Earworm of the Day: Perfume Genius - Hood

I always spend the latter half of the year going through the music I missed during the first, but I think I love this. My Last.fm playlist has a couple Perfume Genius songs, but frankly, most young singer-songwriters are indistinguishable to me these days. It’s undeniably visually arresting, and I like the interplay between their bodies. I’m okay with melancholy, even maudlin — in fact, I like music that’s dancing on that line between vulnerability and absolute pathos. That Mike Hadreas's music is almost too sad, too achingly vulnerable, is a constant criticism.

Anthony Easton made an interesting observation (about a different song of his, but it works quite nicely here): 

I genuinely worry that it is an essential and unchecked cultural misogyny that allows me to love profoundly the melancholy decadence of work done by men that sounds like this […] and have little or no energy for work that sounds like this coming from Newsom or Apple. I don’t know what that means. 

I would think it’s just the opposite for most music fans — that kind of vulnerability is acceptable from a female performer, but not a male one. No less misogynistic, no doubt, but judging by the comments left on his last.fm and youtube pages, there's a level of discomfort that a lot of music fans aren't willing to explore.