Seattle’s Mike Hadreas has always had a knack for conveying emotional limitations with his words and voice, but with Ugly Season he deviates from that path. Somewhat against the grain, Ugly Season comprises a sequence of experimental theatrical songs originally written as the accompaniment to his and choreographer Kate Wallich’s immersive dance piece, The Sun Still Burns Here, which was performed in residencies in various US cities throughout 2019. What (presumably) worked in a theatrical environment often falls flat here, with tracks such as Just a Room, Herem, Eye in the Wall, and Hellbent ebbing and flowing with little or no direction (with the virtually unlistenable Hellbent, in particular, not so much straining the patience as snapping it into pieces and stomping on it).

Contemporary dance can accommodate such soundtracks due to the form’s natural artistic fluidity but without visual context the music can come across as a mess of self-indulgence. Far less tedious are Pop Song, which has the kind of sinuous, sensual melody that Hadreas can conjure up without difficulty, and the final track, Cenote, which plays out the album on a waft of piano and blissful sonic atmospherics.

Not so much a career game changer as a (however temporary) change of direction, Ugly Season sees Perfume Genius/Hadreas challenge the listener. In principle, this is only right and proper. In practice, it is, frankly, mostly torment.