On “Speed Freak,” a track that finds the artist fleeing death in a mystical world of stray dogs and fast cars, Youth Lagoon makes it known that he’s not done innovating his own sound.
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“Speed Freak” – Youth Lagoon
On the writing process of “Speed Freak,” Trevor Powers of Youth Lagoon explains: “When I was writing, phrases just came to me, like ‘stray dogs’ and ‘bullfrogs.’ Later, I researched those words and found they symbolize death in different cultures. I had no idea at the time, but my subconscious was leading me there.”
That unseen pull of premonition drives the song, which is the first single of his latest LP, Rarely Do I Dream. Powers is at his most nimble here, slamming on the gas in effort to put some distance between him and death. In a surreal meeting with his own mortality, he translates that tension into a seductive, frenzied soundscape. He knows that Death waits for him in Samarra, but he’s running anyway.
The track opens with an icy, looping rhythm that anchors the wall of heavy synth built around it. It’s urgent and leaden, but when Powers’ vocals come in they’re unexpectedly delicate. The apparent contrast of fragile against heavyweight gives the track a cinematic atmosphere, just as fitting in your headphones as it might be seeping out of a discotheque.
The interplay of the pulsing rhythm and delicate vocals recalls New Order at their most evocative: Dance music with a sad, beating heart. Though it lasts for a reasonable 3.5 minutes, the song seems to end too soon. It’s sexy and haunting.
Stray dog, why did you come for me?
Bullfrog, you keep me company
Through every siren I can hear
You make my problems disappear
Stray dog, why did you come for me?
Bullfrog, the engine thundering
Through every mountain I can steer
You make my problems disappear
Released February 21st via Fat Possum Records, Rarely Do I Dream is soaked in boyhood memories, hazy light, and the feel of a corn-fed, Wonder Bread American childhood.
Peppered throughout are snippets of Powers’ family home videos. These recordings add more than just texture — they blur the line between reality and fantasy, and Powers fills the gaps in the found footage with dreaming. The recordings are crackly and warm and feel real because they are real. The sonic experience is an almost voyeuristic peek into someone else’s childhood, someone else’s imagined past.
“I wanted to make someone feel like they were inside my living room in 1993, but rearrange the furniture a bit,” Powers said.
This is the world in which “Speed Freak” exists. On a record steeped in nostalgia, it’s a rare moment where the dream veers closer to nightmare than fantasy. The track is rooted in Americana but it doesn’t turn away from American darkness: empty highways, neon glows, and cars speeding off into nothingness. At this intersection of light and dark, “Speed Freak” channels something Lynchian — not only in its dreamlike unease but in its deep affection for a world it refuses to romanticize.
While a shadowy sonic tone points to something lurking underneath, the home recordings that run through Rarely Do I Dream capture something tender and ground the track. Like Lynch’s best work, “Speed Freak” has a sense of wonder even as it acknowledges the rot beneath. The track might easily slip into the famous opening sequence of Lost Highway and capture the same fever pitch Bowie conjured for the film.
Tear me down like the dream
In the face of my daughter
I feel sorry
I’m a speed freak
Heaven knows that I’ve hurt
Like the face in the water
I feel sorry
I’m a speed freak
Heaven knows that I’ve hurt
(Stray dog)
Likе the face in the watеr
(Why did you come for me?)
I feel sorry
I’m a speed freak
After stepping away from Youth Lagoon for years and facing a health crisis that almost took his voice, Trevor Powers could have slowed down.
But “Speed Freak” is not the sound of an artist retreating.
It’s the sound of someone charging headfirst into unknown territory, transcending the weight of the past.
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:: stream/purchase Rarely Do I Dream here ::
:: connect with Youth Lagoon here ::
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“Speed Freak” – Youth Lagoon
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© Tyler T Williams
© Tyler T Williams
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