Album Review: Youth Lagoon - Wondrous Bughouse

Eighteen months after the release of the debut album The Year Of Hibernation (2011), Youth Lagoon is back with Wondrous Bughouse. It's another highly experimental album from the Idaho-based Trevor Powers, who has a well-documented fascination with the human psyche, mortality and using music to express these concepts.

The Year Of Hibernation was written, produced and performed entirely by Powers alone, whereas Wondrous Bughouse sees him joining forces with indie producer Ben Allen and some guest musicians for creation purposes. The result is a more professionally finished sound that still maintains Powers' songwriting originality.

The tracks are high-volume and powerful, taking on a supernatural quality. On many, the barely comprehensible vocals take a backseat and are used as yet another sound effect. Powers uses sonic mediums to explore his thoughts on the mental fragility of humans and their conscious awareness of their own mortality. The method by which Powers uses these eerie collections of sounds, guitar loops and drumming sequences to translate the underlying dark and complex themes is nothing short of impressive.

Most of Powers' inspiration comes from personal experience, having suffered from anxiety himself. Quite open about his influences, he's revealed that the title to this album refers to the questionable “sanity” of humans, where the very word “bughouse” is synonymous with a mental asylum. He explores how these concepts relate to lack of perception surrounding death (for example, the track Dropla).

Although a more morbid album than his debut, Wondrous Bughouse is an interesting listen, becoming more so once the inspiration behind it is understood. It is an unnerving insight into the darker side of the human mind.