Don't ask Youth Lagoon's Trevor Powers to paint a vulgar picture. His PG-rated tunes conflate gentle-breezing optimism with reverberant pianos and sleepy, narcotic falsetto. It's the sound of a lovely Ambien trip. Powers gave off some heavy-duty phantom vibes on 2011's The Year of Hibernation, but the 23-year-old's flare for the supernatural might obscure his truest gift: replicating a certain joy and wonderment that's entirely human. (He's not alone in having perfected this skill; see Akron/Family or Ariel Pink.) Powers often sounds spooked, as if some forest monsters leapt out at him deep in the Idaho wilderness—but these addictively warm tracks suggest happier tidings.
Tue., April 10, 9 p.m., 2012
