Perfume Genius // It’s A Mirror

Post by Misha //

When I was a kid I took swimming lessons at the pool in the winter. I don’t really remember what we learned in the lessons (I’m an unrepentant doggy-paddler to this day), but I remember very clearly the way the air would hit you like a warm, damp wave. The roughness of wet concrete underfoot, and the hard ridges of the plastic grates bordering the water which we lined up along, like a little white train track running around the perimeter of the whole pool.

I especially remember this giant red umbrella in the kids’ area that, every fifteen minutes or so, came on and made a perfect dome of water – a shimmering, cascading sheet of crystal descending on all sides. Some of the kids liked to dash in and out, endlessly delighted with how the glassy wall repaired itself instantly. There was a not insignificant amount of shrieking. Personally, I lived for the few moments where the more rambunctious kids’ energy flagged and we all huddled quietly inside, enclosed by the smooth rush of water, the rest of the world entirely separated, every sound hushed by the roar of the edges of the dome rushing back to earth. Everything outside that bubble was glossy and unreal. Everything inside was close and humid and saturated by the smell of chlorine. The falling water so smooth you could almost see your face in it.

Anyway, last night I was going to sleep and the feeling of being in that place came to me so intensely that it woke me up.

Buy the new Perfume Genius album, Glory, here. Out via Matador Records.