We continue the long-running love of all things Menomena and The National here at The Bacon Review with Pfarmers. A collaboration between Danny Seim (Menomena), Bryan Devendorf (The National), and Dave Nelson (Sufjan Stevens, St. Vincent), Pfarmers is actually the first of two collaborations between those two bands that will appear on this year’s Top 31.

I’m a big fan of members from bands trading players and making more music, giving me elements of what I liked about all of them in a new form. Pfarmers sounds more like Menomena than the National, but just barely. Most of the album is made up of songs that don’t really fit a mold: a bit electronic, a bit analog, and trippy throughout. The high energy song above, “The Ol’ River Gang” is definitely the highlight of the album. The rest of the songs are slower, background-like thinking pieces.

If you liked Menomena or The National, then you’ll like Pfarmers. If you don’t like either of those bands, then you probably won’t like Pfarmers. But give the song above a listen, you may be surprised.

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28. Swimmer to a Liquid Armchair by Ricked Wickey
29. To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar
30. Live in Seattle by Moufang / Czamanski
31. High by Royal Headache

What is the Bacon Top 31?
Past years’ Top 31s