Youth Lagoon Savage Hills Ballroom

Youth Lagoon released free 7" singles containing new song "The Knower" today at select record stores. The 7" features a handwritten URL which leads to this website, announcing Savage Hills Ballroom, Youth Lagoon's new album. The ten-track collection follows 2013's Wondrous Bughouse.

01 Officer Telephone
02 Highway Patrol Stun Gun
03 The Knower
04 No One Can Tell
05 Doll's Estate
06 Rotten Human
07 Kerry
08 Again
09 Free Me
10 X-Ray

From the beginning, escapism has played a large role in the music of Trevor Powers. As the mastermind behind Youth Lagoon, Powers comes off as a curious tinkerer who pours himself into sound in an effort to escape his surroundings and anxieties. That's especially true of his 2011 debut, The Year Of Hibernation, whose lovely, introverted songs capture a feeling of confinement and loneliness in his native Boise, Idaho — only to bloom into cascading synth melodies and his trembling, gender-blurring falsetto. That template was pushed a few steps further on his follow-up, 2013's Wondrous Bughouse, where wide-eyed (if dysphoric) songs like "Dropla" stack a Jenga tower of arresting and askew instruments while Powers sings longingly into the far reaches of the cosmos.

Youth Lagoon is set to release a new album, Savage Hills Ballroom (out Sept. 25), and a few savvy fans have already gotten a taste. Late last week, the band surprise-dropped a limited 7" record of its new single "The Knower" at local record stores around the world. Now, the rest of us can hear the song, which points to Youth Lagoon's latest evolution. It also finds him grappling with personal pain, as he ruminates on and tries to understand the experiences and stories of others.