Trevor Powers returns with his Youth Lagoon moniker, following up 2023’s ‘Heaven is a Junkyard’ with ‘Rarely Do I Dream’ (released via Fat Possum on 21 February 2025). This record finds Trevor armed with a shoebox of home videos that allows him to blend memories and more innocent times with aland filled with drifters, drug hustlers and old-world folklore.
‘Neighborhood Scene’ opens the album with gentle gliding piano and snippets of conversation, before Trevor comes in singing ‘dragging me alone, the sky was cold’. ‘Speed Freak’ follows with its glitchy beats and darkly tinged melodies: ‘Stray dog, why did you come for me?’; ‘You make my problems disappear’. Think Baths meets Battles.
We’re then back to something more serene on the poignant football: ‘His face was wearing thin’. This is a fragile piece with powerful storytelling at its heart. ‘Gumshoe (Dracula from Arkansas)’ has more of an emo vibe, mixing breezy hooks with dreamy nostalgia as Trevor ponders on trees, water and things ‘I wish I never saw’.
‘Seersucker’ is a short jazz-infused interlude with otherworldly aspects coming to the forefront – ‘When the old piano broke, the music went away’ – while ‘Lucy Takes a Picture’ has recollections of seeing an angel being delivered against a stirring soundtrack. There are almost hushed vocals on the experimental and tender ‘Canary’ while Trevor again recalls dangerous places on the short and spiky ‘Parking Lot’.
There’s an air of mystery running throughout the penultimate ‘Saturday Cowboy Matinee’ with its defiant statement ‘I want to be a mountain’ while the closing ‘Home Movies (1989-1993)’ almost feels like a montage of a more analog past and an ode to shared times. It’s an atmospheric piece surrounding some of the fondest family memories – Easter egg hunts, baseball matches and bath time are all featured.
This is a charming record that makes you wish you grew up with the Powers family.
