Ahead of the release of his third LP, Savage Hills Ballroom, next month Trevor Powers -aka Youth Lagoon– has dropped a second single to tease the album. Accompanied by a video, the track premiered on The FADER and follows the previously released The Knower. Titled Highway Patrol Stun Gun, the song almost didn’t make it on the final cut of the album; with its expansive piano and swelling string section, Youth Lagoon fans old and new alike will surely be glad that it did.
In the video, Powers and a suited figure wearing a gold mask spend their days together dancing, eating, playing golf, listening to music, competing for high fives off strangers, bowling and mucking about in a photobooth. A bittersweet sensation emanates from the video as, at the end, the masked figure slips away into the shadows leaving Powers only with the photographs taken earlier. When speaking of the song, Powers noted that there was most certainly an element of loss to the track and the accompanying video:
I lost one of my closest friends a couple years back, and that bled into everything.
With Savage Hills Ballroom out in just over a month (September 25) via Fat Possum Records, the bar has already been set pretty high with the two tracks we’ve heard so far – and we can’t wait.