Does the thought of being cut adrift in a small vessel with no nautical instruments excite you? I am not sure if there is any other way to describe the initial anxiety of euphoria that comes over you when you first listen to Trevor Powers of Youth Lagoon’s album, “Year of Hibernation”. The album is a collection of dynamic, lo-fi, riveting beats with echoey alchemy constructed so masterfully you’d have thought Powers came up with a way to make you feel so alive while dropping your pulse so lowly that you were in heaven.

Give someone two weeks vacation and they’re dipping into Spain, spending their dollars on overpriced liquid they will swear off never to have again or they are spending their money on devices that will be outdated in months. If ambition could be guaranteed and failure was diminished I am not sure anyone again in the next few decades could pull off what Youth Lagoon has. Trevor Powers recorded this ace of an album over his Christmas holiday in 2010. Recorded is being generous, his garage and dorm room were significant sound stages in the production of this unbelievable release and you will be glad it was no other way. Rivaling Iron & Wine and Bon Iver in first album recording set-ups, Powers made an amazing album for himself that is so personal, authentic and giving that you can not help, but feel the intensity and coated layers of your own dimensions becoming exposed listening to any of the songs that made it onto the album.

I was fortunate to have a co-worker recommend Youth Lagoon to me. During a period of my own life when the anxieties and pressures of the world were pressing against my comfort zone, my worries and insecurities this album has turned into my anthem of 2011. At 5:35pm each night, I’d slip my headphones in, press play, tuck my ipod into my jacket’s lapel pocket and point my feet towards home. No longer could I hear the asphalt scraping against the souls of my shoes. I couldn’t hear the fabric of my pants brushing against one another and I certainly could not hear the breaks from buses, horns of taxis or the opening and closing of the carriages on the underground. I was in an element, that dimension I mentioned above. Each track played a part on my commute home.

I’d listen to the entire album from start to completion each day. Every day it was the same, headphones in, ipod in the pocket and the same introduction to my transport home began with “Cannons”, followed by “July” and by the time I found my pace, “Daydream” matched the pace of my feet. One step closer to home, each song made me forget about the weight of the world and how to right it all and instead allowed me to get lost in fulgent music I could not only relate to, but absorb beneath the permeating forces that kept my heart beating.

To truly appreciate Youth Lagoon, you must let the sound soak beyond any impervious barriers and then resonate in the texture of your matter. It isn’t a science, but an appreciation for music, for an album that was so rawly recorded so inexplicably crafted that each audio peak internally alters your anatomy for the good. The allure of Youth Lagoon is creating your own history with the music and by doing so you will find that it is faultless.  Sometimes the best way to meet the superiority of such a mind blowing release is to cut yourself adrift and see where the power of natural currents take you.