Wondrous Bughouse

Youth Lagoon - Wondrous Bughouse
Critic Score
Based on 26 reviews
2013 Ratings: #473 / 1115
User Score
Based on 311 ratings
2013 Rank: #137
Liked by 11 people
March 5, 2013 / Release Date
LP / Format
Fat Possum / Label
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CRITIC REVIEWS

91
A.V. Club

With Wondrous Bughouse, Powers has deftly managed his expanded musical toolset to craft an impressively sophisticated and compelling—yet often unsettling—collection of psych-noise arrangements, with much to burrow into and explore on repeat listens.

90
The Line of Best Fit

Wondrous Bughouse is a delicious collage: provocative, allusive and consistently engaging.

87
Pitchfork

This record broadens Powers' musical and lyrical scope into something universal in a literal and figurative sense, evoking the cosmos, heaven, and hell.

85
The 405

Remarkable in both ambition and execution, Powers' second record is indeed wondrous.

83
Pretty Much Amazing

The contrast between the maturity of song-craft and production on the album and Powers’ continuing embrace of the fearless creativity of youth make for a sound that directly confronts notions of coming of age without ignoring what came before.

80
God Is in the TV

Wondrous Bughouse is a warm, melodic, enchanting delight, a densely layered yet still lo-fi pop album that stands up against the more psychedelic hallmarks of The Flaming Lips, Tame Impala and more. The buzz around Youth Lagoon is only going to grow, and Wondrous Bughouse should be an album to immerse yourself in as soon as possible.

80
NOW Magazine
A few tracks ease into each other too easily and are forgettable, but there’s still an overall sense of growth and fruition.
80
DIY

As effortlessly rich as 'Wondrous Bughouse' seems for the listener, it's evident this record took Powers to places he wishes he’d never been. Darkness has never sounded so gloriously technicolor.

80
Consequence of Sound

He’s growing within himself and outward, emerging with work that’s as mystical and memorable as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

80
No Ripcord

Wondrous Bughouse, with its epic sprawl and quaint curiosity, successfully captures through its music the idea that the smaller you are, the easier you’re dazzled and overwhelmed by the world around you. 

80
SPIN

Like Animal Collective, Youth Lagoon craft modernist pop so perfectly of its time that we're hardly aware of how much time has passed.

80
Drowned in Sound

A technicolour dream of an album, drenched to the soul in lysergide, sometimes bumping into brilliance, sometimes pouring out like miles of unspooling tape onto the studio floor, uncontained and uncontrollable.

70
Paste

Powers has turned “bedroom pop” into a visceral and emotional experience. While Wondrous Bughouse may not be for everyone, it certainly pushes new barriers.

70
NME

Tiptoeing through the dark fairytale forests of ‘Sleep Paralysis’ can be fun, but this is so woozy-sounding it should come with a warning not to operate heavy machinery while listening. 

70
Sputnikmusic

Featuring a bulked up track listing and an extending running time, in addition to a more assured vocal performance and a captivating theme, Wondrous Bughouse sees Trevor Powers emerge a solo artist who is rapidly completing the transition from promising to accomplished.

70
AllMusic

Wondrous Bughouse is an undeniably impressive-sounding album that will please fans who loved The Year of Hibernation for its intricate sonics, but those who empathized with its emotions might feel a tad disconnected.

70
Exclaim!
The production values mean that, even though Powers' reverent anthems aren't a huge departure from what he's done in the past, the results have added gravitas.
70
musicOMH

The density of its production and the slipperiness of its song structures ensures that this album isn’t for everyone.

68
Beats Per Minute

What was once unobtrusive is now loud and colourful. Apart from the soapy keyboards, none of this sounds like Youth Lagoon as we knew it. 

60
Spectrum Culture

Wondrous Bughouse and the end result fits in as much with the title as it did on his debut–replace the hazy electronics of the debut with the drowning hall of mirrors mania of the sequel–but it’s nowhere near as immediate. Still, it’s fitting: as Power develops as a songwriter and producer, he tests what fits into his maturing vision.

60
Q Magazine
10 ready-made, slightly wonky theme tunes.
40
Slant Magazine

With both the humor and production style of his densely layered music remaining overwrought, Wondrous Bughouse leaves a distinct impression that it was a lot more fun to make than it is to listen to.

40
PopMatters

Wondrous Bughouse doesn’t expand Youth Lagoon’s sound so much as pour neon-colored Kool-Aid onto it until it’s diluted to a point where it’s almost difficult to hold onto much of anything in these songs. 

40
Northern Transmissions

Experimental music is supposed to take you by surprise and open your mind to new sounds and song formulas. Wondrous Bughouse can’t qualify as an experimental album because there’s nothing here that you haven’t heard before.

Phoenix
NR

'Wondrous Bughouse' is a significant improvement over 'The Year of Hibernation', with a much more captivating soundscape that mingles Beach House and Animal Collective with a pinch of Fleet Foxes.

89

WONDROUS.

MagnetoJenkins
79

I LOVED this album when it came out!
I don't really appreciate its obvious influences as much anymore (non-coincidentally produced by a guy who worked the soundboards on AnCo's 'Merriweather Post Pavilion'). But as someone who lived a few years in Idaho, I personally say this is still an all-time great Idaho album.

MagnetoJenkins
79

I LOVED this album when it came out!
I don't really appreciate its obvious influences as much anymore (non-coincidentally produced by a guy who worked the soundboards on AnCo's 'Merriweather Post Pavilion'). But as someone who lived a few years in Idaho, I personally say this is still an all-time great Idaho album.

Phoenix
NR

'Wondrous Bughouse' is a significant improvement over 'The Year of Hibernation', with a much more captivating soundscape that mingles Beach House and Animal Collective with a pinch of Fleet Foxes.

WalkinToTheBeat
71

Though the experience of this album is ultimately underwhelming, Youth Lagoon accomplishes the rare task of writing a song everyone should hear. If nothing else give yourself the gift of "Raspberry Cane."

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Track List

1Through Mind and Back
2:31
97
2Mute
5:58
100
3Attic Doctor
3:52
100
4The Bath
4:47
100
5Pelican Man
5:07
100
6Dropla
5:56
100
7Sleep Paralysis
5:34
100
8Third Dystopia
5:01
100
9Raspberry Cane
6:40
100
10Daisyphobia
5:19
100
Total Length: 50 minutes

Year End Lists

#35/Paste
#45/Stereogum
#54/musicOMH
#111/Under the Radar
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Added on: January 4, 2013