Youth Lagoon

Rarely does an album come along that’s as indicative of its backstory as The Year of Hibernation. For his Fat Possum debut, 22-year-old Trevor Powers took to his Idaho bedroom, crafting out dreamy, reverb-soaked indie pop as a way of dealing with — or, perhaps, escaping from — his debilitating social anxiety. As such, the record comes across as startlingly truthful, touching on feelings of fear, abandonment, and loneliness in a way that’s both beautiful and immediately affecting. There are twee-ish qualities that run throughout Hibernation — a twinkling piano line, a lullaby-esque vocal phrasing — yet the record never comes close to saccharine. Using a collection of loop pedals, organs, synthesizers, triggered beats, and guitars, Powers is capable of building some serious walls of sound (“July,” “Posters”), but he also shines when things get stripped back a bit (“17”). In either mode, though, the result is equally evocative, making Hibernation well worth a spin. (Preferably indoors, alone, on a fog-filled fall day.)