“Dropla” is the first single to be released off Youth Lagoon‘s forthcoming sophomore LP, Wondrous Bughouse and it lives up to the greatness of Trevor Powers’ phenomenal debut. However, if you were expecting Powers to pick up right where The Year of Hibernation left off, you are mistaken. “Dropla” is substantially more sophisticated, deep and heartfelt.
Time to get personal. Last year I lost my beloved grandmother. It was not unexpected, as what else can you expect from a 93-year-old with health problems, but nor was it easy. Months later, I found the event affected me quite a bit more than I had anticipated. It wasn’t her death in general, it was the closeness we shared and the inner struggle of coming to terms with the fact that we all, too, one day will pass.
I feel Powers was going through a similar experience in writing this song, quietly singing the phrase I reach my arm across the bed and hold your hand before an incessant chanting of You will never die…. It’s revealing, as are Powers words in this interview with Pitchfork:
“Dropla”, for instance, is about the idea of watching someone close to you pass away. We never think that kind of stuff happens; we just kind of live in disillusion.
I guess this is why I feel such a connection to this song. It’s not that I’m overly depressed, or that I think the song itself is overly depressing. It’s more an emotive, quite public coming-of-age that we all experience, albeit at vastly different times in our lives. “Dropla” sums up all these emotions I’ve been feeling over the past five or six months, wraps them up tightly and brings a little comfort where once there was none.
We should all be so lucky to have a song to connect with in times of heartache.
Powers continues with the following in a later question:
The average person goes through life thinking it will go on forever. We say to ourselves we won’t live forever, but I don’t think that thought ever really sinks in until the day comes. A lot of it is me being scared that one day I’ll die, just realizing that. Even during the recording of the album I had this anxiety of thinking I was going to die for some reason. I kept trying to push it off but it kept coming back. It was super overwhelming.
The interview is really quite the good read and is revealing in Powers’ essence behind Wondrous Bughouse. The new album is out March 5 on Fat Possum Records.
