Perfume Genius

Much more focused on crafting thematic environments, Cool It Down hints at an evolution in the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ musical and melodic influence.

Wildly inventive and sumptuous, Ugly Season succeeds as a welcome entrant into Hadreas’ discography.

Onstage, Hadreas’ discography blooms. At times, what audiences experienced was more akin to performance art than a concert.

Duffy lets their lyrics bask in the light, conferring something ineffable and brilliant, especially when they mingle with the buoyant, thrumming accompanying arrangements they sculpt. 

Sitting on the grass in front of the library, fragments of Miller’s imagining of Big Sur are refracted through Perfume Genius’ ethereal vocals and sumptuous instrumentation, coalescing into a kaleidoscopic post-quarantine live experience. 

Music beat reporters Vincent Tran and Taila Lee are here to recommend a few highlights you might’ve missed in the music world this past month.

“Just Wrong” is one glorious, cyclical musical question, immensely sonically satisfying despite a lack of resolution or definitive answers. It’s astonishing that something built so backward feels so right.

Though Hadreas occasionally finds himself wading into murky instrumental waters, his vocal performance is unwaveringly impressive.

Despite the crowd of big names surrounding him, it is notable that the Grammy Award-winning producer’s new single, “Vanishing Twin,” is so subtle and restrained.

Last Thursday, on the stage of The Masonic, Sivan seemed at home in the rainbow limelight. Running a hand through his shock of pale hair and shrugging off a loose, gray suit jacket to reveal skintight fitness wear, Sivan paused his set to say, “This is the gay one,” before performing “HEAVEN.”