#1 on the 2023 Bacon Top 31 — boygenius

January 31, 2024 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

the record by boygenius

“Give me everything you’ve got”: the first words you hear, sung in glorious three-part harmony by Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus. And “everything” is exactly what boygenius, the group formed by these three already-plenty-accomplished singer-songerwriters, has given us. Ladies and gentlemen, the record by boygenius is the Bacon Review #1 album of 2023.

You have likely heard of these three — each of the individual most recent albums from Baker, Bridgers, and Dacus have appeared in past Top 31s (Little Oblivions at #6 in 2021, Punisher at #2 in 2020, and Home Video at #23 in 2021, respectively (but none of their earlier albums because I had my head in the ground, apparently). And while I do love the music from each of them individually, there is something “super” about the music produced by this supergroup.

I first fell in love with boygenius on their self-titled 6-song 2018 EP. The three women met while Bridgers and Dacus both opened for Baker on separate tours in 2016, and joked about the “pipe dream” of the three of them forming a band. They booked a co-headlining tour in 2018, and sat down to write one new song that they all could perform together on stage. The EP came out of that initial energy, written, recorded and produced in four days. While the EP was well-received, it didn’t appear on the Top 31 that year because I had stupid restrictions about what could make it onto the list, and EPs didn’t qualify. ¹

As time went on, signs were pointing to them doing something more together. All three performed on each others’ 2020 and 2021 albums mentioned above, contributing mostly backing vocals to a handful of songs. And then in late 2021 they performed together as boygenius again at a benefit show in San Francisco. They separated throughout 2022 to allow themselves to headline on their individual tours to promote their Covid-released albums from the years prior. In the fall of 2022 they got back together and secretly recorded what would become the record. The official announcement of the album came on January 18, with a release of the trio of tracks, “$20,” “Emily I’m Sorry,” and “True Blue” as the lead singles from the album. (the film, featured above, is the accompanying video that was released a couple months later. Directed by actress-cum-director Kristen Stewart, it focuses on each of the three women on the song in which they were the lead writer on: Baker, Bridgers, then Dacus.)

The pre-release hype continued to build with the release of a fourth single, “Not Strong Enough,” along with an accompanying video shot by the three singers and edited by Bridgers’ brother Jackson (who also directed the video that features Bridgers for The National’s “Your Mind Is Not Your Friend,” mentioned in yesterday’s #2 album review). All four singles were instant, ear-worm classics, on repeat in the Bacon Review home up until March 31 when the record finally saw full release. It was an easy transition from listening to the four singles back to back, to listening to the full album on repeat, and it continues through to today.

Each individually known for their command of deep, emotive lyrics, and each with their own singing / vocal style, the record plays well to their strengths. Some songs have a clear lead throughout, with the other two women singing harmonies. And some songs, such as “Not Strong Enough”² and “Cool About It” (and it’s great animated video) feature each singer separately taking a verse or bridge all to themselves. Their voices are distinct between them – Bridgers higher and raspier, Baker full-bodied, and Dacus lower with all the edges filed down.

Not only did I love this album,³ it resonated well with my family, and that always factors into what gets played in the household. One of the beauties of this album in particular is my son, who is fifteen and has broken free from my musical clutches to form his own tastes, came to me one day and asked “have you heard of boygenius?” I’d be hard-pressed to find a parenting moment as rewarding as having my child discover a band himself and love it independent of my direct influence (while clearly having been indirectly influenced by living under my roof for 15 years).

There are many moments in this album where the lyrics are so heartfelt and gorgeous, paired with the perfect rise in volume or culmination in instrumentation that it causes chills. The chorus of “True Blue” (“and it feels good to be known so well, I can’t hide from you like I hide from myself”). The third verse of “Cool About It” (with its interpolation of Paul Simon’s “The Boxer” so strong they thanked him for the inspiration on the liner notes), that goes “Once, I took your medication to know what it’s like, and now I have to act like I can‘t read your mind.”

The climax of “$20” is particularly brilliant, with Baker on lead singing “Gas, out of time, out of money, you’re doing what you can, just making it run” while Dacus sings “Take a break, make your escape, there‘s only so much I can” and Bridgers slowly repeating “Can you give me twenty dollars” over and over building to a screaming crescendo. Each of their voices weave in and out, all layers and words, yet entirely distinct to the careful listener.

None of the members of boygenius are yet 30. While I can’t say for sure there will be more songs/albums to come from the band, they each have literal decades in front of them to continue to blow us away. From what I’ve seen, the tour videos, and the instagram posts, the three of them have been having a blast writing and performing together. It feels impossible that they won’t be able to figure out how to keep that energy going well into the future. Maybe they’re establishing a pattern – get together, record and tour, then break for some solo replenishing, only to reconvene four years later. Or maybe they’ve truly given us everything they’ve got. We’ll continue to get solo music from each of them for sure, so if we’ve gotten all the boygenius songs we’ll ever get, the ep, the record, and the rest, would be more than enough.

^{1. You can watch their Tiny Desk Concert or their Live on KEXP performance if you’d like a little snippet of what they all sounded like 5+ years ago.↩}
^{2. Watch their SNL performance from November, backed by their all-girl band, to see how this plays out across “Not Strong Enough.” Baker taking the “Always an angel, never a god” bridge to its full climax is awe inspiring.↩}
^{3. The band released an additional EP in October, called the rest. It featured four slower songs recorded during the sessions for the record. “The Voyager” from the rest is particularly great, featuring additional writing from Conor Oberst.↩}

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#2 on the 2023 Bacon Top 31 — The National

January 30, 2024 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

First Two Pages of Frankenstein and Laugh Track by The National

The National are back near the top of the Top 31, surprising no one. Unbelievably, it’s been four years since they released their last album, the fantastic I Am Easy To Find, in 2019 (#6 that year). Granted, a lot of non-music stuff happened in those ensuing years (remember Covid?). Additionally, a lot of tangential work to The National came out during this period of “down time”: Taylor Swift’s Aaron Dessner-produced albums folklore and evermore came out in 2020 (#4 that year); lead singer Matt Berninger released his solo album, Serpentine Prison, that same year (#8); Aaron Dessner’s not-a-band-but-more-a-“project” collaboration with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver called Big Red Machine released How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? in 2021 (#2)¹ 2022 was the only year in that four-year span that lacked music to fill the massive void left by having no new album by the National.

The band has made up for that time by releasing two great new albums in 2023, First Two Page of Frankenstein on April 28, and Laugh Track on September 18. These two albums more than make up for “lost” time. The band prepared us fans for Frankenstein by putting out four singles between January 18 and the album’s release three months later. Laugh Track, on the other hand, was a complete surprise (aside from the inclusion of Bon Iver collaboration, “Weird Goodbyes,” which was originally released in August 2022).

The National have been long-time staples here on the Bacon Review. Including the albums mentioned above, they’ve always produced music that has been in my Top 10: Sleep Well Beast was #4 in 2017, Trouble Will Find Me was #2 in 2013, and High Violet inadvertently prevented all future albums from defaulting into the top spot by being #1 in 2010.

Where Easy To Find was a true departure for the band, seeing Berlinger relinquish the lead-singer role to a bevy of female guest stars on a number of songs, Frankenstein and Laugh Track are a return to form, quintessential National albums. There are some repeat guest stars here (the aforementioned Justin Vernon, and Sufjan Stevens), and some new great ones as well. Phoebe Bridgers sings beautiful harmonies on three songs across the two albums. Rosanne Cash shows up on “Crumble” from Laugh Track. And by far the biggest name, the Taylor Swift, joins Berlinger on the absolutely perfect duet called “The Alcott” on Frankenstein. After having spent a long time singing the Vernon/Swift duet “Exile” from her album folklore, I am glad my 6-year-old daughter and I have a Berninger/Swift duet to sink our teeth into for Car Karaoke²

Check out the video above, for “Your Mind is Not Your Friend,” one of the songs Phoebe Bridgers is on. The band have released a number of other nice music videos from the two albums, but this one, directed by Bridgers’ brother Jackson, really gets to the heart of what makes the band special. Over National-trademarked Sad Dad lyrics about trying to pull yourself out of depression, Matt Berninger and his brother Tom cavort around comically. Tom shows the depressive side of Matt’s lyrics literally, moping around and being sad, and Matt portrays the happy side of his brain, with flowers attached to his suit as he leads Tom around a park playground. Bridgers makes a brief appearance, appearing in the playground to take her character’s baby away from the grown men playing on the structures. That’s The National to a tee: cathartic depression. And that’s why I love them.

You can watch the rest of the videos they’ve released, too:

“Eucalyptus”
“Dreaming”
“Laugh Track” featuring Phoebe Bridgers
“Alphabet City”
“Deep End (Paul’s in Pieces)”
“Space Invader”

These are The National’s ninth and tenth albums in 24 years. It is now officially impossible to say any one of those albums is their best, as the answer will shift from day to day. No other band in my lifetime has been able to put out as much consistently great music as these five men have. Every new album they put out, I feel “whelp, this must be it, no way they can keep up this pace,” and every time I’m proven wrong. Who knows what’s next for the band? Whatever it is, it will be amazing.

^{1. Dessner produced Ed Sheeran’s 2023 album, _–_ (otherwise known as “Subtract”), which I’m listening to for the first time as I’m writing these words – too late to include in the Top 31, and too early to say if I would have even tried to include it. If it’s anything like his collaboration with Taylor Swift, I’ll have made a huge mistake not hearing it earlier. (Update – still listening, but struggling. In Swift’s Dessner-produced albums, there’s an easily recognizable Dessner influence. Despite him having touched every song on Sheeran’s album, Ed’s voice and lyrics pull things far enough away from anything related to The National that I lose the thread entirely.)↩}
^{2. If you want a real thrill as a parent, sing fantastic songs as a duet with them on repeat while driving around town. Rarely can I get through “The Alcott” with my daughter without choking up.↩}

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#7 on the 2022 Bacon Top 31 — SZA

January 25, 2023 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

SOS by SZA

You won’t find the amazing album at #7 on my list on any other Top Albums of 2022 lists, but not because you’ve not heard of it. It’s because it came out on December 9, right when all the prominent music magazines and blogs were already publishing their best-of lists. This album likely won’t appear on any of those lists at the end of 2023, either, because it would be strange to feature an album that came out in 2022 in a Best of 2023 list. It took me a few years of compiling my own Top 31 lists to figure it out: if your album comes out in December, or really even in November, it will be hard or impossible to rank it in any meaningful way. So compilers of lists are left with either making a wild assumption (“I’ve heard this album for a day, it’s definitely better than X number of albums already considered the best this year”), a flat out guess (“Two songs have been released from this album that is supposed to come out in the next week. It will be better than these X albums”), or simply not listing them at all. That’s the only option for any reputable publication.

Or you can do what I do: wait until the year is, you know, complete before ranking the albums from the full year. Or maybe just call your list “The Top 50 albums from the first 11 months of 2022.” Delaying like I do is still not perfect — an artist releases an album on December 30, chances are I’m not going to hear it or be able to include it in my Top 31. I’m not sure what drove the decision to release the long-awaited SZA album on December 9, but I have to believe it was a calculated business decision. So much business is wrapped up in a SZA release, there are lots of players, weighing lots of options, and I suppose making it onto the Best Of lists is not how the money is made. I just checked, and this album has been #1 on the Billboard charts (meaning it has sold more than any other album) for the last five weeks (that’s the last 2 weeks of December, and the first 3 of 2023).

So, clearly people are finding SOS, SZA’s 2nd full-length album, and first since her 2017 debut, Ctrl, despite it not appearing on any end-of-year lists. But at least it’s appearing on my list. I can feel confident in the exceedingly modest number of streams I’ll have been personally responsible for for the megastar. At just over an hour long, this album is jam packed with 23 amazing songs spread across numerous genres, from R&B to hip hop, pop to grunge. Rather than feeling like the work of a single artist, it plays more like a really good Top 40 yet commercial-free radio station, cycling through the hits of the day¹.

SZA, whose full name is Solána Imani Rowe, was born in St. Louis. Despite having only two full length records to her name, she is an international pop sensation who has been making popular music for the last 10+ years. She connected early with the likes of Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar, and while I’m confident her songwriting prowess and phenomenal voice would have propelled her to stardom eventually, having the door opened by those two can‘t hurt. My first taste of SZA came on the Black Panther soundtrack (#21 in 2018). The duet she sings with Lamar, “All My Stars,” is the best song on that album, in no small part because of the powerful chorus led by SZA. I didn’t listen to Ctrl, although I wish I had.

The best comparison I can make for this SZA release is to Frank Ocean’s Blonde (#4 in 2016). Like SOS, Blonde bounces all over the place, has strange digital artifacts thrown in throughout, and is a fantastic hip hop / R&B-based album. If you loved that album like I do, you will love SOS like I do.

Rumors and announcements about the release of SOS came out as early as 2019. A mix of pandemic buying patterns, production shifts, and a massive outpouring of talent from SZA herself no doubt slowed up the release all the way to nearly missing 2022 entirely. A few singles had been released well before the album came out. “Good Days,” was the first to be released, in 2020, a great song whose video features SZA as a dancing mushroom² (I’m not sure what business decisions forced the single that preceded this one, the great “Hit Different,” was not included on the SOS release.) The next single, “I Hate U,” came out in December 2021, just over a year prior to the release of the album, and with a video starring LaKeith Stanfield. The official version of her song “Shirt,” was released as a single just over a month prior to the album release. The video stars SZA alongside LaKeith Stanfield, in a bloody shoot-em-up video, a la Quentin Tarantino. On January 6, SZA released the single for my favorite song on the album, “Nobody Gets Me,” which is eerily reminiscent of Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You,” and probably why I like it so much. And finally, SZA released the single for “Kill Bill,” on January 10, 2023. The video is amazing in its ability to recreate key scenes from the pair of movies, recast with SZA in the seminal Uma Thurman role.

My favorite non-single from the album is “Ghost in the Machine,” on which Bacon Review favorite Phoebe Bridgers (#3 in 2020) sings along with SZA. Bridgers and SZA are similar in a couple key aspect: they’re not shy about guest starring on someone else’s song; and they make any song they appear on better. I will (and have) go out of my way to track down “with SZA” or ”…Bridgers” songs, and am continually rewarded for doing so. As long as they keep producing their own songs, I’m all for them spreading the love around.

I’ve written more than enough about this album. If you’re not convinced by now, there’s nothing else I can say that will sway you. Listen to this album, all 67 minutes of it. You’ll see.

^{1. There is exactly one song I cannot stand on the album. I’m such a dedicated fan of the form, I don’t usually single out any one song and say “this is not for me, I’m skipping it.” The song in question is the lone rock pop song, “F2F,” which SZA wrote with Bacon Review favorite Lizzo (#1 in 2019). Check it out for yourself, but you’ve been warned.↩}
^{2. As I write this, we’re two episodes into the great new HBO series The Last of Us, and seeing SZA as a mushroom here gives me entirely different feelings than it would have two weeks ago.↩}

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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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#17 on the 2022 Bacon Top 31 — Andrew Bird

January 15, 2023 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Inside Problems by Andrew Bird

My love for the artist at #17 this year comes in waves. Andrew Bird, the venerable singer/songwriter with the melodic voice and vibrato-laden whistle, has been releasing music under his own name for 27 years. According to wikipedia, Inside Problems is his 18th release, with and without his backing band “Bowl of Fire” (disbanded in 2003).

Bird has been on my radar since his sixth album, The Mysterious Production of Eggs. The handful of albums immediately following that were a bit all over the place while he worked on defining where he wanted to land. (Noble Beast his eighth album, was #22 in 2009) Thankfully, over the last decade he’s been settling into the “consistently great” phase of his career. Inside Problems is Bird’s fifth appearance on the Top 31 (#5 in 2016, #17 in 2019, and #21 last year).

Bird works an easy-going humor into his lyrics, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, sometimes blatant. Equally adept at playing the violin with a bow and plucking it like a ukulele, Bird is a virtuoso sonically but also physically. He’s gotten so comfortable in front of the camera, he’s started acting. He had a recurring role as a troubled father in season 4 of Fargo back in 2020. I could watch him eat a peanut butter & jelly sandwich with rapt attention.

His music videos reflect that same ease in control. In the video for “Make a Picture,” he’s singing directly into the camera, animatedly bouncing through the lyrics while he attempts to photograph cats of all sizes in a bare studio. There’s another video for the same song, a take on a lyric video, and rather than Bird being the animated one, the lyrics from the song, broken across many different languages, move a flow around the stoic, slightly confused Bird, still walking around that bare studio. Be sure to also check out the video for “Atomized” shown above, also from the studio. Bird must have spent the full day, maybe more, in that studio. In addition to the three videos mentioned above, he also released a 20-minute meditation that illuminates the deeper meaning behind the album’s title.

In addition to releasing the excellent Inside Problems in June, Bird put out a non-album single called “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain.” He and Phoebe Bridgers (#3 in 2020) trade off throughout the song, creating a gorgeously haunting duet, singing the Emily Dickinson poem of the same name. “I came across this Emily Dickinson poem and found it to be the most vivid description of an inner world I’ve ever encountered. It became an inspiration for the songs on Inside Problems. Who better to sing it with than Phoebe Bridgers? I sent her a demo, and so here we are. Thanks to Ms. Dickinson’s publisher at Harvard University Press for allowing us to use this poem. As I understand, her poems weren’t published as she intended them until the 1950s — that is, without the heavy hand of her male editors.” If it were on the album, this song would be my favorite on it. I’m so glad he didn’t wait until the next album to release it.

If you’ve not been able to get into Andrew Bird up to now, there’s no time like the present. Inside Problems isn’t his best (see 2016’s Are You Serious for that), but it’s likely his most approachable, without a bad track on it. Enjoy.

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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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#6 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Julien Baker

January 26, 2022 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Little Oblivions by Julien Baker

I’ve done a great disservice to the artist here at #6. Little Oblivions is the third album by singer/songwriter Julien Baker, yet it’s the first of her’s to appear on the Top 31. I’ve enjoyed her previous album, 2017’s Turn Out the Lights, but it came out mere days before I put together my list for 2017, and so it consequently missed inclusion. And don’t even ask about her debut, 2015’s Sprained Ankle.

I’ve mentioned Baker a couple times in other reviews, as she’s quite chummy with Lucy Dacus (#23 this year) and Phoebe Bridgers (#3 last year). The three of them teamed up as boygenius on an ep back in 2018, and left us begging for more. If you’re a fan of any of those three, you’re a fan of all three. But each has their own voice and spin on where they take the role of “honest and fucked up.”

Of the three, Baker’s voice is strongest. Where Bridgers is delicate, and Dacus is smooth, Baker is wrought. Self-doubt, suicidal tendencies, and alcoholism are common refrains in Baker’s songs, all dripping with the raw emotion that proves she’s lived every bit of it. And there’s so much power behind it all, too. Baker can (and often does) take a song from a quiet, intimate moment to a literal screaming-at-the-top-of-your-lungs crescendo, you’ll find yourself losing your voice singing along on the way to the grocery store.

Little Oblivions is much more rock band-oriented than her two previous albums. There’s a sparseness to her earlier work that has been shed for a more traditional guitar/bass/keyboard/drums setup, all performed by Baker. Baker plays nearly all the instruments on her albums - just like Prince. Baker, 26, has established herself as a true musical force in her 10+ years as a recording artist. She hasn’t hit Billie Eilish levels of popularity, but there’s a sincerity to her music that Eilish lacks, along with a distinct, pleasing absence of pop hooks. In addition to the fantastic song “Faith Healer,” shown in the video above, check out the awesome stop-motion animated video for “Hardline” as well.

Do yourself a favor and get aboard the Julien Baker train. We’ve already left the station, but if you start now you can catch up to us by the next station. All aboard!

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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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#7 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Snail Mail

January 25, 2022 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Valentine by Snail Mail

At 22 years old, Lindsey Jordan has accomplished more than most. She’s released a critically-acclaimed debut album under her solo project name Snail Mail (2018’s Lush). She’s moved out and moved back in with her parents (thanks, Covid-19). And she’s released an even more widely acclaimed sophomore Snail Mail album, the exquisite Valentine, dropping in here at #7.

There are many comparisons to draw from when trying to quantify Jordan’s music. THere’s the inevitable comparisons to Hole, or Juliana Hatfield. And anything she does wouldn’t have been possible without the existence of Liz Phair. Today, I talk about Snail Mail in the same breath as King Princess, Lucy Dacus, and Phoebe Bridgers. But none of these do her sound justice.

Her voice is more breathy, as if she’s on the verge of losing it. The songs go from slow ballads about relationships on their last legs, to groovy songs about recovery (according to Pitchfork she did a stint in rehab in November, 2020), to hard rock surprises like the title song shown in the video above.

I liked her debut album, but connected with it too late to include on the 2018 Top 31. Lush feels less polished, less experienced than Valentine. But if you like the song in the video above, then you’ll really connect with Lush, as that album is the more hard rock of the two she’s put together. Despite billing herself as a solo act, she has a full band performing behind her lead vocals and guitars. Bass, keyboards, drums, rhythm guitar, and backing vocals are all there. And even some guest stars: last year’s #1 on the Top 31, Katie Crutchfield (aka Waxahatchee) sings background vocals on “Ben Franklin” (the aforementioned song about recovery – watch the video).

As I mentioned, Jordan is only 22 years old. There’s a lot more ahead for her, and I’m anxious to see where she heads. The growth seen between albums one and two was huge. The next album has got to be even better.

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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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#14 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Arlo Parks

January 18, 2022 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Collapsed in Sunbeams by Arlo Parks

There’s a good chance you’ve heard the artist here at #14, even if you can’t name her. Arlo Parks and her fantastic debut album, Collapsed in Sunbeams, are seemingly everywhere and on everyone’s lips. The album is littered with sweet, approachable, soulful R&B, primed and ready to be the pleasant background for many a musical movie montage.

Arlo Parks is 21 years old, a number so low it proves she has no legitimate right to be as talented as she is. And yet. The London-born singer/songwriter, whose full name is Anaïs Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho, has accomplished a ton in her short career. She started releasing original music in 2018. In 2019 she released two EPs, and the right peoples’ ears started to perk up. She collaborated with Glass Animals and Phoebe Bridgers, both of whom appeared prominently on past Top 31s. Continuing unabated on her upward trajectory and outpouring of creativity, she wrote 12 more songs and unleashed Collapsed in Sunbeams on the world, and quickly won the 2021 Mercury Prize for Album of the Year. I won’t be surprised when she walks away as Best New Artist at the upcoming 2022 Grammys.

It was difficult picking the right video to feature above, as she’s created quite a few for the album:

“Too Good,” above
“Hope”
“Caroline”
“Green Eyes”
“Hurt”
“Black Dog”

The album feels almost too perfect. The production is immaculate. The beats sublime. And the lyrics never offend. It’s sometimes hard to tell one song from the next, and it carries an air of temporariness to it – something that will burn bright and then flame out quickly. That may be a good thing, forcing Marinho to explore further depths, uncover more layers. In the meantime I’ll enjoy Collapse, and anxiously await what comes next.

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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

There are many ways to listen to the 2021 Bacon Top 31. Subscribe now and enjoy the new albums / songs as the countdown is completed!

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#23 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Lucy Dacus

January 09, 2022 by Royal Stuart

Home Video by Lucy Dacus

Lucy Dacus has a gorgeous voice, soft and warm like a fresh-from-the-dryer flannel. She’s been on my radar since her debut album, No Burden, came out about five years ago. Natively from Virginia, the Philadelphia-based singer/songwriter has been slowly sinking her songs into my mind ever since. That pace quickened with her involvement in boygenius, the supergroup she formed with Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers back in 2018 (still waiting for a full-length from the trio…).

Home Video, Dacus’s third full-length, finally packed enough punch to push herself to the front of the queue and land her on the Bacon Top 31. Over the past few years, she’s managed to hit a level of intimacy and directness with her songwriting that is in direct contrast to the smooth beauty of her voice. The influences of Baker and Bridgers are clear (they each appear on the album on a handful of songs). But I also hear less likely influences, like Neko Case, St. Vincent, and Sharon van Etten. If any of those names are favorites of yours, you need to add Lucy Dacus to your list.

As part of the promotion for Home Video, Dacus appeared on the Song Exploder podcast. If you’re not familiar, Song Exploder, created and hosted by Hrishikesh Hirway, is great: artists come on and go into deep detail around a song of theirs – how it came into being, how it was performed and recorded in the studio, what it means to them, etc. The particular brilliance of the podcast is that Hirway mostly edits himself asking the artist questions out of the podcast. This leaves us, the listener, with the artist having a direct, seemingly 1-on-1 conversation with us, describing their songs in intimate detail.

For her episode, Dacus talked about “Thumbs,” my absolute favorite song on the album. This song is a gut punch. Hearing how it came together and how personal it is to Dacus is amazing. Even if the album on the whole isn’t your bag, I don’t see how you can’t love this song, and I recommend listening to the podcast just to hear it.

Pfffft. There’s no way this whole album isn’t your bag.

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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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#3 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Phoebe Bridgers

January 29, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers

The “sophomore slump” has been a real and documentable phenomenon. I don’t know how many bands I’ve lost interest in after the excitement of their first album failed to reappear in their second. But apparently Phoebe Bridgers believes the slump to be mere sophistry, as her phenomenal sophomore (see what I did there) album, Punisher, is a noticeable improvement over her very good by any measure 2017 debut album Stranger in the Alps. I’m still kicking myself for having paid attention to that album too late for it to make the 2017 Top 31, but I’m so glad I didn’t miss the boat on Punisher.

The laziest way for me to describe to you Bridgers’ music is via these three words: “female Sufjan Stevens.” Throughout the album, Bridgers undersells the power of her voice, singing at just above a whisper. Her tone is that of a delicate flower, fragrant and beautiful. But like Stevens at his best, she punctures that quietness in calculated bursts, wielding her power like a dagger hidden in an ankle holster. The production of her music places the mic close to the fingers on her guitar, so you hear every movement and pluck, and filled out with key strings and slide guitars and ever-so-perfect digital wisps layered on top. It’s lush, a valley of cool breezes and wildflowers.

It’s the stark changes, however, that truly remind me of Sufjan. “ICU” is a loud, digitally-infused rock song about breaking up with her boyfriend. “Now I can’t even get you to play the drums, ’Cause I don’t know what I want until I fuck it up.” He remains the drummer in her band, despite the scenes described in the song. “I Know the End,” my favorite song on the album, starts out simply enough, quietly describing the depression that comes from constant touring. But then it builds, and builds some more, in a Sufjan-esque way, to a beautiful cacophony of screams and noise. The song ends with Bridgers endearingly mimicking the sound of a stadium crowd screaming.

Even though she’s only been in the music business since around 2014, she’s worked with and performed with a crazy amount of top artists you know. She joined forces with Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus to form Boygenius, who released an EP in 2018. And then she and Conor Oberst released an album as Better Obvlivion Community Center in 2019, all three of whom appear at various points on Punisher as well. She has performed many times with Matt Berninger and The National, most recently in 2020 when she appeared in Zach Galifianakis’s feature length movie “Between Two Ferns” as the lead singer of the fake band Phoebe Bridgers and The Spiders from Bars, with Berninger and two members of The Walkmen as the Spiders.

Bridgers, whose middle name is Lucille (which I love), was 25 when Punisher came out on June 18, a day early, like so many other albums that were released early in response to the global unrest caused by the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. She is politically outspoken and uses her platform to call attention to causes she believes in, and by choosing to release her album early she pushed her fans to donate to racial justice charities and called for the abolition of police. Additionally, she actively campaigned for Biden/Harris, vowing to cover Goo Goo Dolls’ massive hit “Iris” should Trump lose. She recorded the song with Maggie Rogers and released it on November 13.

Bridgers has released a number of great videos from the album. “Savior Complex,” shown above, was directed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (a favorite of mine – go watch “Fleabag” right now if you haven’t seen it) and stars Paul Mescal (who starred in my favorite show of 2020, “Normal People.” It’s brilliant, go watch it right after you watch “Fleabag.”) “I Know the End” is cryptic, but since it’s my favorite song I’ll give it a pass. “Kyoto” and “Garden Song” were filmed just as the pandemic was taking hold, created in a necessarily lo-fi way.

If you’re like me, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do in the world of Phoebe Bridgers. Don’t sit on it — if she keeps up the rate at which she’s producing music, you’ll be permanently left behind, and we simply can’t have that.

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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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#8 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Matt Berninger

January 24, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Serpentine Prison by Matt Berninger

Matt Berninger may very well be my favorite performer, ever. If you’ve been following The Bacon Review for the last 11+ years, then there’s a good chance you’d know this already, given how much prominence the lead singer of The National has been allotted over the years. Including his main band’s appearances on the Top 31 (four times: #6 2019, #4 in 2017, #3 in 2013, and #1 in 2010), his side project, El Vy (#10 in 2015), and Berninger’s appearances in other performers’ albums (such as Chvrches and CYHSY), the man has been mentioned nearly every year that the countdown has existed.

I mention this history because it plays a big part in how I listen to and quantify the new stuff he puts out. It’s not just “how does this music compare to everything else this year?” but also “where within all the music of his that I love does this rate?” Never an easy question, and it inevitably changes over time. For instance, while The National’s High Violet ranked #1 in 2010, I don’t consider it the best amongst the four albums the band has on the countdown. (That honor currently goes to 2013’s Trouble Will Find Me. Ask me again tomorrow and I’ll give you a different answer.)

Serpentine Prison, Berninger’s first true “solo album,” is a great effort. No, it’s not a National album, but it’s damn close. And I’m sure it will stick with me a lot longer than the El Vy album has. Sonically, the album sounds similar to what a National album might be if they left the bombast that comes with a lot of their songs on the shelf. Prison is soft-spoken, and because of that it doesn’t immediately hook you. It’s more of a slow burn.

This is the kind of album that feels like good background music at first, but by the middle of the album you find yourself leaning in, listening intently, and picking out the hints of the album’s collaborators. The album has a good, down to earth feel that sounds full and polished, thanks to producer Booker T. Jones. (He of Booker T. & the MG’s and a ton of collaborations from the 60s on (including Otis Redding, Willie Nelson, Rita Coolidge, Bill Withers, and Neil Young, just to name a few.) Jones plays on a few songs as well, and helped bring together a slew of other big names to participate in the making of the record, including Andrew Bird, Gail Ann Dorsey (who featured prominently on The National’s 2019 album I Am Easy to Find), Brent Knopf (Berninger’s partner in crime in El Vy), and The National’s Scott Devendorf. The song above, “Distant Axis,” is probably my favorite of the album. The video is quite fun as well.

Berninger has been keeping himself busy since the last National album in 2019. In addition to creating this solo album, he’s released a couple of new songs worth listening to that don’t appear on the album. His fantastic duet with Phoebe Bridgers, called “Walking on a String,” is from Zach Galifianakis’s feature length “Between Two Ferns,” in which Berninger and Bridgers appear in the movie Phoebe Bridgers and The Spiders from Bars, along with two members of The Walkmen. He also released a cover of Mercury Rev’s “Holes” as part of a benefit series called “7-inches for Planned Parenthood.”

Perhaps after reading all this, you agree that Berninger is worthy of the praise I heap upon him. I can understand if his baritone and delivery aren’t your cup of tea, but I don’t think it’s possible to deny his greatness. Serpentine Prison is a worthy solo debut, and I highly recommend that you pick it up as soon as possible.

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