LP, Album, Limited Edition, Clear (Ultra)
Fat Possum Records (2023) US
With whispers of country, Heaven Is a Junkyard is mutant Americana in a world of love, drugs, storytelling, and miracles – held together by Trevor Powers' voice and an upright piano.
Throughout the album, he stitches together a lyrical style that feels both punk and western. "Daddy come home, and Daddy's on junk," Powers sings on "Idaho Alien" – nestled between a saloon-style piano and a rhythmic hiss that sounds like a baby monitor. "Prizefighter", the album's third track, was written while watching a VHS of "Drugstore Cowboy." Against a gauzy curtain of lap steel guitar and a CR78 drum machine, he explores the bond between two brothers, leaving it undefined what is fact and what is fiction. "Tommy left for war with no goodbye. I never got a chance to ask him why," he sings.
"The Sling", a song Powers refers to as "the album's core," is a ghostly and naked piano ballad. We hear each line like a voyeur peeping through a crack in the wall. "On a lonely street, children still play. Families still eat," he sings. 'Heaven Is a Junkyard' is a phrase Powers wrote down in his journal after watching a neighbor's farmhouse catch fire. "I wasn't even sure what those words meant at the time," he says. "I'm not sure I still do." But when the album's title is heard at the end of "The Sling", it feels substantial. "Heaven is a junkyard, and it's my home," sings Powers.
Recorded in six weeks with co-producer Rodaidh McDonald (The xx, Adele, Gil Scott-Heron), Heaven Is a Junkyard is a work of absolute devotion. A portrait of the God-haunted American West. And a reminder that there is always love in the tall grass.