I like disembodied qualities in musicians. The unhinged and possibly unwell. Syd Barrett, and Skip Spence in the late Sixties. Patti Smith and Marc Bolan in the early Seventies, David Bowie throughout that decade. Tricky and Thom Yorke in the late Nineties. Cries for help but also a kind of weird alien control of the wheel at one and the same time. A sense that a rare wisdom is being imparted if we can try to interpret it.
Heaven is a Junkyard the new album from Youth Lagoon has some of this strange, uncanny wisdom about it. Idaho's Trevor Powers is the prime mover behind this project and though he doesn't necessarily sound in the rudest of health here, this is hardly a prerequisite for producing successful, resonant Art Pop or Rock records.
This is front line testimony of pain. 'Junkie on a back yard mattress.' The desolation of long term over the counter medication addiction. Everyday tales of smalltown America. Shades of Smashing Pumpkins and Mercury Rev here as well as the other artists I've mentioned. It's brave, honest and beautiful. Like I say its disembodied. But its message is loud and clear.
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