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Feb 25, 2020 By Christopher Roberts Photography by Camille Vivier Perfume Genius

Perfume Genius (aka Mike Hadreas) has announced a new album, Set My Heart On Fire Immediately, and shared its first single, “Describe,” via a self-directed video for the track. Set My Heart On Fire Immediately is due out May 15 via Matador. Check out the “Describe” video below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover art, as well as Perfume Genius’ upcoming tour dates opening for Tame Impala.

Set My Heart On Fire Immediately is Perfume Genius’ fifth studio album, the follow-up to 2017’s No Shape (also on Matador). Although last year Hadreas did the music for the immersive dance project The Sun Still Burns Here.

Set My Heart On Fire Immediately finds Hadreas re-teaming with producer Blake Mills. It was recorded in Los Angeles, where Hadreas currently lives with longtime partner and musical collaborator Alan Wyffels. The album also features musicians Jim Keltner, Pino Palladino, Matt Chamberlin, and Rob Moose.

According to a press release, on Set My Heart On Fire Immediately Hadreas “plays with themes of love, sex, memory and the body, channeling popular music mythologies while irreverently authoring its own.”

Hadreas explains further in the press release: “I wanted to feel more open, more free and spiritually wild, 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 in to something warm, thoughtful and comforting.”

For The Sun Still Burns Here Hadreas collaborated with Seattle-based choreographer Kate Wallich and her dance company The YC. Hadreas says that working with them also inspired Set My Heart On Fire Immediately.

“I had been working with them for a year and a half,” he explains. “With lots of rehearsals, lots of performances, lots of relationships and energies, and I was feeling connected to my body. I was feeling connected to all their bodies. And having boundaries be blurred and having rules be gone and having all this play within nonsense and absurdity - in tandem with a real connection and truly valuable work.”

The “Describe” video features The YC dance company. Hadreas says the video envisions “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.”

Of the single, Hadreas also says: “It started as a really somber ballad. It was very minimal and very slow. 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.”

Read our 2017 interview with Perfume Genius on No Shape.

Set My Heart On Fire Immediately Tracklist:

01. Whole Life
02. Describe
03. Without You
04. Jason
05. Leave
06. On the Floor
07. Your Body Changes Everything
08. Moonbend
09. Just a Touch
10. Nothing At All
11. One More Try
12. Some Dream
13. Borrowed Light

Perfume Genius Tour Dates:

05/29/20 - Chicago, IL @ United Center#
05/30/20 - Milwaukee, WI @ Fiserv Forum#
05/31/20 - Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena#
06/02/20 - Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena#
06/03/20 - Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre#
06/05/20 - Randall’s Island, NY @ Governors Ball
06/06/20 - Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena#
06/08/20 - Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center#
06/09/20 - Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena#
06/11/20 - Miami, FL @ AmericanAirlines Arena#
06/12/20 - Orlando, FL @ Amway Center#
06/14/20 - Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo
07/17/20 - Minneapolis, MN @ Xcel Energy Center#
07/19/20 - St. Louis, MO @ Enterprise Center#
07/20/20 - Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center#
07/21/20 - Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center# - Tickets
07/23/20 - Austin, TX @ Frank Erwin Center#
07/24/20 - Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center#
07/25/20 - Houston, TX @ Toyota Center#
07/28/20 - Glendale, AZ @ Gila River Arena#
07/30/20 - Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center#
08/01/20 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Vivint Smart Home Arena#
08/03/20 - Portland, OR @ MODA Center#
08/05/20 - Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena#
08/07/20 - George, WA @ The Gorge Amphitheatre#

# = support for Tame Impala

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