REVIEW: Youth Lagoon – “Rarely Do I Dream”

Written by Jack Foley

Two years ago, after a near-death experience, Trevor Powers revived Youth Lagoon after formerly declaring the project dead in 2016. I thought this was the end of a band that I had grown to love. So many hours were spent listening to Pandora Radio and videos converted to .wav files that played through my turquoise Skullcandy earbuds in seventh grade. Youth Lagoon’s dreamy, hypnotic music, laden with synthesizers and Powers’ haunting vocals caked in reverb, remains a core part of my playlist. A lot has happened since 2016, and seeing Youth Lagoon return in 2023 to release “Heaven Is A Junkyard” was an incredible surprise. Powers’ sound diverted away from his signature intoxicating synth melodies and showed a side of himself that I relate to deeply.

Admittedly, I thought that 2023’s “Heaven Is A Junkyard” would be a one-off, and Youth Lagoon would fade into oblivion again. I am thrilled to admit that I was wrong. Youth Lagoon released “Rarely Do I Dream” on February 21, 2025. Powers included audio samples in “Heaven Is A Junkyard” and took it to the next level in his latest release, so much so that the final track is just 3:34 of audio from VHS tapes. These brief moments are spliced into songs like a scrapbook of moments in Powers’ life. It feels like experiencing life through a dissociated lens, you are experiencing life like it’s someone else’s–viewing experiences through TV static that occasionally cuts in so fast you almost miss it. 

My favorite off the album is “Football.” The track was originally released as a single last year. Powers describes the track as a celebration of failure. I was never good at sports and certainly never caught the football if I was dragged into it. But failure is not one aspect of your existence; my failure in the athletic world was largely predetermined and does not nullify the life I have worked to build for myself. The hypnotic lap steel guitar drones as Powers paints vignettes of “Donnie” and “Mary,” who portray a personification of failure in the eyes of the sanctomonious. Donnie digs a hole, his face worn thin–success in your work often goes unnoticed, it seems sisyphean at times to work toward progress. Mary is a sex worker who is ostracized by the religious, but will “fuck the preacher if he pays enough.” Moral superiority is often a facade for a lack thereof. “Put a bullet in and pull it on three, don’t pull it on me,” jabs at the perceived superiority of arrogant, judgmental people; I view this line as a backward way of joking that those who live in glass houses shouldn’t cast the first stone. However, these sorts often do, and even when the glass breaks, they would blame the shards on those outside. 

 Through these glimpses into the lives and thoughts of people I will never know, I feel nostalgia for memories of my own, while I wonder whether I remember the moment or have twisted reality into what I want it to be. Powers is incredibly underrated as an artist, and I believe that “Rarely Do I Dream” is a masterpiece. Nostalgia is complicated, and Youth Lagoon has managed to package the bittersweet melancholy into an album that acts as a requiem for the life we have lived, leaving the rest open to interpretation.