Set My Heart on Fire Immediately will be out 15 May via Matador Records.
Perfume Genius, aka Mike Hadreas, has announced his new album Set My Heart on Fire Immediately. Due for release on 15 May, the record will mark Hadreas’ fifth studio album as Perfume Genius.
Alongside the news, Hadreas has shared Describe, the first single from the album. The track is accompanied by a music video, directed by Hadreas himself and featuring Seattle-based choreographer Kate Wallich’s dance company The YC.
“It started as a really sombre ballad. It was very minimal and very slow. And then it turned into this beast of a song,” Hadreas says of Describe. “I started writing about when you are in such a dark place that you don’t even remember what goodness is or what anything feels like. And so, the idea was having someone describe that to you, because you forgot or can’t get to it,” he adds.
Set My Heart on Fire Immediately sees Hadreas teaming up with Grammy-nominated producer Blake Mills and features contributions from musicians Jim Keltner, Pino Palladino, Matt Chamberlin and Rob Moose.
The album explores themes of love, sex, memory and body, as well as subverting the concepts of masculinity and traditional gender roles. “I wanted to feel more open, more free and spiritually wild,” says Hadreas, “and I’m in a place now where those feelings are very close– but it can border on being unhinged. 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 into something warm, thoughtful and comforting”
You can pre-order Set My Heart on Fire Immediately here.