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Thursday, May 11, 2017

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com ARTS

‘No Shape’ is bold

‘Guardians Vol. 2’ thrives

 FILM REVIEW
 MUSIC REVIEW

By SEAN LANG

Daily Arts Writer

 The work of Mike Hadreas 
— the Seattle native behind 
Perfume Genius — was, 
at least until 2014’s Too 
Bright, always lo-fi and 
poignantly intimate. Dark 
narratives that confront 
depression, sexuality and 
the dangers of being gay 
characterize his first two 
efforts, Learning (2010) and 
Put Your Back N 2 It (2012). 
On Too Bright, the tinny 
piano and fragile croon 
metamorphosed into men-
acing drones and piercing 
screeches. The deviation in 
form from Too Bright to No 
Shape is equally as impres-
sive as that between his 
second and third records. 
Anger and frustration, pal-
pable on Too Bright, are 
almost entirely absent here, 
and Hadreas’s new mindset 
is perhaps best explained 
by a lyric from “Just Like 
Love”: “They’ll talk / Give 
them every reason.” It’s not 
necessarily that his anger 
has subsided; he has sim-
ply shifted focus, from the 
world outside to his per-
sonal life.
 If anything is immediately 
apparent about No Shape, it 
is that it will be praised for 
being Hadreas’s most mature 
or developed work — pri-
marily because it is, both 
thematically and sonically. 
It also functions as a thor-
oughly satisfying denouement 
for his discography thus far. 
Learning and Put Your Back 
were as bare-bones as albums 
come, reflections of a newly 
sober Hadreas with an uncer-
tain future. Too Bright saw 
Hadreas in control enough to 
express not just sorrow but 
fury. Now, No Shape, a reflec-
tion on Mike’s almost eight 
years with his boyfriend Alan 
and eight years of sobriety, is 
rich with textures, the sort 
that augment and, ironically, 
embody the somewhat vague 
notion of having “no shape.”
 Upon first listen, you might 
wish that Hadreas hadn’t 

released singles “Slip Away” 
and “Go Ahead” before the 
album itself. “Slip Away,” 
the most triumphant and 
accessible song of No Shape, 
proudly announced the direc-
tion of the album, and “Go 
Ahead” signified a level of 
experimentation to the same 
degree as found on Too Bright. 
Both tracks are stunning, and 
together express Hadreas’s 
impressive range, but the 
album’s opening song, “Oth-
erside,” 
would have 
been 
a 

much more 
suitable, 
bait-and-
switch style 
introduc-
tion. 
The 

track opens 
with 
the 

same tinny-
sounding 
piano of Learning and Put 
Your Back, but after a minute 
it explodes with a shimmer-
ing synth M83-style. Regard-
less, no album in 2017 has a 
better start than No Shape, as 
“Otherside” launches directly 
into the joyful protest of “Slip 
Away.”
 From there, the album 
sprawls in multiple directions. 
The lush strings — a new addi-
tion to Hadreas’s aesthetic 
— that are introduced during 
the chorus of the reassuring 
“Just Like Love” return on 
“Valley,” the album’s most 
direct reference to Hadreas’s 
struggles 
with 
addiction: 

“How long must we live right 
/ Before we don’t even have 
to try?” In between the two, 
the offputtingly synthetic “Go 
Ahead” is No Shape’s “Queen” 
equivalent, an appropriately 
prideful but casual reminder 
to anyone still trying to write 
off Hadreas for his “weird-
ness” that they will never be 
in the right as far as Hadreas 
is concerned.
 What’s so impressive about 
No Shape isn’t just the breadth 
of sonic territory it covers, 
but its ability to do so while 
also capturing, in many ways, 
the essence of camp in all 

its effeminate and kitschy 
glory. “Wreath,” which ref-
erences a Kate Bush song, 
functions as the album’s mis-
sion statement: “Burn off 
every trace / I wanna hover 
with no shape / I wanna see 
the days go by.” This song, 
along with the Weyes Blood-
featuring “Sides” and “Run 
Me Through” seem to invoke 
Angelo Badalamenti’s “Twin 
Peaks” soundtrack, with sim-
ple but hard-edged bass and 

a pervasive air 
of mystery. “Die 
4 You,” Hadreas 
told 
Fader 
in 

an 
interview, 

is about erotic 
asphyxiation. 
“Braid” 
recalls 

the 
work 
of 

Vincent 
Gallo 

with it’s doused, 
drowned-out 
quality, 
while 

“Choir” feels like a consider-
ably more evil manifestation 
of Learning’s “Mr. Peterson,” 
with its closing lines, sung by 
Hadreas’s voice overlaid with 
a lower one, “What if I prom-
ise / To keep it quiet,” before 
the melody dissolves into cha-
otic chimes.
 With its ostensible focus on 
transcending the physical, it 
would be easy to miss the ulti-
mate focus of No Shape with-
out its closer, “Alan” — named, 
of course, for Hadreas’s boy-
friend. Despite his desire for 
metaphysicality, 
Hadreas 

finally comes to rest, still 
mystified, on the conclusion: 
“I’m here / How weird.” On 
paper, the four words seem 
too plaintive to invoke feeling, 
but Hadreas’s soaring croon 
could probably evoke goose-
bumps even if he were singing 
about shaving one’s nose hair 
(or any number of other equally 
romantic activities). Whether he 
means that he is literally there 
with Alan or simply here, on 
Earth, is left a mystery. What 
is absolutely clear, however, is 
that No Shape should solidify 
Perfume Genius as not just one 
of the most important LGBT 
acts today, but as one of the most 
important acts today, period. 

By JEREMIAH VANHER-

HELM

Daily Arts Writer

The one thing that must be 

said about “Guardians of the 
Galaxy Vol. 2,” by those who 
will love it and those who 
don’t, is that it aspires to be 
bigger than the first in every 
way. The action is bigger and 
more inventive. The cast not 
only adds new characters 
but adds new layers to the 
old ones. There are so many 
jokes packed into every scene 
— every line of dialogue — 

that 
the 

whole 
thing 
starts 
to 

feel remi-
niscent 
of 
“The 

LEGO 
Movie.”

In many ways, this lends 

the new “Guardians” movie 
a freshness that it might 
otherwise lack, and with the 
ever-confident direction of 
James Gunn (“Super”) once 
again leading the charge, the 
resulting film is sure to be 
one of the most deliriously 
entertaining films of the year. 
From an early gag that takes 
the action movie staple of 
the pointless opening fight 
scene and gleefully flips it on 
its head to the last of the five 
pre/mid/post-credits sting-
ers, every scene of “Guard-
ians Vol. 2” will in some way 
elicit a smile. Not every joke 
lands, but considering the 
sheer volume of one-liners 
and witticisms tossed about, 
that’s hardly a problem.

Of course, all of the humor 

would be pointless if “Guard-
ians of the Galaxy” didn’t star 

the most entertaining ensem-
ble in the entire Marvel Cine-
matic Universe. This is where 
Gunn does his best work; 
while the film may have been 
good had it centered on the 
humor, Gunn continues the 
character-driven 
approach 

that made his first entry such 
a treat. These characters 
are, by their own admission, 
“a-holes,” and “Guardians 
Vol. 2” doesn’t just give lip 
service to that idea: It full-
on embraces it and uses the 
Guardians’ most unlikeable 
aspects as the driving force 
of the story.

This allows Gunn, both 

as writer and director, to 
add new layers to his leads 
and 
their 
relationships. 

Nowhere is this more evi-
dent 
than 
with 
Yondu 

(Michael 
Rooker, 
“The 

Walking Dead”) and his first 
mate, Kraglin (Sean Gunn, 
“The Belko Experiment”), 
who go from being sec-
ondary antagonists in the 
first film to the characters 
behind some of the sequel’s 
funniest and most emotion-
al moments. There’s even 
laudable restraint shown 
with Baby Groot (Vin Die-
sel, “Fate of the Furious”), 
whose sheer adorableness 
could easily have caused 
him to take up exorbitant 
amounts of screen time, like-
ly with few complaints from 
the audience.

One new addition to the 

team comes in the form of 
Mantis (Pom Klementieff, 
“Oldboy”), an alien empath 
who strikes up a strange yet 
endearing relationship with 
Drax and winds up being a 
highlight, even among the 
already established charac-

ters. The scenes she shares 
with Dave Bautista (“Spec-
tre”) also gives the former 
pro-wrestler further oppor-
tunity to flex his acting 
muscles. Bautista already 
proved his comedy chops in 
the original, and he shows 
the same talent for comedy 
here, but his best moment is 
completely dialogue free and 
reliant on surprisingly subtle 
facial expressions. It’s a truly 
impressive bit of acting.

This greater scope allows 

Gunn to tell a unique and 
more emotional story, but 
it does come at a cost to the 
pacing. The character-cen-
tric scenes and comedy bits 
are great on their own, but 
there are several moments 
where the two must come 
right on each other’s heels 
with little warning. It may 
seem like a nitpick, but the 
resultant 
tonal 
whiplash 

inevitably robs one moment 
or the other of its weight.

That aside, “Guardians of 

the Galaxy Vol. 2” is nothing 
short of a delight. Its pacing 
issues mean it may not meet 
the sky high expectations 
set by the first, but consid-
ering the original is one of 
the most purely entertain-
ing cinematic experiences 
of the last decade, that’s by 
no means a serious issue. 
Instead, Gunn focuses on 
growing his first entry into 
the MCU wherever he can. 
“Guardians Vol. 2” is fun-
nier than the original, the 
action is better shot, the 
characters are better devel-
oped and by the end, it has 
become a surprisingly mov-
ing story. Fans of the origi-
nal rejoice. James Gunn has 
done it again.

Guardians of 
the Galaxy 2 

Walt Disney 
Stuidios

Goodrich 16/ 
Rave Cinemas

WALT DISNEY STUDIOS

“Guradians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” stars in their battle positions

‘No Shade’

Perfume 
Genius

Matador 
Records

 MOVIE REVIEW