#11 on the 2019 Bacon Top 31 — TR/ST

The Destroyer (Parts 1 + 2) by TR/ST

Here’s another two-part album, each part released on a different date within 2019, similar to the Foals albums featured at #15. TR/ST, a musical “project” headed up by Canadian Robert Alfons, released The Destroyer (Part 1) in April, followed up by (Part 2) in November.

These albums are similar to the Foals albums only in release format. Alfons stays in the same general vicinity of goth-pop electronic music that Billie Eilish resides in, but with a hefty helping of deep dark and sultry vocals. The closest modern comparison I can make to TR/ST is somewhere in the Majical Cloudz / Alt-J realm, both of whom have appeared on the Top 31 a combined numerous times. Outside of that, you’d have to go back a lot further for true comparisons; think Bauhaus, or maybe Depeche Mode.

Those connections are probably why I love it so much. Goth music was where my head was mostly at back in the 90s, and The Destroyer (Part 2) hits on all those lovely, drippy black tones for me. “Iris,” featured in the video above, is the first song I heard the band (via the always-great and Seattle’s own KEXP 90.3 FM), and it was love at first listen. The rest of (Part 2) doesn’t disappoint. It’s worth noting that (Part 1) doesn’t evoke that same feeling in me, but it’s nonetheless a great album. I recommend starting with (Part 2) and then working your way backwards.

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12. When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? by Billie Eilish
13. Cheap Queen by King Princess
14. Anima by Thom Yorke
15. Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Parts 1 + 2 by Foals
16. Gallipoli by Beirut
17. My Finest Work Yet by Andrew Bird
18. Four of Arrows by Great Grandpa
19. Designer by Aldous Harding
20. Norman Fucking Rockwell! by Lana Del Rey
21. Our Pathetic Age by DJ Shadow
22. Juice B Crypts by Battles
23. Pony by Orville Peck
24. Hyperspace by Beck
25. Eraserland by Strand of Oaks
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

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2009-2018 Top 31s

#17 on the 2014 Bacon Top 31

This is All Yours by Alt-J

[Above video is NSFW] I didn’t think the band at #17 would be able to stand the test of time. I thought Alt-J had worked five years to put together one awesome album (which made it all the way up to #2 on the 2012 Top 31) and then they’d fizzle out. I even mentioned the band in the 2013 Top 31 when talking about Majical Cloudz, saying:

…in a year, I’ll look back and laugh to myself at the fact that [some albums are] on the countdown at all, kinda like I did a couple weeks ago when I discovered that I’d put Alt-J at #2 on the Calendar last year.

I had all but written them off. And they had to go and prove me wrong. This is All Yours, their second album, is as good as their first in many ways, better than their first in a handful of ways as well. It sounds less quirky than the first, but somehow manages to build on what was started, making an even more bold statement. They managed to take all that was good about the first album and expand outward, breaking new ground while creating something wholly “Alt-J” sounding.

The vocals are unmistakable. The tones of the instruments being played all sound familiar. Yet there are 14 new songs here for your enjoyment. Here’s another video from the new album, this time for the song “Hunger of the Pine.” (It’s also kinda NSFW, but for violence, not nudity.) If you liked Alt-J’s first album, you’ll love this one. I promise.

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18. Brill Bruisers by The New Pornographers
19. Only Run by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
20. Augustines by Augustines
21. El Pintor by Interpol
22. I Never Learn by Lykke Li
23. Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes by Thom Yorke
24. The Voyager by Jenny Lewis
25. Voices by Phantogram
26. Morning Phase by Beck
27. Hungry Ghosts by OK Go
28. Run the Jewels 2 by Run the Jewels
29. Cosmos by Yellow Ostrich
30. Teeth Dreams by The Hold Steady
31. With Light & With Love by Woods

2009-2013 Top 31s

#19 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

Impersonator by Majical Cloudz

I really wanted to hate this band, based on its name alone. Majical Cloudz? That’s the best you could come up with? And the PR push behind this album was so overbearing — it came up as the ad leading into all YouTube videos I watched for what felt like a 3-month span earlier this year — that added to my desire to not want to like them. But then I’d hear them on KEXP. Or maybe because I heard that one song in the ads SO many times it seared onto my brain and I just had to check them out.

Either way, here we are at #19, with a band and an album I actively wanted to dislike and couldn’t. I’m fairly certain you won’t like them. It takes a certain kind of person to tolerate this sort of stark emotion. If you’re a fan of James Blake, you might give Majical Cloudz a shot — but be prepared to go deep and long. There is no light, no happiness, no serendipity in this music.

Majical Cloudz is a duo from Montreal, comprised of Devon Welsh (singing and writing) and Matthew Otto (producing). The band was originally a solo project of Welsh’s. Otto joined him on an EP before collaborating with Welsh on Impersonator, his 2nd full-length album. I have not heard any of the prior material, and I’m not very compelled to go check it out.

I’m sorry. This review is terrible. Here’s an album I clearly like, at least well enough to put it in the top 20 of the year, yet can’t bring myself to admit to it. Part of me feels like this music won’t stand up to time. That in a year, I’ll look back and laugh to myself at the fact that it’s on the countdown at all, kinda like I did a couple weeks ago when I discovered that I put Alt-J at #2 on the Calendar last year. But that’s how music is. Some of it is fleeting, some of it sticks around. If you can figure out why that is, you’d be a rich man.

While you’re thinking about that, listen to some Majical Cloudz. They might point you in the right direction.

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20. Dream Cave by Cloud Control
21. Mole City by Quasi
22. Phantogram by Phantogram
23. Julia With Blue Jeans On by Moonface
24. Uncanney Valley by The Dismemberment Plan
25. Event II by Deltron 3030
26. Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello and The Roots
27. Us Alone by Hayden
28. Pure Heroine by Lorde
29. Shaking the Habitual by The Knife
30. False Idols by Tricky
31. Let’s Be Still by The Head and the Heart

2012 Musical Bacon Calendar
2011 Musical Bacon Calendar
2010 Musical Bacon Calendar
2009 Musical Bacon Calendar

Quite interested in Majical Cloudz (I’m sorry, but really?! “Majical Cloudz”? Ugh.), whose second album Impersonator came out back in May. I haven’t listened to anything else of theirs, but based on this song they sound very much in the same realm as James Blake. I’ll now go listen to the album and report back.