Wondrous Bughouse

In 2011, Youth Lagoon\'s *Year of Hibernation* hit the ether; it was called a \"bedroom recording,\" but the set by Boise, Idaho\'s Trevor Powers felt like much more. Eerily intangible but melodic, elusive but memorable, *Hibernation* mesmerized fans and critics alike. Powers continues in the same vein with *Wondrous Bughouse*, which somehow feels as amorphous as *Year of Hibernation* yearned to be under its pesky melodies and song structures. Outnumbering the shapeless bad-trip excursions (\"Daisyphobia,\" \"Through Mind and Back\") are numerous actual songs, like the lovely \"Mute,\" with Smith\'s warbly voice reaching through white noise and gurgling keyboard haze, a churning rhythm section, and simple, searching guitar. \"Pelican Man\" has a Beatles-on-acid vibe that tumbles and glows under a blanket of scratchy reverb, and \"Attic Doctor\" is a woozy, calliope-soundtracked dream. \"Third Dystopia\" and \"Dropla\" build slowly and majestically, with delay and effects pedals running synths and guitars through a time machine that confounds the laws of aural physics. *Wondrous* is produced by Ben Allen (Washed Out, Deerhunter).