Boise's own Youth Lagoon is a trending topic in music news this week. Led by Trevor Powers, the music project's third full-length album is set for release September 25. But before then, music junkies can stream Savage Hills Ballroom from NPR Music.
Besides streaming the album, NPR has hit the like button on the new release a couple of times,most recently calling it Powers' "most formidable work yet."
"Youth Lagoon mastermind Trevor Powers comes across as a sensitive, trembling soul who combines precision and poise with a sense of being forever on the verge of falling apart. Shows of strength and vulnerability abound on Savage Hills Ballroom...That it all comes together so organically and resoundingly speaks to Powers' place as a free-spirited artist in command of his own station." - NPR Music
Other music bloggers are highlighting the record's departure from Youth Lagoon's previous sound. From Brooklyn Vegan:
"You really can't say Youth Lagoon has ever made the same album twice...It's a rather unique record that doesn't really subscribe to one particular genre, with lushly arranged piano ballads, bold art rock songs, horns, electronics, and the most frenzied percussion Youth Lagoon has used on a record to date. And on most songs Trevor's voice is clearer than ever." - Brooklyn Vegan
Pitchfork reviewed the album's themes as well as the sound, critiquing it for "awkwardly stretch[ing] to make universal points from Powers' personal distaste," but gives Savage Hills Ballroom an A-for-effort and bravery.
"Regardless of the subject matter or the production or the arrangements, the most truly self-searching Youth Lagoon album has Powers realizing he perhaps knew his position of strength all along—the inner child set adrift in the adult world, left to figure it out on his own." - Pitchfork
If you missed Youth Lagoon's hometown show last Saturday, you can catch a more intimate performance at the Record Exchange in Boise on Friday. For more on the album's new sounds, check out this interviewwith Powers in Fader.
Find reporter Frankie Barnhill on Twitter @FABarnhill
Copyright 2015 Boise State Public Radio