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Feb 28, 2012While Learning's haunting storytelling remains singular, Hadreas is as brave an artist as ever, and Put Your Back N 2 It is a heartening follow-up in so many ways.
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Feb 27, 2012For all its violence, Back radiates warmth. Much of the beauty is due to the expanded instrumentation.
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Mar 2, 2012Although the trials and tribulations Hadreas writes about don't always make for an easy listen, his music has an idealistic dimension to it, envisioning the best of all worlds where he can try to touch everyone without having to be anyone but himself.
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Q MagazineFeb 22, 2012He beefs up his sound with thumping drums and strings and what emerges sounds epic in comparison. [Mar 2012, p.111]
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Feb 22, 2012That troubled kid [Mike Hadreas] never went away. It's just that this time, he's more concerned with reaching towards the light.
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Feb 29, 2012While potent, his voice is a limited instrument, and the best songs here push past his debut's piano-student minimalism into full-on girl-group drama.
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Feb 17, 2012Hadreas is a staggeringly talented songwriter, with Put Your Back N 2 It showcasing an array of songs as deceptively simple as they are jaw-droppingly powerful.
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Feb 28, 2012Lovely, at times heart-wrenching, and musically fragile to the point of shattering, the record plays like a series of themes serving as lifetime codas, even when the lyrics suggest otherwise.
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Feb 21, 2012What isn't in any doubt is that these compositions, from Hadreas' distinctive, fragile vocal through to the orchestration behind the compositions themselves represents a significant progression from the bolt-from-the-blue that was Learning.
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Feb 21, 2012Put Your Back N 2 It fails at recreating Learning's tortured confessionals, but its confidence is promising.
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Feb 23, 2012It's a fleshy album (in many senses), and every time Hadreas tip-toes away from maudlin piano-ballads and towards Xiu Xiu's experimental side of the spectrum, the album really lights up.
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Feb 17, 2012This marvellous studio-recorded successor [to his debut album] is more expansive but no less affecting.
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Feb 21, 2012Perfume Genius is worthy of the hype, and the hyperbole: this is a fantastic record.
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Feb 17, 2012Conveying so much harrowing detail in such a brief time is no small feat – one reason why his music lingers long after the album ends.
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Feb 24, 2012It's curious how much of the content in here could bring back what is fast becoming an increasingly extinct way of emoting--the fact that it feels this intimate should be something to be thankful for.
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MagnetMar 20, 2012Album number two pulls back from that musical and writerly intimacy [found on the debut] - if only slightly - trading a degree of specificity for a degree of universality, and adding just the faintest touch of gloss. [No. 85, p.57]
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Mar 7, 2012Put Your Back N 2 It is a deeply affecting album, but also a plainspoken one.
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Feb 22, 2012If Learning was a private primal scream, Put Your Back N 2 It is Mike Hadreas' first public display of his escalating talent.
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Feb 17, 2012Exists in a bleakly beautiful twilight zone of Hadreas' own making.
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Feb 23, 2012A delicate collection of near-gospel songs for the brokenhearted.
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Mar 5, 2012For all its seriousness, it's the absence of big moments and Hadreas' refusal to give in to easy outs that make what he does so compelling.
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Feb 21, 2012It is the bravery of the album that is its greatest triumph.
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Feb 27, 2012As Perfume Genius, he's [Mike Hadreas] developed a strong second album with Put Your Back N 2 It, a modestly personal release.
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Feb 21, 2012But where Learning drifted into the ether, this captivating follow-up thrives off harnessing his fragile sensibility to fulsome melodies.
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Feb 17, 2012Tear-stained and unsettled it may be, but the second chapter of Perfume Genius' flamboyant, disturbing story is uniquely compelling.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 54 out of 60
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Mixed: 3 out of 60
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Negative: 3 out of 60
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Feb 29, 2012
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Feb 22, 2012
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Apr 11, 2021