Youth Lagoon: The Year of Hibernation (2LP, 10th anniversary edition) [FAT POSSUM]

Why you'll love it

This 10th anniversary edition spreads the album over a 2LP set cut at 45 RPM and adds three bonus songs, including a live "Goodbye Again." The originals "Cannons" and "July" earned a Pitchfork Best New Track nod before Fat Possum had even signed him.

This edition

• 2LP set
• 10th anniversary edition
• Cut at 45 RPM
• Three bonus tracks

About the album

Trevor Powers made his first album during a Christmas break from Boise State University, with money he'd saved busking on his keyboard in downtown Boise late at night. He planned to give it away online. Two songs on Bandcamp later, Fat Possum came calling with a two-album deal.

Recorded with his friend Jeremy Park at Park's Kung Pow! home studio, the album uses the whole house as an instrument: a garage and a shower room as reverb chambers, a bass amp in a bedroom closet, vocals in the living room. Powers plays keys, runs a drum machine and sings, with Erik Eastman on guitar. "Posters" and "17" glow with tape hiss and nostalgia, and the organ on "July" was recorded from the kitchen and the living room at once to get its huge, airy sound.

Anxiety runs through the songs, but the record turns it into something tender and oddly comforting. It peaked at No. 8 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart, which isn't bad for a house with no actual studio, though we'd still like a word with whoever let him use the shower.

Also at Kops: more Youth Lagoon on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Fat Possum (cat# FP1255-0), a reissue of the 2011 album.