Perfume Genius – “Natural High”

Sometimes, indie rock types write music for dance performances, and it's usually pretty fair to slot that music into the minor-works category of their discographies. Nobody is like, "Yeah, Illinois is cool, but I think Sufjan Stevens' best shit is the music that he writes for ballet." This is not how you should think of the new Perfume Genius single "Natural High." It's a song written for a dance performance, but it's got as much reach and ambition as any other Perfume Genius song, which is a lot. Mike Hadreas isn't new to this. Back in 2019, the Perfume Genius mastermind collaborated with choreographer Kate Wallich on a dance and live music performance piece called The Sun Still Burns Here. After releasing the very good album Mercy last year, Perfume Genius is getting back together with Wallich for another dance and performance piece called The Lesson. It's commissioned by the Seattle Theatre Group, and it's inspired by the Elfriede Jelinek novel The Piano Teacher, which Michael Haneke also turned into a pretty fucked up movie. Early next year, Perfume Genius and Kate Wallich will take The Lesson on tour, starting things off with a three-night run at the Los Angeles venue REDCAT F...