After ending his tour in assist of 2023’s Heaven Is a Junkyard, Trevor Powers stumbled upon a shoebox of dwelling movies from his childhood in his dad and mom’ basement. It’s no shock, given his textured, self-reflective method to songwriting, that audio samples from the tapes would find yourself on his subsequent album as Youth Lagoon, Hardly ever Do I Dream. Powers’ strongest device, nonetheless, isn’t nostalgia however juxtaposition, which he employs to harden the road between the innocence of childhood and the violent currents of immediately, between juvenile goals and intoxicated fantasies, obliviousness and creativeness; and to diffuse it, too. The file additionally finds Powers making a few of his most dynamic – and dynamically sequenced – songs so far, which solely underlines the thematic contrasts. For each pillowy melody and irresistible refrain, there’s a tragic story that’s exhausting to chew, characters with murky backgrounds, recollections that may’t be erased. It’s relentless and revitalizing – proof that no matter Powers does subsequent may look to the previous, however will hardly appear like the factor that got here earlier than.
1. Neighborhood Scene
The scene is hazy but inviting; the piano delicate, the drums easily snapping into place. There’s not a lot distance drawn between the sampled audio and the innocence of Powers’ hushed voice and poetry, not till the disarming line, “Elvis lit the bomb.” The chorus of “Mild it up” seems like “la-de-da,” brilliantly introducing Powers’ knack for blurring the road between what he is aware of now and the way he remembers his thoughts wandering. The guitars get grungier, the synths fuzzier, portray over celebratory recollections with a tinge of horror.
2. Velocity Freak
I don’t know if Powers had the concept for ‘Velocity Freak’ written down earlier than discovering the proper synth lead, however its stressed, jittery tone immediately captures the vibe of the tune’s protagonist. It “got here from a thought I had of giving the angel of loss of life a hug,” in accordance Powers, although, after all, a dream is much more what it seems like. (A type of uncommon ones, I suppose.) You may’t actually inform who the velocity freak is, or why they’re the one apologizing – although you must be struck be a line like, “The engine thundering/ by way of each mountain I can steer.” Extra than simply waxing poetic, Powers revs up the music, too.
3. Soccer
A sure weariness seeps into Powers’ voice on ‘Soccer’, which hews nearer to the dreamlike environment of Heaven Is a Junkyard after the buzzing pulse of ‘Velocity Freak’. “And also you advised me I used to be stayin’ sturdy/ When all I’ve accomplished is play alongside ,” he sings, presenting the theme of resilience as sport, after which, sport as faith. Powers’ present for framing songs as quick tales shines by way of right here, significantly within the second, for lack of a greater phrase, verse. But it surely additionally feels startlingly private – Powers repurposing the acquainted language of his youth to commune again with the characters in his dwelling movies.
4. Gumshoe (Dracula From Arkansas)
On the finish of the tune, a voice mutters one thing about this being what life is absolutely like; or, as Powers sings extra poetically, “life’s a baseball bat to the jaw.” (Once more, a sports activities metaphor does the heavy lifting.) The tune is concerning the summer season that taught him that, and he lays out the scenes he needs he by no means noticed, for the true first time on the file, in morbid element. On the identical time, a weight is lifted off him, and his heavenly voice rises above the primary vocal, which retains quivering on the recollections. A keenness persists regardless of the mad devils that surrounded him. And even, he admits, an actual freedom.
5. Seersucker
Once we grieve as kids, fairytale villains can present up wherever: “A wolf is within the shepherd’s pie,” Powers sings. He informs us of the yr he – the particular person within the audio pattern, we are able to solely assume – handed, the chorus of “We’re doing alright” reverberating within the years that observe. The piano, by now a trademark of Youth Lagoon’s sound, has maybe by no means performed a extra very important position in his music. “Each tune that Momma wrote/ Pop discovered to play/ When the previous piano broke/ The music went away.” You may hear it hanging there like a knot in his throat.
6. Lucy Takes a Image
Like snapping an image, the pizzicato strings threaded by way of this early album single has the impact of suspending a second in time. Powers doesn’t absolutely articulate it till the ultimate verse, which finds him softly intoning phrases it seems like he’s been on the lookout for his entire life: “And we catch somewhat breeze/ After I catch you within the grime/ And I really feel the autumn die/ And the winter maintain its hold/ I can see it in your breath/ I can style it in your cheek.” You may hear it within the tune, some of the resplendent he’s ever laid to tape.
7. Good World
The album switches gears as soon as once more, however don’t let the title idiot you: ‘Good World’ shouldn’t be solely probably the most eruptive tune on right here, but in addition one of many least idyllic. It’s a deep minimize that makes you pay shut consideration: nonetheless piercingly melodic and narratively wealthy, but in addition wreathed in distortion.
8. My Stunning Lady
From the knottiest, loudest tune on the album to its easiest, sweetest piano ballad: on the planet of Hardly ever Do I Dream, it makes complete sense. ‘My Stunning Lady’ begins with the narrator’s sole motion: “I maintain your hand…” Every part that follows is statement, understanding, and pure admiration. In contrast to different ladies talked about on the album, this one stays anonymous, however he notices the methods her household is in disarray, too – the loudness of damaged properties that beg the tune to be quiet. And delightful, after all.
9. Canary
After the emotional directness of ‘My Stunning Lady’, ‘Canary’ is more durable to sink into, darkly enigmatic but entrancing. Darkness materializes in playful methods, too, Powers remind us, however that doesn’t make the environment any much less foreboding. “Halloween and selfmade alchohol,” he sings, which may function the tune’s subtitle.
10. Parking Lot
Right here, the audio pattern is positioned not in the beginning however proper because the tune’s groove flips from a twinkle to a shuffle, a daring transfer that’s sufficient to justify its inclusion on the album, although it bears much less weight than those that come earlier than.
11. Saturday Cowboy Matinee
The protagonist of ‘Velocity Freak’ steers mountains; the one in ‘Saturday Cowboy Matinee’ needs to be one. It comes from a spot of delirium that, by this level on the album, is acquainted however all of the extra pronounced; the medication much less and fewer a part of the subtext, extra violently foregrounded. It’s virtually just like the mere point out of them is sufficient to set off one other audio pattern, a robust but futile invocation of blissful ignorance. With its trip-hop affect, the tune is a little bit of a sonic outlier, but in addition one other welcome change of tempo.
12. Dwelling Motion pictures (1989 – 1993)
On this collage of voice recordings, one in the end rings out: “Say, ‘That is Trevor’s story.’” It’s true, however it’s additionally, on the finish of the day, an instruction: a framing system handed down from generations so our lives make extra sense, so we are able to look again and cross-reference with ease. We are able to spend each waking day documenting our lives; we are able to dig into the archives; we are able to pick the easter eggs, laying them out for others to unpack. We are able to even weave some fiction in for the hell of it. However that doesn’t cease us being hunters of our tales, not tellers. If Hardly ever Do I Dream clings to any type of fact, it’s that there’s nonetheless peace to be discovered within the rubble. And like every piece of us that continues to be, phrases can hardly do it justice.
