Perfume Genius returns with new single, announces tour and Glory

Perfume Genius is finally back with his first studio album since 2022’s Ugly Season. The Blake Mills-produced Glory, which the artist (a.k.a. Mike Hadreas) announced today, is out March 28 from Matador Records. “The album contains themes that he’s wrestled with artistically throughout his career – themes of the body and its decay, of domesticity and love, and of inescapable history and damage,” the label said in a press release. “But Glory is written from a new vantage point – on the other side of struggle, where one is left to contend with all that has happened but also has to learn to live in a still and uncharted place.” 

Those themes can be heard in the album’s first single, “It’s A Mirror,” which addresses the sort of fame-induced paranoia we’ve seen pop up in a lot of music of late. “What do I get out of being established?/I still run and hide when a man’s at the door/Polishing boots down a line in the basement/When I should be riding outside on my own,” Hadreas sings, alongside a queasy music video that seems equally inspired by Westerns and Poltergeist. 

“I wake up overwhelmed even when nothing is going on. I spend the rest of the day trying to regulate, which I prefer to do at home alone with my thoughts. But why? They are mostly bad. They also haven’t really changed for decades,” Hadreas elaborated in a statement about the song. “I wrote ‘It’s a Mirror’ while stuck in one of these isolating loops, seeing that something different and maybe even beautiful is out there but not quite knowing how to venture out. I have a lot more practice keeping the door closed.”

Perfume Genius also announced a tour to support the album, which kicks off May 12 in Healdsburg, CA. Tickets are available on perfumegenius.org. Check out the full schedule below:

5/12 Healdsburg, CA – Little Saint

5/13 San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore

5/16 Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court Block Party

5/24 São Paulo, Brazil – C6 Fest

5/30 Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren

5/31 Tucson, AZ – 191

6/2 Austin, TX – Emo’s

6/3 Dallas, TX – The Studio at The Factory

6/5 Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse

6/6 Saxapahaw, NC – Haw River Ballroom

6/7 Washington, D.C. – 9:30 Club

6/8 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer

6/10 Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount

6/12 Boston, MA – Royale

6/13 Buffalo, NY – Electric City

6/14 Toronto, Ontario – The Concert Hall

6/15 Cleveland, OH – Globe Iron

6/17 Chicago, IL – The Vic Theatre

6/18 Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue

6/19 Kansas City, MO – The Truman

6/21 Englewood, CO – Gothic Theatre

6/23 Boise, ID – Treefort Music Hall

6/26 Seattle, WA – The Showbox

6/27 Portland, OR – Revolution Hall