Perfume Genius

By Matt Mitchell "To be gorgeous, even from the day you're born to the day you die, is to be stunning only for a short time," Vietnamese-American poet Ocean Vuong wrote in his book "On Earth We're Beautiful." The performer born Mike Hadreas, Perfume Genius, evokes the same emotion onstage. Hadreas has deconstructed the banalities of attraction and attractiveness by human mobility, and his book is an exclamation of how our bodily prisons can become smaller and strong. Hadreas' latest album, Ungly Season, which he affectionately refers to as "the dance record," was written and recorded right before this project's fluttering, beguiling grandeur. Despite the two-year gap between them, the records were originally scheduled to be released within a year of each other — and the pop alchemy of Immediately was introduced in reaction to the process of composing Ugly Season.