Perfume Genius choosing to release their hymn-like chant ‘Eye in the Wall’ on Friday the 13th, a day rife with suspicion and wariness is apt; the nearly 9-minute song is fueled by moans and sighs referencing the night, shadows, other whispers.
The voice is a voyeur, whining and moaning “model for me” and “your body onscreen”. A gorgeous, rich base line is a wave underneath almost Gregorian chants and tinkering percussion. In nature, the song takes place in a dense, green, forest, loud and full with moss, birds; a soundtrack to moving quickly, tripping, falling.
In the city, the song takes place in a club, cramped bodies sweating and writhing. The music video is a quivering spy on photos of people, sweaty, heaving, all in pink, with scenes of a hand on a thigh, someone else’s. If in nature, the glorious and pounding change 3 minutes in brings shafts of light, a clearing in the forest, a big sky, heavenly.
It’s such a journey of a song, sweating and tight in some moments and high and light in others. It’s drawn out in the end, in a really good way. To be lifted in that whistling, celestial space is gorgeous.
Image: Kieran Frost/Redferns