The Last Goodbye by Odesza

One of the many reasons I like running my Top 31 in January rather than December is that it allows me to see where everyone else stands on their favorites of the year before settling on my own. It also gives me the chance to make sure I didn’t make any glaring errors (despite getting in my own way occasionally). Such is the case with Odesza, whose album The Last Goodbye made it all the way up at #14 this year. When I reviewed the KEXP Top 90.3 of 2022¹, and I saw that Odesza was #6, my first thought was “there’s a new Odesza album?”

The Last Goodbye, Odessa’s fourth album, and first in five years, came out in July 22, 2022, but I didn’t know that until I read about it on December 18. So I put it on, and didn’t really turn it off for quite a few days. It’s so good. The duo out of Bellingham, Washington, whose third album A Moment Apart was #31 in 2017, are predictable in their sound and predictably good with their output. Their reputation has started to precede them, as more and more stars appear to be flocking to their side to guest vocal their songs. Bettye LaVette, soul icon, sings on the title song. The Knocks perform with Odesza on “Love Letter” and Ólafur Arnalds features on the lovely “Light of Day,” shown above. (The video for “Light of Day” is gorgeous – don’t leave this page without having watched it).

Odesza are two men who met just before graduating from Western Washington University in 2012: Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight, whom I’ve just learned on wikipedia are known individually as “Catacombkid” and “BeachesBeaches”. Huh. Together, they make straight-up dance-beat techno that makes you want to move. Low lows, massive crescendos, and nothing but fun from end to end. The Last Goodbye is their best album so far, and I doubt it’ll be their last.

^{1. The KEXP Top 90.3 of the year is often a troublesome list because it is the result of thousands of people voting on their Top 10 albums of the year without ranking. Meaning the #1 album is merely determined by how many people put that album somewhere in their Top 10. If 15,000 people think an album is not their #1 album of the year, but it’s just barely good enough to make their Top 10, then that album still has a strong chance to land at #1 because everyone included it in their voting. Ah, democracy.↩})

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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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Full Album
All albums in their entirety.

Radio Station
A single song selection pulled from each album.

View all previous Bacon Top 31s

Happy new year! Here we are again, at the beginning of yet another Top 31.¹ 2017 was an exciting year for me, personally (I married my lovely wife in August, and together we have a beautiful daughter who was born in October).

Politically, 2017 felt like shit. It helps to think there have been many much worse years in American history, but it’s hard to keep that perspective when those worse years all came before I was politically aware.

Musically, the year felt muddled and off. There are many albums I discovered and enjoyed (well more than the 31 I’ll feature here), but overall it feels like there were no amazing albums in 2017. Part of that surely has to do with how busy I was personally, and how terrible things were politically. But I think it also has to do with how I discovered and listened to music. My Apple Music account allowed me to look at all the new releases every week and add any album to my active 2017 playlist, resulting in 111 2017 albums ending up in my music library (which is about 50% more albums than I typically listen to in a given year). That’s a lot of music to absorb in one year (3.7 days worth of music, to be exact).

I’ll be paying attention to my listening habits in 2018 to see if how I’m discovering and listening to music is affecting my opinion, or if the muddle lies in other, currently unknowable factors. I did manage to arrive at 31 favorites for the year. In some ways it was much easier to compile the Top 31, since I had so many more albums to choose from. And there’s even a #1 album. But first, we need to get through the 30 other albums I loved this year. Let’s get started, shall we?

A Moment Apart by Odesza

First up is an electronic duo out of Seattle you’ve probably heard of: Odesza. These two guys who met at Western have made quite a name for themselves in the past five years, going from obscurity to #3 on the US Pop chart in that short time. I hadn’t paid much attention to them or their two previous releases, but A Moment Apart caused me to sit up an listen intently.

The album has a few stellar guest appearances (including Regina Spektor). The song above, “Across the Room” features Leon Bridges, whose own album was #2 on the 2015 Top 31. I recommend watching this nice little documentary about the making of that song. A Moment Apart is fantastic from start to finish. It works best as background music, but beware: you’ll soon find yourself annoying the person next to you with your toe tapping toe and bouncing up and down.

And there we are — another year’s Top 31 is underway. I look forward to talking and listening with you over the next month as we count down to #1 together. Please share your own favorites when you can — I’d love to talk about them and compare with you.

^{1. In case you missed my note at the beginning of December, the Top 31 got pushed out a month this year (and will begin on January 1 in every future year). I’m glad I made this decision, as it allowed me to enjoy the holidays without concern about getting the next day’s post out, and to enjoy all of 2017’s music for the full year. But this also means I need to accommodate the last two months of 2016 that didn’t end up in last year’s countdown. So for those paying attention at home, this year’s countdown actually covers 14 months of music, from November 2016 through December 2017.↩}

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2009-2016 Top 31s

#14 on the 2022 Bacon Top 31 — Odesza

#31 on the 2017 Bacon Top 31