I guess Trevor Powers couldn't find an abandoned cabin the woods to spill his heart onto some old recording equipment in, but luckily he had his bedroom. For his first full length under his Youth Lagoon moniker, The Year of Hibernation, Trevor does just what the title implies. He captures a year's worth of distortion-covered open wounds and complements them with post-rock crescendos and some delicate melodies. And while Trevor clearly feels small on this album, his music suggests otherwise. Tracks like the soaring "Montana" could fill arenas if he wanted them to. He's been involved in other projects before Youth Lagoon and there's no telling what comes next, but The Year of Hibernation will remain one of the most surprising debuts of 2011.
We wrote the above way back on our 2011 year end list about Youth Lagoon's The Year of Hibernation, which was indeed one of the most surprising debuts of 2011. From there, Youth Lagoon went in a handful of new directions, before Trevor retired the moniker and continued to explore new sounds under his own name. A lot of it's been great, but he never repeated the intimate charm of The Year of Hibernation, an album that feels increasingly singular as it celebrates its 10th anniversary.