THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “There is typically talk of a ‘second coming,’ but much less, if at all, of a ‘third coming.’ But that’s what Perrett’s third album The Cleansing epitomises.
Following its two predecessors — his 2017 solo debut How The West Was Won was Perrett’s first album in almost 30 years, while his pattern of vanishing from sight was broken by 2019’s followup Humanworld — The Cleansing doesn’t just match his best work but expands it. The Cleansing is an ambitious double album comprising 20 songs, kicking off a new era with a new energy and a new approach.
Alongside his trusted team of sons Jamie (guitar / production) and Peter Jr (bass) plus members of his live band, Perrett is assisted by a roster of starry guests including Johnny Marr, Bobby Gillespie, Fontaines D.C.’s Carlos O’Connell and Dream Wife guitarist Alice Go. Perrett’s narcotic and alluring melodies, gorgeous South London drawl and ravishing rock dynamic are now allied to a wider span of musical arrangements and lyrical concerns, touching on themes of art, addiction, aging, social media and witch trials, amongst others. “I know some of the subject matter is death, suicide and depression,” Perrett notes, “but I feel there is an uplifting atmosphere to the album, because I’m obviously enjoying recognising what is going on around me.”
I Wanna Go With Dignity is dedicated to the late Fiona H. Stevenson (AKA Fay Wolftree), and its lyric was partly inspired by the late David Cavanagh, both of whom interviewed Perrett. Gillespie appears in the video directed by Douglas Hart, and both appear on the album’s title track, marking the first time that Gillespie (backing vocals) and Hart (synths / drum programming) have appeared on the same track since The Jesus & Mary Chain days.
With The Cleansing, the saga of Perrett can finally, and irrefutably, move on from The Only Ones, one of the most distinctive and charismatic of all new wave bands with a thrilling live reputation. The band thrived from 1976 to 1981 — almost despite themselves given the drug consumption of those times. When they finally imploded, Perrett’s increasing drug habit saw him go to ground. He finally re-emerged in the mid-’90s fronting The One, a valiant but short-lived effort to recapture former glories, and again when The Only Ones reformed in 2007, though the band only played live and never recorded a new album. Having never done things the easy way, it seemed almost like fate when the pandemic turned up the year after Humanworld was released, and given the precariousness of Perrett’s health, it was only reasonable to expect that he might not record again, and indeed, it was touch and go for a while.
The Cleansing is notable for Perrett’s observations of the world outside, written from the perspective of a man who realised how much had changed (not least himself). Cleansed, revitalised, survived: One of rock’s great non-conformists is in the form of his life, and one of rock’s great comebacks is primed to keep going.”
