We don’t really review albums here at EFOG. Though we like to have conversations about them.
So Youth Lagoon is the moniker of Mr. Trevor Powers of Idaho. It’s a solo project and in some ways honors that description by hovering deep inside an intimacy that may only be achievable by a solo artist or solo project.
Perhaps the absence of collaboration in this regard allows Trevor to navigate a fragile quiet interior without additional voices or ideas gumming up his headstrong commitment to mining the darker active questions we seldom ask ourselves.
And somehow it all comes out like if Neil Young were trapped in a well for a week and his panicked, desperate and heartfelt pleas for rescue were recorded on a nearly functional Fisher Price tape deck.
All of the above is a good thing. The saturated fuzzy distortion of the instruments and his vocals seem at once unpretentious, nostalgic and graceful. He evokes such a distinct sense of emotional place that it’s hard not to imagine him writing and performing the entire album alone in a cave. It’s honest, simple and just good music.
So I’m very much enjoying it top to bottom, again and again over and over.
But hey it may not be your cup of tea. If you hate music. Though if you like this, check out Perfume Genius. They sound so similar I thought they were the same artist for about as long as it took to google.
Youth Lagoon | The Year of Hibernation | Fat Possum|Lefse | 2011
