#25 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Underworld

January 07, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

Strawberry Hotel by Underworld

29 years ago, two seminal events happened that changed the course of my media intake forever. 1: Trainspotting, Danny Boyle’s life-affirming film of Scottish author Irvine Welsh’s heroin-fueled novel, hit the theaters on February 23, 1996, bringing with it a phenomenal soundtrack, including a lesser-known electronic band called Underworld and their top-10 all-time song, “Born Slippy .NUXX.” 2: Underworld released their sophomore album, Second Toughest in the Infants on March 11, 1996.

Trainspotting features a handful of mid-twenties friends trying to make it through life, at a time when I myself was coming into my mid-twenties. Both the novel and the film connected with me in a way that nothing else had to date. The soundtrack features a wide variety of artists, from classic rock of the 70s in Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, through 80s brit pop in New Order, Blur, and Pulp, to 90s electronic artists like Leftfield and Underworld. I developed a love of ALL of the artists featured on the soundtrack, but Underworld were above and beyond my favorite band of my 20s.

I remember the CD shop I frequented in college, and remember the day I picked up Second Toughest there. I can picture the location, the CD in my hand, excited to bring it to my apartment and listen to it. From its opening track “Juanita” through the closing “Stagger,” it is a phenomenal album through and through.

In addition to making great music, Karl Hyde and Rick Smith — the duo that make the bulk of Underworld’s music — were part of a graphic design collective called Tomato that, along with folks like David Carson, shaped the zeitgeist of design in the 90s. Being in school and studying visual communications at that time, absorbing everything aural and visual created by the band, seared them onto my still-forming mind.

I went back in time and fell in love with their great 1994 debut, Dubnobasswithmyheadman, and continued to love them through their third album, 1999’s Beaucoup Fish. As I grew older, they kept making albums, but I started to move on. I enjoyed their 2002 album, A Hundred Days Off, but 2007’s Oblivion with Bells didn’t fit my mid-30s world. I started documenting my Top 31 in 2009, but the band’s 2010 release, Barking, didn’t make it onto that year’s Top 31. Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future, from 2016, made it onto the list at #30, but reading my words about the album then make it clear they were receiving a consolation prize, a shadow of their former selves. 2019’s Drift Series 1 did not rate.

But I still found myself going back to those 90s albums — more out of reminiscing than anything else. I bought the vinyl reissue of Dubnobasswithmyheadman in the mid 10’s, and I love it. But nothing new they were creating in the 2000s was matching their 90s greatness. This is my long, circuitous route to getting to the crux of the matter: this sentiment has changed with the duo’s 2024 release, Strawberry Hotel, their 11th album. This album is a resurgence of the Underworld of old. It hits all the same notes for me, despite the fact that I am now in my 50s.

Hit play on the video above, for the opening track “Black Poppies.” Gorgeous and lush, this song creates a soundscape of warmth that hums with excitement. You can also watch an alternate version, “Black Poppies (Unplugged), performed by a six-piece string group of college students that was put together by the band. Absolutely beautiful. And the band still has a grasp on driving, thumping beats: watch the visualizer for “Techno Shinkansen” and you’ll hear what I mean.

Maybe now that I’m working on my fifth decade of living I am in a nostalgic world, trying to reclaim my youth. It’s impossible for me to not hear Underworld from that biased stance. But I do love Strawberry Hotel, and I’m energized by the fact that they (and by extension, me, too) can keep making relevant, exciting things in 2025. I hope you’ll join me in this excitement.

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#13 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Damon Albarn

January 19, 2022 by Royal Stuart

The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows by Damon Albarn

Damon Albarn’s newest record, The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows, was created in isolation in his home outside of Reykjavik, Iceland during the pandemic. That point is important, because it gives this slower, introspective album the perfect sense of place.

After starting in on a commissioned project with some native Icelandic musicians, Albarn had to shift course due to the pandemic – they could no longer get together and jam. According to Pitchfork, What was going to be an “orchestral interpretation of the land outside his living room window” became the foundation for a new solo album that he eventually brought to life with two musicians he had a long history with: Simon Tong (guitarist for the Verve and for Albarn’s side project The Good, The Bad, & the Queen) and frequent Gorillaz collaborator Mike Smith.

A view of Esja in Reykjavík, Iceland. The landscape inspiring 'The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows': https://t.co/2L231hVJiu pic.twitter.com/NljvMSA084
— Damon Albarn (@Damonalbarn) November 29, 2021

The collection of songs that emerged from that curvy road of creation is not a Blur or Gorillaz album. It’s not full-on pop, nor digital craziness. But Albarn’s voice is unique, with or without collaboration, and his music always invariably sounds like him. If you’ve ever thought “I want a Blur album without the heavy guitars” or “This Gorillaz stuff would sound great if it didn’t have all that digital distortion,” then Fountain is for you.

The video above, for the song “Royal Morning Blue” is the only video from the album that features Albarn. But there are a series of video clips set to the music that you can watch while listening. If you like consuming your music with visuals, as I do (full on MTV generation here), these vignettes are perfect for the music.

It feels as though Damon Albarn has been somewhere in my shortlist of “current rotation” albums for most of my life. I wrote about his prolific output in my review of the second album from his side project The Good, The Bad, & the Queen’s second album (2018’s Merrie Land, #23 that year). I’ve updated what I wrote then to include what has come out since:

Blur released their first album, Leisure, in 1991. Including that seminal album, Albarn has been a principle part of the production for eight Blur albums (2015’s The Magic Whip was #21 that year), [seven] Gorrilaz albums (2020’s Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez was #13 that year), six various collaboration albums, two albums with the collective known as The Good, the Bad & the Queen, and [now two] solo albums.

That’s a mind-blowing 25 albums in 30 years. A spry 53 years old, Albarn doesn’t show any sign of slowing down his output. Where he will head next is anybody’s guess, but take my hand and we’ll skip along with him, together.

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14. Collapsed in Sunbeams by Arlo Parks
15. Loving In Stereo by Jungle
16. Flying Dream 1 by Elbow
17. Screen Violence by Chvrches
18. Blue Weekend by Wolf Alice
19. Mainly Gestalt Pornography by Pearly Gate Music
20. Peace Or Love by Kings of Convenience
21. These 13 by Jimbo Mathus & Andrew Bird
22. Mr. Corman: Season 1 by Nathan Johnson
23. Home Video by Lucy Dacus
24. I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute to The Velvet Underground & Nico by Various Artists
25. Siamese Dream by Fruit Bats
26. NINE by Sault
27. Observatory by Aeon Station
28. The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania by Damien Jurado
29. A Beginner’s Mind by Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine
30. Where the End Begins by Knathan Ryan
31. Private Space by Durand Jones & The Indications

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#13 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Gorillaz

January 19, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez by Gorillaz

Damon Albarn is a musical chameleon. He got his start with Blur in the early 90s (whose 8th album The Magic Whip was on the Top 31 at #21 in 2015). He’s also appeared on the Top 31 with The Good, The Bad and the Queen (#23 in 2018). And what started as a side project in 2005, Gorillaz has lately become Albarn’s main gig. The band’s seventh album, Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez appears here at #13 for 2020.

I’d lost interest in Gorillaz, despite my ongoing love for Albarn’s music. I haven’t loved anything he’s done with Gorillaz since their 2005 Danger Mouse-produced sophomore album Demon Days, and consequently the four albums prior to Song Machine that were released between 2010 and 2018 did not make the Top 31 cut. I’m glad that 2020 saw the release of another great Gorillaz album.

For those of you living under a rock, Gorillaz is a “virtual” band, with four fictional animated characters illustrated by Tank Girl-creator Jamie Hewlett. Musically, the band’s songs are principally created by Albarn, with a large collection of support characters and guest stars coming in to flesh things out. Since 2016, the band’s song creation duties have been shared with a third member of the band, Remi Kabaka Jr., who mans the lead percussion and produces the songs. Together they create a wide variety of digitally-created music with Albarn taking the lead on vocals, often singing with guest starts.

Song Machine started at the beginning of 2020 as a web-only music video series, a collection of singles released monthly with guest stars appearing on each song. There was no intention of releasing the songs as a full album. But, much like all the other plans launched in the first couple months of 2020, things changed. And we’re all the better for it.

The guest stars on Song Machine, Season One are what propelled this album into a prominent spot of my 2020 playlist. Robert Smith, Beck, St. Vincent, Elton John, and Peter Hook (among many many others) appear on the album. Not only do they lend their voices to these songs, but the songs they appear on shift tonally to the range that these voices are known for. So the album often sounds less like a Gorillaz album, and more like a movie soundtrack filled with great pop songs.

The album is very easy to love. Even if you’ve not been a fan in the past, I recommend checking it out. You just may surprise yourself.

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1. Saint Cloud by Waxahatchee
2. Fetch The Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple
3. Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers
4. folklore + evermore by Taylor Swift
5. Untitled (Black Is) + Untitled (Rise) by Sault
6. RTJ4 by Run The Jewels
7. Shore by Fleet Foxes
8. Serpentine Prison by Matt Berninger
9. The Ascension by Sufjan Stevens
10. Making a Door Less Open by Car Seat Headrest
11. Dreamland by Glass Animals
12. A Hero’s Death by Fontaines D.C.
13. Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez by Gorillaz
14. Mordechai + Texas Sun EP by Khruangbin
15. Introduction, Presence by Nation of Language
16. Free Love by Sylvan Esso
17. Miss Anthropocene by Grimes
18. 3.15.20 by Childish Gambino
19. Women In Music Pt. III by HAIM
20. The Third Mind by The Third Mind
21. Superstar by Caroline Rose
22. Impossible Weight by Deep Sea Diver
23. We Will Always Love You by The Avalanches
24. Ultra Mono by IDLES
25. Visions of Bodies Being Burned by clipping.
26. Thin Mind by Wolf Parade
27. The Loves of Your Life by Hamilton Leithauser
28. Palo Alto (Live) by Thelonious Monk
29. color theory by Soccer Mommy
30. Fall to Pieces by Tricky
31. Quarantine Casanova by Chromeo

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#21 on the 2015 Bacon Top 31

December 11, 2015 by Royal Stuart

The Magic Whip by Blur

We’re going from an uncategorizable band at #22 to an ultimately categorizable one here at #21 in Blur, the undisputed kings of modern Brit pop (if you Oasis fans haven’t yet given up, there’s no time like the present). It’s pretty amazing that a band can break up due to infighting between the lead guitarist and principle songwriter in the middle of recording an album (2003’s Think Tank, their last album) and then reunite and put out a new album 12 years later that sounds as if they never took a break. But that’s exactly what Blur has done.

Now, this isn’t their best album. Not by far. But compared to what else has been released in 2015, this is a great album in its own right. I first talked about The Magic Whip here back in June, when they released the video for “Ong Ong.” I think the “Ong Ong” video is far superior to the video above, for the song “Lonesome Street,” but I like to offer up a variety of musical sights and sounds to the handful of you that are actually paying attention.

If you’ve liked Blur in the past, get this album now. If you’ve liked Gorillaz, The Good The Bad and the Queen, or solo Damon Albarn, you will like this album. If you’re a fan of solid Brit pop, this album is for you. Do it. Now.

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22. Savage Hills Ballroom by Youth Lagoon
23. Not Real by Stealing Sheep
24. Beat the Champ by The Mountain Goats
25. Gliss Riffer by Dan Deacon
26. Dark Bird is Home by The Tallest Man on Earth
27. Gunnera by Pfarmers
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

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Blur — Ong Ong

June 03, 2015 by Royal Stuart

When Blur released their fantastic first album, Leisure, I was 17, and I was addicted to MTV’s alternative-music video show 120 Minutes (they brought it back! Who knew?) (incidentally: HOLY CRAP). I would record the show every week and devour it throughout the week until the next episode came out. Blur’s first hits, “She’s So High” and “There’s No Other Way,” hooked me instantly, and I’ve been a fan of the band ever since.

They’ve had their ups and downs. I’ve always kept an ear on lead singer Damon Albarn’s many side projects. But it’s been a long time since Blur has released any new music, and even longer since they produced anything that was worth repeated listening.

I’m happy to report their first album in 12 years, The Magic Whip, is exactly that. It’s good. It’s classic Blur. While there isn’t a “Tender” (what is up with this “official video” version of the song — blech), “Girls & Boys,” or “Song 2,” this album is solid from start to finish. Give it a few listens before moving on — I assure you it will hook you, too.