_{By Zach Collier}

Father/son duo YesterKid may be one of the most fascinating acts to ever come out of the Provo music scene. Not only is the unconventional, cross-generational musical pairing a heartwarming story, but the duo’s work has saved a beloved local band and accumulated millions of streams. YesterKid isn’t a gimmick: Jonathon Egan and Sam Sheppard write really, really good indie pop centered around fully realized artistic concepts that actually say something. Their latest album, Ultrasound, is further proof of this.

Listening to Ultrasound is like reading heartwarming postcards from the wreckage of a plane crash. Catastrophic imagery is strewn all across this striking record – from the blaring alarms and sirens on “Everything’s Broken, Everyone’s Falling Apart” to the pocket-sized cataclysm of “Pet Tornado” – this record sounds like you’re living through the climactic end of a beautiful world.

You’d expect the album I’m describing to be massive and anthemic – and indeed, portions of this album do reach a grand scale – but it’s surprisingly grounded and intimate. Most of this is due to the album’s brilliant programming and arranging.

The opening song, “Ghost Has Left the Attic,” is a mid tempo, piano driven jaunt that grows progressively more expansive as it goes on – concluding with church bells and screams layered beneath the melodic vocals.

This pattern of starting small and building to a climax is the main play of the first three tracks, culminating in brilliant “Upper East of Heaven” – which pulls absolutely no punches and gets to work from the first beat. This is my personal favorite from the record.

However, the album takes a surprising turn with the fourth track, “Nonfiction.” I may or may not have listened to this one hundred or more times on the banks of the Columbia River at 2 AM last October when my dad was in the hospital. Clocking in at a mere 1 minute and 12 seconds, it’s engineered like a found sound – like a private voice note you were never meant to hear. You can hear the air conditioner in the background, and Sam Sheppard’s voice is beautifully present and reflective. The way he casually calls out hopelessness amid modern comforts – and the disappointing existentialism that accompanies the artificial reality we’ve trapped ourselves in – broke my heart in the best way.

From thereon out, the album alternates between these intimate, found sound confessionals and the epic numbers we got in the beginning. From the love letter to family on “11 Wishes,” to the haunting piano solo “Unto the Least,” to the closer “I Love You, I’m Glad You’re Alive,” these small numbers all keep the lofty thematic aims of the album surprisingly grounded and achingly real.

There are so many good bands in the Utah music scene, but there’s only one YesterKid. The music they make hits me in a way no one else’s does. They’ve slowly become one of my favorite musical acts of all time, and the unique soundtrack to some of the most important moments of my adult life.

Give Ultrasound a listen. Follow YesterKid on Instagram, and stream “Beautiful Life” below.