Richard Youngs - Long White Cloud LP

GRAPEFRUIT YEAR ONE SERIES, RECORD TWO (2011, GY1-2)

Every new album by Richard Youngs may as well be the first you hear, as there is no promise that it will sound anything whatsoever like his previous recordings. Just this year, he reissued “Beyond The Valley Of The Ultrahits” on Jagjaguwar and arguably created some of the best pop songs of the year – all on a dare from a friend. Other times, he’s wavered from some of the most emotionally compelling to repetitively transfixing to sonically aggressive compositions anyone is likely to create. After traveling New Zealand, Youngs describes the record as “a meditation on native birdsong, Maori place names, the pacific ocean, satellite navigation, and clutch failure in Wanaka.