ALBUM REVIEW: Youth Lagoon – Heaven Is A Junkyard

Fat Possum

Released: 09.06.23

Having shut the door on Youth Lagoon in 2016 promoting a brand new album under that name, Heaven Is A Junkyard is not what Trevor Powers anticipated. However, having always written from the perspective of things ‘far away’ it took returning home to Idaho, severe illness and the creation of some quiet, reflective tunes to revitalise his inner songwriter.

Standout songs like The Sling eerily haunts the listener with its incessant album title refrain, whilst Idaho Alien, Prizefighter and closer Helicopter Toy evoke paint peeling Americana, bare and with a brutal sense of place. Gossamer light patches are stitched and glitched to intermittent beats. Free from the musical chokehold that he experienced previously, Youth Lagoon is breathing easier these days.