Don’t Let Them In’ are a marked improvement on how Hadreas had previously presented the softer edges of the project. Too Bright is a statement of intent, a significant evolution, and the point at which Perfume Genius was propelled into the spotlight.

‘No Shape’ (2017)

Considering how Too Bright was such a gigantic artistic development from its predecessors, it would have been reasonable to imagine that it might take a few attempts to surpass it with the next forward lunge into something even more sublime. A mere three years on from its release, No Shape arrived, and was immediate proof that Hadreas wasn’t fucking around. Too Bright wasn’t a demonstration of everything Hadreas was capable of, it was merely an appetiser.

The artist we were introduced to on Learning hasn’t been rendered completely unrecognisable, but has discovered how to make his work even more resplendent with each release, and if there were still signs that imperfections needed ironing out on Too Bright, then No Shape was the moment at which the project was fully realised and allowed to blossom. Perhaps aided by the beginning of his collaborative partnership with producer Blake Mills, the first moments of ‘Otherside’ are immediately indicative of a desire to make the Perfume Genius sound more ornate, experimental and attentive to the finer details, and those features would last until the dying moments of closing track ‘Alan’…

‘Set My Heart on Fire Immediately’ (2020)

… and beyond. It’s not easy to separate Set My Heart on Fire Immediately from No Shape or say that one is definitively better than the other, because if anything, it’s a continuation of the fine form he found himself on the previous album. However, while No Shape largely stays within the confines of art-pop, SMHoFI sees Hadreas try and incorporate a wider palette of sounds. This could have been seen as a potential risk and opportunity for a setback, but nothing feels like a half-baked flirtation, and instead feels like a natural fit.

It’s perhaps the first instance of Hadreas showing off a sense of physicality on more than just a couple of singles, with there being a grittiness behind tracks like ‘Describe’ and ‘Your Body Changes Everything’. On top of the musical brilliance, his storytelling and lyricism are at their best on his fifth album, with it feeling so much more coherent as a whole due to the 13 songs all being united by the overarching theme of desire. Hadreas manages to be at his most accessible while continuing to push his thirst for experimentation in more directions than before, all in all, culminating in his most artistically liberated release and the most rewarding listen from his catalogue.