Youth Lagoon Returns After Seven Years With New Song From ‘Heaven Is a Junkyard’ LP

Larisha Paul
·2 min read
youth-lagoon - Credit: Tyler T Williams*
youth-lagoon - Credit: Tyler T Williams*

Seven years ago, indie musician Trevor Powers announced the end of his project Youth Lagoon, under which he released three studio albums. “There is nothing left to say through Youth Lagoon,” he said at the time. “It will exist no more.” Now, Powers has turned the microphone on once again.

“I felt like I was in a chokehold,” Powers said in a statement. “Even though it was my music, I lost my way. In a lot of ways, I lost myself.”

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His time away proved to be essential to moving forward. Youth Lagoon returns today with “Idaho Alien,” the first single from the upcoming fourth studio album Heaven Is a Junkyard, set for release on June 9.

“Heaven Is a Junkyard is about all of us,” Powers said. “It’s stories of brothers leaving for war, drunk fathers learning to hug, mothers falling in love, neighbors stealing mail, cowboys doing drugs, friends skipping school, me crying in the bathtub, dogs catching rabbits, and children playing in tall grass.”

The musician didn’t necessarily seek out Youth Lagoon on his own, so much as he was pulled back to it. Powers had taken his voice away from the project by choice, but then it was taken away from him against his will after a reaction to an over-the-counter drug left his larynx and vocal cords inoperative for eight months.

“I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to speak again, let alone sing,” Powers added. “It all felt symbolic in a way…. I’d been swallowing fear all my life and now here it was coming back up.”

Heaven Is a Junkyard Tracklist
1. “Rabbit”
2. “Idaho Alien”
3. “Prizefighter”
4. “The Sling”
5. “Lux Radio Theatre”
6. “Deep Red Sea”
7. “Trapeze Artist”
8. “Mercury”
9. “Little Devil From the Country”
10. “Helicopter Toy”

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