there is a love that sleeps inside/the canyons of our deepest dreaming lives

Blitzen Trapper has always been somewhat of a conundrum for me. On one album they'll shift from rollicking alt-country to something resembling 90's anthem rock to reverb-laden and drifting shoegaze homages.

I like it, a lot of it. But it never came together, never gathered its strength and held me tight with an immediate sense of self or purpose.

Prepare to have your mind changed, if you thought like me.

Destroyer of the Void, out on June 8 through Sub Pop, is a completely awake and alive album. It is a working being, a string of pearls (which is how Roman Candle would describe a true album), and disarmingly sincere while not losing Blitzen Trapper's inherent grasp of how to make me have fun.

In their single release, "Heaven and Earth" Eric Earley's voice is earnest and naked with major piano chords introducing the melody. Blitzen Trapper has been so often compared to other artists, because they've been so scattered in their sound. From Wilco to Queen to the Beatles, Blitzen Trapper's identity has been footnoted below influences.

It's easy to hear a Beatles influence in this single and leave it at that.

But there's something else. I actually hear Earley's voice in this. It's patiently building a sound that I haven't heard already. And the words he says are new and real and make me feel a bit trembly when he sings close into my ears, "Heaven and Earth are mine says I."

The rest of the album varies, just like you expect from a Blitzen Trapper record, but it creates a story out of the many narratives. It's accessible, and absolutely a tremendous step forward in songwriting. I can't wait to see these guys at Lollapalooza, can you?

Heaven and earth are mine says I (x3)

Over the western world shadows fall
Under the kind and dying trees we call
Together still the feel the breeze
To shatter all these waking dreams we've told
Ourselves to keep us free and clean

Heaven and earth are mine says I (x3)


There is a love that sleeps inside
The canyons of our deepest dreaming lives
A shelter that cannot be lost
A name that is so deep and so far across
I know you that you know me
Your life is like a bolt of lightning seen
Across the sky, so high and clean

Heaven and earth are mine says I (x3)
Heaven and earth are mine

Over the western world shadows fall
Under the kind and dying trees we call
Together still the feel the breeze
To shatter all these waking dreams we've told
Ourselves yeah ourselves
Ourselves yeah ourselves

Heaven and earth are mine says I (x3)

Heaven and Earth- Blitzen Trapper