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Baker's Dozen

Spiritual Streams: Perfume Genius' Favourite Albums
Lior Phillips , July 5th, 2017 07:55

Mike Hadreas AKA Perfume Genius takes Lior Phillips on an emotional and honest tour through his 13 favourite LPs, from Talk Talk and Patti Smith to Liz Phair and The Breeders. "Music made a part of me feel less lonely," he says.

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This Mortal Coil - It'll End in Tears
I was driving with a friend and they put the cover of 'Song to the Siren' on, and it was very transformative. I'd consider that my favorite song of all time. It's kind of a supergroup.

As a sort of sampler of the label, the album can kind of feel like a jukebox from a very specific moment.

Yeah. It's definitely a weird album because, and I hope nobody feels that this is shady, but there are definitely some songs that I skip. [Laughs] There are some that I'm really vibing on and others that are maybe a little more situational. But 'Song To The Siren' is so beautiful and otherworldly. Kind of like what we were saying earlier, I like when you can tell when an artist is drawing from a lot of different places and depths within their beings. There are some world music-ish things here, but not in a hokey way. There's a very spiritual and ecstatic feeling. On the 'Song To The Siren' cover, I know the lyrics, but you can't really understand her. Another song on the album is 'Another Day'. Any songs with the female vocals on that album I love.

Don't you think that the album isn't just using spirituality, but yearning for something that feels out of reach.

It sounds like someone is on a cliff, pleading to God, and that's essentially what I'm trying to do everyday with my music. If I'm not doing it, that's what I'm looking for. I enjoy when it sounds like everybody is on the edge, hands in the air, like, "Please!"