It’s been three years since Mike Hadreas, better known as Perfume Genius, released his critcally-beloved fourth studio album No Shape. But this May, the singer is finally giving fans the new project they have been waiting for since then.
On Tuesday (Feb. 25), Hadreas announced the released date of his long-awaited fifth studio album, Set My Heart on Fire Immediately. Due out May 15 via Matador Records, the album will feature a number of guests, including Jim Keltner, Pino Palladino, Matt Chamberlin and Rob Moose, and will see Hadreas continuing his quest to redefine what masculinity means in the modern world.
“I wanted to feel more open, more free and spiritually wild,” Hadreas said in a statement. “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 in to something warm, thoughtful and comforting”
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Along with announcing his new album, Hadreas also gave fans a taste of his new sound with “Describe,” a fuzzy rock ballad where the star sings about a feeling of numbness that’s washed over him, and his desire to reconnect with the world around him.
“It started as a really somber ballad. It was very minimal and very slow,” Hadreas said of the song. “And then it turned into this beast of a song. 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.”
To accompany his new track, Hadreas released the “Describe” video, in which he stars as a man wandering through a dusty desert town, desperately searching for feeling — he gets tied to a tree, watches a choreographed dance routine, and even performs an interprative dance with a knife and another man, all in an attempt to connect. That connection finally comes when the song breaks down, as Hadreas and the townsfolk begin a sensual embrace on the floor of the local barn.
Check out Perfume Genius’ “Describe” video below, and pre-order Set My Heart on Fire Immediately here.