Queen

"Queen" is the second track of Too Bright, 3:50, and was the lead single, released on July 17, 2014 after being announced on July 15. Per-track credits are not on the pages we read; Hadreas is the composer, and a Discogs-style listing found via search has Utley on bass and synthesizer and John Parish on drums, which we did not verify. Hadreas's statement calls it a response to gay panic and begins by describing blank fear on faces as he walks by. Asked about releasing it, he said: I just needed to, and it just felt important to me. And I knew what the backlash could be, but I did it anyway.

The video, directed by Cody Critcheloe of SSION and published on July 17, 2014, opens with Hadreas as a street hustler and has pigs, smashed computers, a one-legged Elvis impersonator and cheerleaders; it was nominated for a Dorian Award for music video of the year in 2015. Stereogum's Ryan Leas put the song first in its list of the ten best Perfume Genius songs in 2020, calling it superhero music and the turning point of the album and of his career, and Pitchfork included it in its 200 best songs of the 2010s. It has been in Mr. Robot, The Great, Vice Principals and Dark Matter.

He first played it on June 21, 2014 at the Hostess Club Weekender at Studio Coast in Tokyo, and setlist.fm counts 200 performances of 493 setlists, his most played, ahead of "My Body" (181) and "Slip Away" (154); the latest in its data was at Pitchfork Festival Mexico on September 23, 2026. His late-night television debut was on the Late Show with David Letterman on October 30, 2014, in an all-white suit, and he did a KEXP session in November 2014. In 2025 it usually closes the encore, as at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Los Angeles on October 4, 2025. We found no covers, and could not tell which version our upload carries.