Wondrous Bughouse

Wondrous Bughouse, Trevor Powers' sophomore record as Youth Lagoon, finds Powers collaborating alongside distinguished mixer/producer Ben H. Allen for the first time. Allen had produced with indie musicians before, previously lending his expertise to lauded records such as experimental pop quartet Animal Collective's influential Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009) and art rock quintet Deerhunter's Halcyon Digest (2010).

Powers' debut for the Fat Possum record label, The Year of Hibernation, was produced by engineer/friend Jeremy Park in Park's own Boise-based home studio Kung Pow! Studio. The final product would don a bedroom pop aesthetic that would "stand out from its lo-fi peers thanks to a sense of wide-eyed adventure."[10]

With Bughouse, Powers' sonic palette would expand to yield "a dense tapestry of swirling overdubs and warped psychedelia," "much grander and more ambitious than its predecessor."[5]

The "brilliantly grandiose"[3] "Mute" is "a strongly psychedelic, deranged rainbow puke of a song,"[11] on which Powers' vocals "have never sounded so soaring and confident."[5]

Third track "Attic Doctor" features a "calliope-like melody",[12] recalling "the darker VHS carnvial sound of Ariel Pink."[11]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	74/100[13]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[9]
The A.V. Club	A−[3]
Beats Per Minute	68%[14]
Consequence of Sound	B[8]
Drowned in Sound	8/10[11]
Exclaim!	7/10[5]
The Line of Best Fit	9/10[15]
NME	[16]
Pitchfork	8.7/10[12]
Slant Magazine	[4]

Wondrous Bughouse received positive reviews from most contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 74, based on 24 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".[13]