Mike Hadreas is back with ballads for the end-times. The artist behind Perfume Genius is set to release his fifth album, Set My Heart on Fire Immediately, this spring via Matador Records. For those who can’t bear waiting a few months for fresh Perfume Genius, Hadreas has shared “Describe,†the album’s first single. It’s a heavy, slow burn of a song. Distorted, bluesy guitars back Hadreas as he sings, “His love it felt like ribbons.†In the accompanying self-directed music video, Hadreas says he aimed to convey “an end of the world where there are no boundaries, there are no edges, no rules, or the rules are completely new with how you interact with each other and the space around you.†Hadreas dances and spars with various partners in the video’s dreamy desert setting. When dusk falls, the percussion fades and bodies blend with other bodies in an orgiastic pile.
The queer singer-songwriter explores these themes of love and physicality in his upcoming project. “I wanted to feel more open, more free and spiritually wild,†he says. “I wrote these songs as a way to be more patient, more considered — to pull at all these chaotic threads hovering around me and weave them in to something warm, thoughtful and comforting.†Perfume Genius will be touring behind the new album alongside Tame Impala. The album, which follows his 2017 Grammy-nominated project No Shape, arrives on May 15.