NEWS
EVENTS
Album of the month: Youth Lagoon, Wondrous Bughouse
Wednesday 13th March 2013 | Vanessa
The twenty-three year-old solitary artist in his first album The year of Hibernation explains aspects of life he otherwise has a hard time discussing. So, typical problems to befall the confused and curious arise and the anxieties of a man not long out of childhood.
Youth Lagoon’s first singles July and Afternoon started off as candlelit whispers and ended in reverbed crescendos that felt significantly larger than Powers’ humble bedroom studio.
Three years after recording his debut, Powers has returned with the Ben Allen produced new effort Wondrous Bughouse, swapping the minimal shivers of Hybernation with a psychedelic rock saga.
While the anxious introversion that defined his debut is still manifested in the lyrics and vocals of the new songs, now is production is more based on themes like death, mental illnes and self-preservation.
The song Mute at first it sounds like typical Youth Lagoon in its echoing, childlike cachiness, then the melody after a minute become chaotic and twinkling.
The affiliation with rock legends like The Who or Pink Floyd is remarkable.
Youth Lagoon is still a pop project, take Attick Door for example, is undisputably sonically light and positive with the smooth guitar hooks and walzing drums.
Anxiety and paranoia reach a literal climax in Pelican Man, which contains delusion and schizophrenia. The song is the unraveled hysteria at center of the album.
Power's realistic anwer is a negative. The album's head single Dropla reorganizes the traumas of Pelican Man.
As dissonant piano and sheets of guitar rain around him, Powers reassures himself with youthful innocence : "you will never die, you will never die".
