Perfume Genius, Southbank Centre

In 2010, Perfume Genius (real name, Mark Hadreas) released Learning , an album of delicate, lo-fi songs, whose stripped-down instrumentation and plaintive, melancholic vocals were justifiably well-received. Over sparse piano chords, Hadreas spun dark lyrical webs, touching on substance abuse, suicide, and family strife.
In 2012, this album was followed by the incongruously titled  Put Your Back N 2 It. Here, Hadreas developed the style that he’d showcased two years earlier. Whilst many of the tracks on the album retain his signature piano chords and pained vocals, others are more expansively arranged; the stand-out, ‘Take Me Home’, for instance, is complete with swooning backing vocals and a shuffling drum loop. Yet, as with all the songs on Put Your Back N 2 It, this is very recognisably the work of Perfume Genius; the lyrics retain their despair and darkness, as Hadreas laments “I wander aimless/I work the corner of an endless grid.”
On June 10 Perfume Genius will play the Southbank Centre in support of his third album Too Bright, which is due to be released by Matador Records. The album finds Hadreas at his most strident, his voice clearer than on previous work, accompanied by a richer, more synth-driven sound.
This is a unique opportunity to hear one of contemporary music’s most confessional and enthralling songwriters perform new material.