#3 on the 2022 Bacon Top 31 — Kevin Morby

January 29, 2023 by Royal Stuart

This Is a Photograph by Kevin Morby

I’ve had an unconscious aversion to Kevin Morby throughout his career. Despite him having released, over the past 23 years, seven studio albums under his own name, and an additional five as a member of two other bands (The Babies and Woods, the latter of which appeared on the Top 31 after Morby’s departure, at #31 in 2014), this is the first time Kevin Morby has appeared on the Top 31, ever. And what an appearance he’s made.

The album taking Morby from zero to hero¹ is the astoundingly good This is a Photograph. Starting off with the best song on the album, the title song is one that’s sure to get any listener up out of there seat. What starts off slow, just Morby and his guitar, singing about a photograph he found of his dad with his shirt off, holding Morby as a newborn and Morby’s sister at their side, standing in their front yard beneath the West Texas sun. In the photo, Morby’s dad is the age that the younger Morby is today, and he vocalizes what he imagines his dad is thinking the moment the photo is taken, “This is what I’ll miss after I’ll die, and this is what I’ll miss about being alive: my body, my girls, my boy, the sun.”

It‘s an existential, midlife crisis-like reflection. Morby sounds like he’s questioning his own place in the world. The song builds on that same refrain, talking about the concept of time giving up, then about his mother in Kentucky, then even about himself in Tennessee, ready to take the world on, but still thinking of the things we’ll all miss after we die, the things we’ll miss about being alive. It moves you deeply and gets you to move, deeply.

Once it hits that plateau, the rest of the album just coasts there across the top. Through The War on Drugs-esque songs like “A Random Act of Kindness,” slowing down for “Bittersweet, TN,” a gorgeous country duet with folk pop singer Erin Rae, over to somewhat silly rockers like “Rockbottom” (with a video starring the great Tim Heidecker no less). It’s got a little something for everyone.

Morby didn’t really hit my radar until the pandemic started in 2020. I wrote about he and his partner Katie Crutchfield (the one and only Waxahatchee) in my review of her #1 album, Saint Cloud:

A week before the release of the album (on March 27, 2020), just as the lockdown was beginning, she and her boyfriend Kevin Morby … began hosting weekly Thursday-night Instagram livestreams, where they performed both Waxahatchee and Kevin Morby originals and numerous covers, and had guest stars dial in, such as Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes and Crutchfield’s musical twin sister, Allison. They produced a Tiny Desk Concert From Home for NPR, and Waxahatchee was the headliner for the virtual KEXPY Awards from KEXP this past December. These were poor substitutes for an in-person live performance, but having her hold our virtual hands through the darkness that was 2020 was so much better than having nothing at all.

I fell in love with Crutchfield’s music despite of, or maybe because of, the pandemic lockdown, but I wasn’t yet convinced that Kevin Morby was for me. His sixth album, Sundowner, came out later that same year. I listened to it maybe twice. And earlier this year, the world seemed to be conspiring against me getting into Photograph, too. The album came out on May 13, 2022, the same day as Kendrick Lamar (#16)and The Smile (#15), and just a week after Sharon Van Etten (#6). That’s a crazy week for music, a lot of big name, repeat Top 31 performers. And it didn’t take me long to declare Photograph the best of all of those. A day after the full album was released, I put out a photo on social media showing all of those albums ganged up, declaring “Don’t miss out on [Kevin Morby]. It is the best one of all.” Such was the power of this album.

I got to see Morby perform at the Showbox in November, and of course he started the set with “This is a Photograph” — the song is one of the best opening tracks ever. In addition to playing all of the songs I wanted to hear from the album (including “Stop Before I Cry,” his paean to Crutchfield), he played a few songs from his vast back catalog, songs I didn’t know by heart. And I loved them, too. “City Music,” from his 2017 fourth album of the same name, was my favorite of the bunch. Hearing it again just now, I can confidently say that Morby’s music hasn’t really changed in a way that finally landed in a spot for me to like it, but rather it is I who have changed, finally ready to hear everything Morby has to offer. Over this year, I’ll be diving into his past albums (and the lovely soundtrack to the film “Montana Story” that he just put out last week). Join me on this venture, won’t you?

^{1. That’s not quite fair of me to say. I’ve only barely listened to Morby’s past work.↩}

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4. Lucifer On the Sofa by Spoon
5. Palomino by First Aid Kit
6. We've Been Going About This All Wrong by Sharon Van Etten
7. SOS by SZA
8. Wet Leg by Wet Leg
9. Chloë and the Next 20th Century by Father John Misty
10. Big Time by Angel Olsen
11. Ants From Up There by Black Country, New Road
12. Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To the Sky by Porridge Radio
13. I Walked with You a Ways by Plains
14. The Last Goodbye by Odesza
15. A Light for Attracting Attention by The Smile
16. Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers by Kendrick Lamar
17. Inside Problems by Andrew Bird
18. Laurel Hell by Mitski
19. Full Moon Project by Phosphorescent
20. Skinty Fia by Fontaines D.C.
21. I Love You Jennifer B by Jockstrap
22. Too Much to Ask by Cheekface
23. Dripfield by Goose
24. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You by Big Thief
25. And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow by Weyes Blood
26. NOT TiGHT by DOMi & JD BECK
27. Preacher’s Daughter by Ethel Cain
28. Live at KEXP, vol. 10 by Various Artists
29. All You Need Is Time by Daisy the Great
30. Cool It Down by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
31. CAPRISONGS by FKA twigs

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#8 on the 2022 Bacon Top 31 — Wet Leg

January 24, 2023 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Wet Leg by Wet Leg

Some years have its “indie darling,” a new-to-the-scene band who far exceeds its station. The kind of band that gets booked for the smaller stage at the summer festival and when the festival rolls around a few months later the band has acquired an audience overloads area the band is playing in. Idles in 2018 is a prime example. Or the Fleet Foxes in 2008, even. For 2022, that band is Wet Leg, with their self-titled debut album. And oh, what an album it is.

Wet Leg are an indie-rock duo from the Isle of Wight, Great Britain. Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers, who met while attending the island’s Platform One College of Music, have been performing together as Wet Leg since 2019. Their album bounces seamlessly between different sub-genres of indie pop, from slacker rock (“Angelica”) to surf rock (“Wet Dream” and “Ur Mum”) to glam rock (“Oh No”) and punk pop (“Too Late Now”), with their post-punk anthem “Chaise Longue” the best of the bunch (featured in the video above).

I got to see Wet Leg at THING, the annual PNW music festival held at Fort Warden in Port Townsend, in the middle of the first day with an amped up, crammed in crowd. They duo have a full backing band providing the rhythm section to the antics of the two charismatic leads. It must be fun to be in your first year of existence and already have the audience shout-singing your lyrics back at you. It sure is fun for the audience.

Wet Leg have started something big. Well crafted pop rock is a fine place for any band to make their start — it’ll be interesting to see how they continue to pique our collective interest. For now, I’ll continue to enjoy Wet Leg, the album. And I know you will, too.

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9. Chloë and the Next 20th Century by Father John Misty
10. Big Time by Angel Olsen
11. Ants From Up There by Black Country, New Road
12. Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To the Sky by Porridge Radio
13. I Walked with You a Ways by Plains
14. The Last Goodbye by Odesza
15. A Light for Attracting Attention by The Smile
16. Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers by Kendrick Lamar
17. Inside Problems by Andrew Bird
18. Laurel Hell by Mitski
19. Full Moon Project by Phosphorescent
20. Skinty Fia by Fontaines D.C.
21. I Love You Jennifer B by Jockstrap
22. Too Much to Ask by Cheekface
23. Dripfield by Goose
24. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You by Big Thief
25. And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow by Weyes Blood
26. NOT TiGHT by DOMi & JD BECK
27. Preacher’s Daughter by Ethel Cain
28. Live at KEXP, vol. 10 by Various Artists
29. All You Need Is Time by Daisy the Great
30. Cool It Down by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
31. CAPRISONGS by FKA twigs

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#2 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Big Red Machine

January 30, 2022 by Royal Stuart

How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last? by Big Red Machine

Every year there’s the big obvious acts that continually appear on the Top 31. At the top of that list are both The National and Bon Iver, both of whom have had #1 albums (2010 and 2016) along with three additional, separate appearances on the Top 31 each. In fact, I haven’t done the math, but I’m confident in saying that Aaron Dessner (20% of The National) and Justin Vernon (99% of Bon Iver), combined, have been responsible for the largest percentage of all music I’ve listened to in the last 15 years.

The two of them have done many things together, arguably the most prominent being the work they’ve done together as Big Red Machine. Their first foray into a partnership was a collaborative song called “Big Red Machine” on the Dessner-produced Dark Was the Night compilation in 2009 (#10 that inaugural Top 31 year). According to wikipedia, Dessner reached out to Vernon via MySpace, and they collaborated on the song remotely, and didn’t meet in person until a follow-on performance for the collaboration was hosted later that year. They continued to work together while producing and creating with their respective bands. They formed a record label, 37d03d, which released the first full Big Red Machine album in 2018 (self-titled, #13 that year). In addition to Dessner and Vernon, that album also features Phoebe Bridgers, Dessner’s brother Bryce and Bryan Devendorf from The National, and multi-instrumentalist Richard Parry from Arcade Fire, among many others.

Then they turned their attention to Taylor Swift, or many she turned her attention to them. The two albums that came out of their collaboration had a big impact on my 2020 Top 31, coming in collectively at #4 last year. But Swift is not the only Dessner/Vernon produced artist I’ve enjoyed. From the very first Top 31 in 2009, with the aforementioned Dark Was the Night compilation and Bon Iver’s Blood Bank EP, there have been only two years (2014 and 2015) that one or both Vernon and Dessner did not appear on the Top 31 as performer or producer. Sharon van Etten, Local Natives, Frightened Rabbit, Taylor Swift, Kanye West — they’ve all benefited from the magic touch of Aaron Dessner and/or Justin Vernon in the last 15 years.

There were also a couple of Big Red Machine singles to come out in 2020 that haven’t appeared on any albums: “No Time For Love Like Now” with Michael Stipe, and a get-out-the-vote in Wisconsin cover of Aimee Mann’s “Wise Up” featuring 4 of out 5 members of The National and others.

And now we’re finally up to the present, with How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last?, the supergroup’s 2nd full-length album under the Big Red Machine name. The album features a daunting list of guest appearances: Taylor Swift on two songs, James Krivchenia of Big Thief, Anaïs Mitchell on three songs, Ilsey (a prolific singer/songwriter who has written for and sung with a dizzying number of artists you’ve heard of), Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold, Naeem (otherwise known as rapper Spank Rock), a song called “Hutch,” dedicated to the lost-too-soon lead singer of Frightened Rabbit, Scott Hutchison, featuring Sharon van Etten, Lisa Hannigan, and Shara Nova (lead singer of My Brightest Diamond), La Force (aka Ariel Engle of Broken Social Scene), Ben Howard, and This is the Kit (Kate Stables).

Whew.

There are many highlights to this album (as there should be for a #2 album of the year). The Robin Pecknold / Anaïs Mitchell sung “Phoenix,” shown in the lyric video above, is my personal favorite (mostly because it’s the favorite of 4-year-old, who demanded I play that song over and over again throughout the summer of 2021). But even the most stripped down songs, such as the two where Aaron Dessner finally takes the spotlight all by himself, playing guitar and singing on “The Ghost of Cincinnati” and “Magnolia” in what can only be described as his best Elliott Smith impersonation. The Taylor Swift collaboration “Renegade” is a poppy, Swiftian jaunt you’ll love – it could have easily been created for Swift’s 2020 albums folklore or evermore.

It’s hard not to look at How Long as the capper of one hell of a musical decade for Dessner and Vernon. There’s no way that either of them is done making music. But if you look at the arc of U2, R.E.M., or The Stones, now is about the time in their respective careers that the drive to create something new and different clashes with the desire to slow down, spend more time with family, and rely heavily on the income from previous hits rather than create something new and earth shattering. Selfishly, I hope they choose a different path and continue to give us everything they’ve got. We’ll find out soon enough – 2022 is a new year, and maybe there’ll be another Bon Iver or National album, or some new Dessner- or Vernon-produced project that will simply blow us all away. I can’t wait.

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3. Jubilee by Japanese Breakfast
4. A Way Forward by Nation of Language
5. Things Take Time, Take Time by Courtney Barnett
6. Little Oblivions by Julien Baker
7. Valentine by Snail Mail
8. sketchy. by tUnE-yArDs
9. A Very Lonely Solstice by Fleet Foxes
10. Hey What by Low
11. Local Valley by José González
12. Head of Roses by Flock of Dimes
13. The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows by Damon Albarn
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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#9 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Fleet Foxes

January 23, 2022 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

A Very Lonely Solstice by Fleet Foxes

I’ll admit right up front that putting this album on the Top 31 feels a bit like cheating. My love of the Fleet Foxes runs deep, and is well known amongst my closest friends. A Very Lonely Solstice is not a Greatest Hits album — that would be a clear violation in a Top 31 — but it is a live album, in which Robin Pecknold, lead singer and principle songwriter of the band, performs a 45 minute set of songs from his catalog (plus a couple extras, including a beautiful cover of the Bee Gee’s “In The Morning,” originally made popular by Nina Simone). Normally that would not be enough to qualify – it wouldn’t be unique enough to warrant getting listed.

But give it a listen, and you’ll understand instantly why I had to make an exception. Or, better yet, watch it. The entire performance is available on YouTube. Get a fire going in your fireplace, put on your coziest pajamas, and curl up on the bearskin rug and watch, holding (or held in the arms of) your loved ones.

Fleet Foxes have appeared on the Top 31 three times previously, for their three most recent studio albums. Shore was #7 in 2020, Crack-Up was #12 in 2017, and Helplessness Blues was #9 way back in 2011. I loved them as they were coming up in late 2007 and early 2008, when I saw them five times in the span of eight months. (Including their first show in LA, where I was surprised to see them not draw a Seattle-sized crowd at the storied Troubadour. There was probably no more than 50 people in attendance at their performance, as they were opening for Band of Horses off-shoot Grand Archives and Blitzen Trapper and nobody had bothered to show up early. I remember sitting next to and inexplicably introducing myself to Pecknold’s dad at that show.) And I love them every bit as much now, if not more.

Pecknold’s voice is truly angelic. So it makes perfect sense that he created this album on the 2020 Winter solstice at Brooklyn's St. Ann & The Holy Trinity Church. Unbelievably, he recorded the opener, “Wading in Waist-High Water” alongside the Resistance Revival Chorus, all socially-distanced and masked, the sound cutting through the masks like sunlight through a pane of glass. After that overpopulated opener, it gets much more sparse – fulfilling the “Very Lonely” promise of the album’s title. It was Dec. 2020, the height of covid lockdown, so only the silent film crew (a family affair: Pecknold’s brother Sean was the director, and his sister Aja the producer) could attend.

If you’ve ever dabbled in Fleet Foxes, or even if you haven’t, this album will be equally received by all. It is a lovely performance, and a testament to Pecknold’s resilience and love for his audience that he is literally giving the performance away online. You truly cannot afford to not listen to this record.

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10. Hey What by Low
11. Local Valley by José González
12. Head of Roses by Flock of Dimes
13. The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows by Damon Albarn
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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#1 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Waxahatchee

January 31, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Saint Cloud by Waxahatchee

I’ve never met Katie Crutchfield, but in the last year, I grew to feel as though I’ve known her for decades. Her intimate, earth shattering album, Saint Cloud, is the best album of 2020. The album, her fifth Waxahatchee release, came out on March 27, just as the world was closing in on us. In the latter half of March 2020, restaurants, bars, and music venues were shuttered, essential stores were constricted to an extremely limited capacity, and we were told to stay away from everyone outside of our immediate households for what we hoped would be just a couple of rough weeks, or a month, tops. Spring tours (including Waxahatchee’s, for which I had two tickets to excitedly see her perform here in Seattle on May 15), were postponed and rebooked for later in the year, and we all settled into our sweatpants behind our glowing screens to ride out the naively-expected-to-be-relatively-short isolation.

Unfortunately, weeks of lock-down turned into months, and then months turned into seasons. Public indoor spaces were opened prematurely and then closed again. And now here, at the end of January 2021, we’re coming up on a full year of life-saving isolation. To date, Covid-19 has taken over 400,000 people in the US alone, and that number is sadly expected to continue to grow by vast numbers by the time enough of us have been vaccinated. Many of those who have contracted the illness but survived will have long-term maladies caused by the original virus. And the healthy majority in the country, those who manage to get inoculated before ever coming into contact with Covid-19, will be left mostly physically fit but emotionally and socially (and educationally, for the younger set) stunted. Thus is the mental toll of this past year.

And while our mental health has suffered greatly, I can confidently say: having the warm embrace that is Saint Cloud available at the touch of a screen has made all of the insanity a bit more bearable. Beyond the album, Crutchfield, along with her beautiful voice, deft finger-picking, and infectious smile, has made many screen-based appearances in my family’s home this past year. A week before the release of the album, just as the lockdown was beginning, she and her boyfriend Kevin Morby (a fantastic indie-rocker as well) began hosting weekly Thursday-night Instagram livestreams, where they performed both Waxahatchee and Kevin Morby originals and numerous covers, and had guest stars dial in, such as Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes and Crutchfield’s musical twin sister, Allison. They produced a Tiny Desk Concert From Home for NPR, and Waxahatchee was the headliner for the virtual KEXPY Awards from KEXP this past December. These were poor substitutes for an in-person live performance, but having her hold our virtual hands through the darkness that was 2020 was so much better than having nothing at all.

I’m a relative newcomer to the magic of Waxahatchee, having only started listening around the release of her Great Thunder EP in 2018. Her fantastic 2017 record, Out in the Storm, only hit my radar once the year had ended, missing inclusion on that year’s Top 31. At the time of discovery, the well orchestrated and produced Storm was greatly outshined by the sparse, raw, guitar-and-voice only songs on the Thunder EP. The lead single, “Chapel of Pines,” is the kind of song I could listen to on repeat for days. It’s simple – only one verse and a repeated, single-line chorus — and direct, with Crutchfield pushing her voice to its limit, cracking, as if she’s struggling to stay afloat in the murkiness of the still waters around her.

She brings that same close-to-the-heart rawness to Saint Cloud. It only occurred to me earlier this week that, while the song structure is quite different, the powerful, guttural strain from her voice reminds me of Jeff Mangum on Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (hands down my favorite album of all time), and that’s likely why I am so drawn to Saint Cloud. It’s real, it’s passionate, and it pulls me in like an inescapable magnetic field of emotion.

Listen to “Fire,” shown in the video above. It takes real chutzpah to belt a song like that right from the start, and I love it. Crutchfield’s lyrics, and the cadence of her rhymes, have always been great, but the crispness of the clip, the beauty in the beat of the words she chooses here feels otherworldly. To whit:

I take it for granted
If I could love you unconditionally I
could iron out the edges of the darkest sky
For some of us it ain’t enough
It ain’t enough

Breaking the second and third lines in the chorus in an unconventional way to have “I” and “sky” rhyme on the same 12th syllable is the kind of couplet that brings with it a pang of longing, a sadness that I can’t live in that chorus forever.

In 2018, Crutchfield recognized how her excessive drinking was not good for her or anyone around her, so she stopped. Essentially, she has been sober for the same length of time that I’ve loved her music, and I’m not so sure that’s a coincidence. Perhaps the clearness of thought is what allows her vocal and songwriting talents to really shine. In interviews, she’s said writing songs while sober has been more difficult for her. If we could only see the result that such a monumental life-shift might have on our creative output, that type of decision would be so much easier for each of us to make.

We are all better off because of the music and happiness Katie Crutchfield has shared with us throughout the last year. 2020 was the hardest year I’ve ever lived in so many ways, and it boggles the mind to consider how much of our future will be shaped by those 366 days. The final song on Saint Cloud, the title song, is a slow burner, very similar to the much-beloved “Chapel of Pines” I mentioned earlier. The song’s true meaning is obtuse, but that final stanza, “And when when I go, when I go, look back at me, embers aglow” might be how I look back at 2020. Crutchfield has a slight yodel she throws in her songs when she really wants to lay on the feelings. Those final “when I go”s get that extra oomph, and it adds a little flair of perspective to my vision of 2020, one that‘s not so bad.

I have truly loved the time I’ve been gifted this past year to spend with those closest to me — my wife and our two lovely children. But with that extra time has come a greater mental social cost that we have yet to recognize or quantify. We’ve been in a collective cocoon, and 2021 is when the world slowly breaks free and starts to spread its new wings. When we were deep in it last year, every day seemed to bring some new tragic headline, another horrifying fact or secret realization brought to light. Now, a month into 2021, I have a newly-lit hope that the perspective wrought by the year will ultimately drive positive, lasting, unbreakable change. I once was blind, but now I see. Let’s work together to do great things with our new eyes.

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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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#7 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Fleet Foxes

January 25, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Shore by Fleet Foxes

This 2020 Top 31 is officially the twelfth time I’ve written about my favorite albums of the year. The history I’ve documented in that span is one of my favorite things about the overall endeavor. Getting to reread what I thought about a record ten years later is personally exciting.

For instance, I just went back and reread the reviews of the two previous Fleet Foxes albums that have appeared on the Top 31 (Crack-Up at #12 in 2017 and Helplessness Blues at #9 in 2011). My memory of the band is that I’ve always held them in high regard and unquestionably loved everything they’ve put out. But upon rereading those older reviews, I’m reminded of my own Fleet Foxes burnout just before Helplessness Blues came out. To me, now, that sounds like somebody else entirely. How could I have ever disliked the Fleet Foxes. And yet there it is, in black and white.

One thing I can say for certain: if I’d been writing about my Top 31 in 2008, the self-titled Fleet Foxes debut from that year would have been #1. Since then the band has been through ups and downs, breakups and reunions, mostly at the whim of the band’s principal songwriter and lead singer Robin Pecknold. After a long sabbatical while he went to Columbia University, the band’s release of Crack-Up in 2017 felt a little less “triumphant” than I would have hoped for. I loved the somewhat disjointed and melancholy album, but it didn’t exceed expectations. So when the band released Shore at the exact moment of the Autumnal Equinox (September 22, 2020, at 13:31 UTC), I was excited and genuinely curious where Pecknold was taking the band.

And I was so happy to hear that where he was taking them was exactly where I hoped they’d be. Shore, the band’s fourth album in their 14 year history, is a beautiful, orchestral masterpiece. Pecknold recorded the foundation of the album in a number of studios starting in 2018, working with many new collaborators while fully expecting to bring in his bandmates to round out the songs into a complete Fleet Foxes album. But then the pandemic changed everything, making it impossible for the band to gather throughout 2020, leaving Pecknold essentially alone to write lyrics and finish the album.

All of these factors make the album’s creation and subsequent sound all the more astonishing. The multi-layered harmonies, the strings and horns, and Pecknold’s ethereal and personal lyrics that the Fleet Foxes are known for are all there. As such, Shore couldn’t be mistaken for anything but a Fleet Foxes album. But that’s also where the album shines – it doesn’t sound like a throwback to another era, as their previous albums have. This isn’t 60’s hippie music. Pecknold brings a new level of experience, growth, and maturity to the album, demonstrating the potential greatest I saw in him back in 2007 wasn’t just a fluke. He just needed time to get there.

Accompanying the release of the album is a film of the same name shot and directed by Kersti Jan Werdal. It features the entire album playing over a beautiful set of Pacific Northwest landscapes. On top of that, the video above for “Sunblind” is great, and the only opportunity you’ll have to catch a video with 2020-era Pecknold in it. A video for “Can I Believe You” was also released, with dancers squaring off to the music in mesmerizing ways.

Shore was a calming presence for me as 2020 wound down. If I needed to relax and disconnect from the madness in the real world, I’d throw this on and quickly escape to a cold and misty Washington-state beach. We were lucky to have the Fleet Foxes in our world in 2020, given the way the album came together. Maybe in 2021 we’ll get to see them live once again. Fingers crossed.

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Subscribe to the 2020 Bacon Top 31 playlist: Apple Music / Spotify
All Top 31s

#25 on the 2019 Bacon Top 31 — Strand of Oaks

January 07, 2020 by Royal Stuart

Eraserland by Strand of Oaks

The last time we heard from Timothy Showalter’s Strand of Oaks on the Bacon Top 31 was not for his last album, but the one before that – his groundbreaking fourth album Heal, which hit #15 back in 2014. The album that followed, Hard Love, was rather forgettable (literally: I‘d forgotten all about it until I sat down to write this review). It’s hard for an artist to recover from releasing an amazing album like Heal and then follow it up by a lackluster one, and it sounds like Showalter had a particularly tough go of it in the aftermath of that 2017 album.

Battling with depression and exhaustion, he sequestered himself on the Jersey Shore. He used that negative energy to fuel his songwriting, and channeled it into this new, amazing 2019 record Eraserland. Showalter was not shy about his depression, and wrote about it on Instagram when commenting on the suicide of other greats, such as Dave Berman of the Silver Jews and Mark Hollis of Talk Talk (although Hollis’s death has not been confirmed a suicide). Of Hollis’s death, Showalter went so far as to claim the Talk Talk album Spirit of Eden changed his life and the tone of this new album:

Spirit of Eden is a prayer and a discussion with existence and it was the singular gateway for me to do that with my own life. Eraserland’s DNA is interwoven with Mark Hollis and the gifts he gave through music … I urge any of you who haven’t heard it to dig in, perhaps before you hear Eraserland to understand and perhaps find that communication with your own existence. Music saves it truly does. Thank you Mark your work will continue for the rest of time.

Sage advice, for sure. For now it sounds like Showalter is doing better, thankfully. If you’re a current fan of the Fleet Foxes, Father John Misty, Kurt Vile, or an older fan of My Morning Jacket (just to name a few), you’ll love Strand of Oaks and this new album. It’s powerful and moving, in the best way that a wailing guitar, heavy drums, and reverbed voice can be.

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26. Dogrel by Fontaines DC
27. You’re the Man by Marvin Gaye
28. Big Wows by Stealing Sheep
29. 1000 gecs by 100 gecs
30. In the Morse Code of Brake Lights by The New Pornographers
31. Radiant Dawn by Operators

Subscribe to the 2019 Bacon Top 31 Apple Music playlist
2009-2018 Top 31s

#10 on the 2018 Bacon Top 31 — First Aid Kit

January 22, 2019 by Royal Stuart

Ruins by First Aid Kit

Breaking into the top 10 of 2018, here’s Swedish duo First Aid Kit appearing again with their fourth album, Ruins. (They first appeared on the Bacon Top 31 with their sophomore album Lion’s Roar at #4 in 2012 and then Stay Gold at #17 in 2014.) Sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg, like The Decemberists back at #14, have found a formula that works well for their unique talents. But the difference here is that their music is timeless. Rooted in country, theirs is not a new sound, but it’s not an old sound, either.

Voices like butter, harmonies like satin sheets, these two have been making hit after hit since they first started recording music back in 2007 when they were both still in their mid-teens. By sheer coincidence, the sisters’ younger brother was in kindergarten with the daughter of Fever Ray / The Knife’s Karin Dreijer Andersson, and mother Söderberg encouraged Dreijer to listen to her daughter’s songs on Myspace. Achieving popularity in Sweden came shortly after they signed and recorded with Dreijer’s music label, Rabid Records. But it wasn’t until Robin Pecknold, lead singer of Fleet Foxes, came across the sisters’ cover of his song “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” and subsequently discussed it on his own band’s webpage did the duo start to get international fame.

Listen to the song in the video above, for “It’s a Shame,” and you can see why these big name artists wanted to be attached to First Aid Kit. Put on the album and the difficulties of the day just slough off. There’s a couple more fun videos from this new album, for Rebel Heart and Fireworks. This band, and this record, will be one I listen to often probably for the rest of my life.

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11. Cocoa Sugar by Young Fathers
12. Loner by Caroline Rose
13. Big Red Machine by Big Red Machine
14. I’ll Be Your Girl by The Decemberists
15. The More I Sleep the Less I Dream by We Were Promised Jetpacks
16. Joy as an Act of Resistance by IDLES
17. Hell-On by Neko Case
18. Superorganism by Superorganism
19. Living in Extraordinary Times by James
20. Thank You for Today by Death Cab for Cutie
21. Black Panther: The Album by Kendrick Lamar
22. Suspiria (Music for the Luca Guadagnino Film) by Thom Yorke
23. Merrie Land by The Good, the Bad & the Queen
24. Room 25 by Noname
25. WARM by Jeff Tweedy
26. God's Favorite Customer by Father John Misty
27. Vessel by Frankie Cosmos
28. For Ever by Jungle
29. Twerp Verse by Speedy Ortiz
30. Remain in Light by Angélique Kidjo
31. This One’s for the Dancer & This One’s for the Dancer’s Bouquet by Moonface

Subscribe to the 2018 Bacon Top 31 Apple Music playlist
2009-2017 Top 31s

#26 on the 2018 Bacon Top 31 — Father John Misty

January 06, 2019 by Royal Stuart

God's Favorite Customer by Father John Misty

As the Bacon Top 31 is now in its tenth year, nearly every artist featured in the list has been discussed in previous years. Josh Tillman, aka Father John Misty, has been talked about directly (#14 in 2012, #6 in 2015, and #15 last year) and indirectly (Fleet Foxes at #9 in 2011, on whose album he was the drummer) for nearly the entire run of the Top 31. Throughout that time, Tillman, 37, has built up an ironic and iconic persona for himself that allows him a certain freewheeling stature in music, not unlike Dylan. But whereas Dylan had a straightforward-to-a-fault attack on the industry he was thriving in, Tillman’s Misty character is continually self- and industry-reflective, turning his hatred of the world inward and beating himself up for us all to see.

I really enjoyed what Tillman was doing with the Misty character on I Love You, Honeybear three years ago. With last year’s Pure Comedy things started to point downward, with Tillman’s difficult, story-driven narratives proving more and more obtuse. Now here we are with God’s Favorite Customer, and Tillman is at his worst (but still not bad, or else it wouldn’t appear here at all). Where Tillman’s previous Misty albums brought with them a level of humor and irony that made them stand out, God’s Favorite Customer lacks humor, and reveals more of (and drowns us in) Tillman’s neuroses.

Be that as it may, the music is still great, and well worth listening to if you’ve been a fan in the past. Where things continue to shine for Tillman is the visual representation of the music. The above video, for the song “Mr. Tillman” is dark in its self-exploration, and fascinatingly so. This song is the highlight of the album for me, and I’m glad the video works so well. Part of that is due to the team from the collective Little Ugly who created the video. Co-directed by Jeff Desom (co-creator of this insanely disturbing video for the band Health’s “Tears”) and Carlos Lopez Estrada (who created the equally disturbing video for Billie Eilish’s “When the Party’s Over”), these two directors are picking up the reigns dropped by video-auteur Chris Cunningham (creator of the most disturbing video of all time).

In addition to “Mr. Tillman,” four other videos have been made for the release of God’s Favorite Customer:

Beyond that, it’s also (surprisingly?) worth checking out the merch for sale on the Father John Misty site. The apparel, and the models wearing them, all tap into that particular humor / self-reflective irony that Tillman is so good at.

God’s Favorite Customer feels kinda “final” for me, in its apparent lack of humor. Maybe Tillman is growing tired of the persona, or bored. I can see the bones, but the skin he’s now living in just doesn’t have the staying power of his previous endeavors. Here’s to hoping the next one gets him (and us) back on track.

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27. Vessel by Frankie Cosmos
28. For Ever by Jungle
29. Twerp Verse by Speedy Ortiz
30. Remain in Light by Angélique Kidjo
31. This One’s for the Dancer & This One’s for the Dancer’s Bouquet by Moonface

Subscribe to the 2018 Bacon Top 31 Apple Music playlist
2009-2017 Top 31s

#12 on the 2017 Bacon Top 31

January 20, 2018 by Royal Stuart

Crack-Up by Fleet Foxes

Here we are at #12 with the album voted “most definitely” to appear on this year’s Top 31: Crack-Up. The Fleet Foxes have been one of my most-loved bands since they first appeared on my radar back in 2007. I’ve written so much about the band, I’m sure I don’t need to cover where they came from or who they are.

But what I can cover are where they’ve been. After touring extensively to promote 2011’s Helplessness Blues, the band’s #9 ranking second album, they seemingly broke up so that lead singer/songwriter Robin Pecknold could get his undergraduate degree at Columbia University. Imagine my excitement when, in March 2017, a new song came out of nowhere — the first single from their forthcoming third album, Crack-Up.

I devoured the song, listening to it on multiple repeats over the next week. It was a sprawling, 9+ minute epic called “Third of May / Ōdaigahara,” and while it had hints of the Fleet Foxes of old, the song felt deeper, wiser, as if having been the result of a great journey. Two months later, still having not heard the full album, I got to see the band play in the small-ish (for them) Showbox Market. Hearing those wonderful harmonies, and the new songs blended with the old, it brought all the love right back to the fore.

Then the album came out in June, and I’ve listened to it at least once a week since then. This is a work of art. Unlike the band’s previous work, there’s no real “hook” to these songs, so it does take a little while to catch you. But once it does, it won’t let go, seeping into your thoughts even when you’re not listening to it. Such is the magic of Fleet Foxes.

If you’re interested in hearing more from the album, I recommend this live set from KEXP, performed around when the new album came out. You’ll recognize everything you remember about them, but they’ve clearly aged. And I’ll be damned if it doesn’t look and sound good on them.

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13. Famous Last Words by The True Loves
14. Cry Cry Cry by Wolf Parade
15. Pure Comedy by Father John Misty
16. Shake the Shudder by !!!
17. La La Land (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by La La Land
18. The Underside of Power by Algiers
19. What Now by Sylvan Esso
20. 50 Song Memoir by The Magnetic Fields
21. Plunge by Fever Ray
22. DAMN. by Kendrick Lamar
23. Capacity by Big Thief
24. The Tourist by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
25. CCFX EP by CCFX
26. Woodstock by Portugal. The Man
27. MASSEDUCTION by St. Vincent
28. On the Spot by Hot 8 Brass Band
29. A Deeper Understanding by The War on Drugs
30. Planetarium by Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, & James McAlister
31. A Moment Apart by Odesza

Subscribe to the 2017 Top 31 Apple Music playlist
2009-2016 Top 31s

Fleet Foxes — Third of May / Ōdaigahara

March 08, 2017 by Royal Stuart

This is the first new Fleet Foxes music in six years. I’m not usually one to put lyric videos on the Bacon Review, but this being the Fleet Foxes, I’m making an exception. The song above, at nearly nine minutes long, is a bit rambling. But given I’d thought we’d heard the last of Robin Pecknold and crew, I don’t care. Their new album, Crack Up, comes out June 16 on Nonesuch.

#6 on the 2015 Bacon Top 31

December 26, 2015 by Royal Stuart

I Love You, Honeybear by Father John Misty

It took me a long time to claim I was a Father John Misty fan with a straight face. Don’t get me wrong, his music has always been great (his debut album was #14 on the 2012 Top 31). But he is clearly taking the piss of the entire indie rock music business with every move he makes. He makes me want to make excuses for everything I listen to.

Start with the name. Father John Misty is the stage name for Josh Tillman, formerly of the Fleet Foxes and many other projects, and it is clearly a put-on. Nobody picks that name and means it.

Secondly, his performance style is best described as “extreme crooner.” He prances around on stage, making love to his mic stand, throwing his head and his hips around, pointing at the audience — it’s all brilliantly funny, and makes his shows an absolute delight, but you can’t take it seriously.

Lastly, some of his lyrics are so ego-driven, so over-the-top, that it’s hard to get behind him. (Read my review of “The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apartment” from earlier this year for further explanation.)

But behind him I’ve now gotten, fully. He’s proven he’s not a flash in the pan, now with two phenomenal albums under his belt. Don’t let the song or video above sway you one way or the other. I suggest giving the album a full time through once or twice before passing judgment. It takes a little while to seep in, but once it does, you won’t want to let go.

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7. Sound & Color by Alabama Shakes
8. Another Eternity by Purity Ring
9. Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance by Belle and Sebastian
10. Return to the Moon by El Vy
11. Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording) by Lin-Manuel Miranda
12. Art Angels by Grimes
13. The Horse Comanche by Chadwick Stokes
14. Grace Love & the True Loves by Grace Love & the True Loves
15. Shake Shook Shaken by The dø
16. La Di Da Di by Battles
17. Sky City by Amason
18. What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World by The Decemberists
19. Untethered Moon by Built to Spill
20. Viet Cong by Viet Cong
21. The Magic Whip by Blur
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

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

December 28, 2012 by Royal Stuart

#4 on the 2012 Musical Bacon Calendar

Lion’s Roar by First Aid Kit

The album at #4 for the year also contains my #1 song of the year. I don’t tend to chart my favorite songs, as I’m very much an album listener over any one song on a record, but I have to make an exception for “Emmylou,” the second song on First Aid Kit’s lovely album Lion’s Roar. An ode to the beauty of famous country songwriter couples Graham Parsons & Emmylou Harris, Johnny & June Cash, the song feels like a fictionalized country & western past brought to life through drippingly sappy dual harmonies. It is gorgeous, and that song alone, shown in the video above, will make me think of 2012 more than any other song.

The album is equally breathtaking. These two Swedish sisters know how to craft a song. You may think you don’t like country music, but as cliché as it sounds, this isn’t anything like the country music you’ve tried hard not to hear before. I beg you to give this a listen, to hear the earnestness in their voices, the finger-picking and slide-playing guitars, those harmonies. Total beauty in recorded sound.

I got to see the band perform at the Croc back in April, and I wrote a long piece about the show over on Another Rainy Saturday:

First Aid Kit, sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg — 22 and 19 respectively — have been playing and performing together for a very long time. The first time I (and probably most everyone else at the show) heard them was in 2008, when they posted a video of the two of them beautifully singing Fleet Foxes’ “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song.” Unfortunately, I missed the release of their Karin Dreijer Andersson-produced EP, Drunken Trees, shortly after that video was posted, as well as their 2010 debut album, The Big Black & The Blue. But when I heard “Emmylou,” from their 2nd album The Lion’s Roar for the first time earlier this year, the memory of what I loved about that original video — the range of their amazing vocal talents — came rushing back.

There were some great little moments in that performance at the Croc that really sealed the deal for me on First Aid Kit:

For the song “Ghost Town,” from their debut album, they chose to do an experiment. Asking the crowd to get quiet, and the Croc to cut the loud fan hanging above, the sisters came out to the edge of the stage. Encouraging the crowd to sing along, and Johanna on an unplugged guitar, they proceeded to sing the song entirely mic-less. Their voices were strong enough to be heard over the crowd, quietly singing along with the chorus. It was gorgeous.

And also some rather big moments:

First Aid Kit’s songs make them appear wholesome and sheltered, even though this isn’t the first time they’ve been on a worldwide tour. But they managed to shatter that image with the performance of a single cover song, Patti Smith’s “Dancing Barefoot.” It was as if a new band had come out after a brief break. They were head banging, going a little wild with their instruments, and Klara, the younger of the two, did a great job with the spoken-word portion at the end of the song. It was raw, rough, and guttural — completely unlike the rest of the set.

Be sure to watch these other videos from the band: “Blue,” and “Wolf.” I’m going to be listening to this album for many many years to come. It comes with a built-in timelessness that will make it all the more easy to pick up at any time, in any era, and just bathe in it’s sound.

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5. Maraqopa by Damien Jurado
6. Shallow Bed by Dry The River
7. Valtari by Sigur Rós
8. The Heist by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
9. Heaven by The Walkmen
10. State Hospital EP by Frightened Rabbit
11. A Thing Called Divine Fits by Divine Fits
12. Some Nights by fun.
13. Tramp by Sharon van Etten
14. Fear Fun by Father John Misty
15. Love This Giant by David Byrne and St. Vincent
16. To The Treetops! by Team Me
17. The Master: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Jonny Greenwood
18. There’s No Leaving Now by The Tallest Man On Earth
19. Transcendental Youth by The Mountain Goats
20. A Church That Fits Our Needs by Lost In The Trees
21. Hospitality by Hospitality
22. Free Dimensional by Diamond Rings
23. History Speaks by Deep Sea Diver
24. A Different Ship by Here We Go Magic
25. Negotiations by the Helio Sequence
26. Moms by Menomena
27. The Sound of the Life of the Mind by Ben Folds Five
28. Shields by Grizzly Bear
29. Every Child A Daughter, Every Moon A Sun by The Wooden Sky
30. Fragrant World by Yeasayer
31. Reign of Terror by Sleigh Bells

What is the Bacon Calendar?

2011 Musical Bacon Calendar
2010 Musical Bacon Calendar
2009 Musical Bacon Calendar