Media

Youth Lagoon: "Montana" (Video)

3:03 p.m. · September 8, 2011 · by Kyle Lemmon

Twenty-two year old Trevor Powers (aka Youth Lagoon) is a student at Boise State University, but his latest video is entitled "Montana." The lo-fi chamber-piano song is languid and spacey at first. Somehow this all doesn't come across as too disembodied, even with The X-Files sound that fellow Prefix scribe Wolcott Katzenbach noted this summer. Before long, Powers is building to a stunning electric guitar anthem with a luminescent vocal melody. The track appears on Youth Lagoon's debut LP, The Year of Hibernation, which streets Sept. 27 via Fat Possum.  (Lefse will release in Europe.)

The cut's accompanying music video, directed by Tyler T. Williams, follows a Tree of Life-esque family in American suburbia. The cinematography is understandably fuzzy and nearly angelic. Wait until the end for a haunting and tearful resolution near a campfire. Pop music is in love with this type of nostalgia in 2011. That feeling has always been a big part of the genre's appeal, but now it's a huge chunk of the overall zeitgeist. It's hard to say if that's a good or bad thing for innovation, but "Montana" feels just right. See upcoming tour dates at Fat Possum. Powers just extended his fall tour.