From way off in the distance, the voice and keyboard drift closer and closer, but not too close. The voice is distorted and plaintive, and the instrumentation is minimalist and haunting. It almost sounds like a foreign language because of its growing and diminishing layers of synth drums, keyboards, guitars and harmony: most of the time you won’t be able to tell exactly what’s being sung, but you won’t care. Evocative in a late night ’90s club kind of way, Youth Lagoon has created a poetic musical landscape. Trevor Powers isn’t afraid to start a song with a simple keyboard line and an accompanying whistle (“Afternoon”), which climbs to something you finally want to dance to.
Don’t be deceived by this first disc from the Idaho-based songwriter; it’s not entirely happy. In “17,” the singer’s mom advises he should not “stop imagining / The day that you do is the day that you die.” True, perhaps, but, like much poetry, not easy to hear sometimes. This first release by Powers is like reading his diary, but better.
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