#21 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — The Decemberists

January 11, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again by The Decemberists

At #21 we find a band I thought we’d never see on the Top 31 again. What’s even more surprising is that there’s at least 3 other bands coming up in the 2024 Top 31 that I would have lost money betting on them never making another appearance. So, I believe kudos are in order for The Decemberists, that merry band of minstrels hailing from Portland, Oregon, for truly surprising longevity, and for producing a truly great album in As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again.

It’s been six years since we last heard from the quintet (I’ll Be Your Girl, #15 in 2018), and it’s the fifth time the band has appeared in the Top 31 (rounding out the five are #18 in 2015, #3 in 2011 and #2 in the inaugural 2009 list). I’m confident had I been making my list since the turn of the century, all four of the band’s even earlier albums would have made an appearance. 22 years, The Decemberists have been making music. And it’s safe to say I’ve been a fan for the entire journey.

I must be suffering from some strong recency bias, as As It Ever Was ranks not only as a great record, it ranks as a great Decemberists record, much better than any of the past, oh, 3 albums. And yet here I am, placing it further down the list than any previous Decemberists album has appeared. Be that as it may, I’m going to stick with the narrative that this new album is a real return to form for the band. I suppose I should have expected that, given the title blatantly saying as such.

All the usual melancholy themes are here: death, darkness, and dread, sung with the same chipper trill I’ve loved for two decades from lead singer/songwriter Colin Meloy. Chris Funk (guitars), Jenny Conlee-Drizos (keyboards, and, more importantly, accordion), Nate Query (bass), and John Moen (drums), have all returned, happily writing and performing complex baroque-pop prog rock music accompaniment.

The band has traditionally produced some great videos to pair with their highly visual songs, but not this time around. The video above is a live version of “Oh No!” produced by the band, and a great Squirrel Nut Zippers-esque song. You can watch the band’s KEXP Live performance to hear a handful of other songs from the album, all great. But if you want to hear my favorite song from the album, you’ll have to tune into an “Official Audio” version from YouTube.

That song is “Joan in the Garden,” and it is a 19 minute, 21 second masterpiece. It has all of Meloy’s favorite words in it, like “firmament,” “mariner,” and “parquet.” It sounds a bit like a lost track from Pink Floyd’s The Wall. And it is wonderful. The Decemberists have excelled at the exceedingly long epic. There first was “California One / Youth and Beauty Brigade,” from their debut album, clocking in at 9 minutes, 50 seconds. Their EP, The Tain, from 2004, a telling of the Irish mythological story Táin Bó Cúailnge, covers the span of 18 minutes, 35 seconds of prog rock bliss. “The Island, Come And See, The Landlord’s Daughter, You’ll Not Feel The Drowning,” (yes, that’s the title of a single song), from 2006’s The Crane Wife, is 12 minutes, 26 seconds long. And that album also has its title song, broken up and switched around across parts “3” and “1 And 2” at 4:18 and 11:24, respectively (15 minutes, 42 seconds total). The Hazards of Love had “The Hazards of Love” parts 1-4 (“The Prettiest Whistles Won’t Wrestle The Thistles Undone,” “Wager All,” “Revenge!,” and “The Drowned”), but in reality the entire album is a single story, clocking in at 58:37. “Joan in the Garden,” from the year of our lord 2024, is better than all of them.

How a band of misfit theater nerds has ever achieved the longevity and accolades that The Decemberists have is beyond comprehension. Colin Meloy is a master storyteller, and the musicians who have long made up the band are masterful in their craft. While I never expected to get another great album from them, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again was a very pleasant surprise, and well worth the wait.

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#24 on the 2023 Bacon Top 31 — Lil Yachty

January 08, 2024 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Let’s Start Here. by Lil Yachty

I can feel you all collectively rolling your eyes at this pick. That’s ok, I understand. And yet… Lil Yachty’s complete reimagining of himself, his fifth studio album Let’s Start Here., is the 24th best album of 2023.

I’d be surprised if you’ve not heard of Lil Yachty or this album. When it came out at the end of January 2023, the popular music wing of the World Wide Web was up in arms about it. Despite efforts to the contrary, I live in a fairly protected musical world, and consequently had not heard of Yachty prior to release of Let’s Start Here. So in hearing the hubbub about the album and how divisive the opinion was about it, I was intrigued. What could possibly be causing all this fuss?

Upon first listen, it’s clear this is no rap album. Experimental rock? Acid jazz? Synth pop? Psych rock? The world seemed dead set on defining the album as a Tame Impala ripoff (another band I’ve not paid any attention to — maybe now I should?) While being unable to define what it was I was hearing, I could say that I was enjoying the music. It travels all over the musical landscape, but does so in a way that feels cohesive, similar to Wish You Were Here or The Age of Adz. This is a concept album – but what is the concept?

Yachty, whose real name is Miles Parks McCollum, was just an exceedingly accomplished, viral-song inducing rapper until he released this album. A year before the album came out, and two years after his previous album, Lil Boat 3, Yachty announced in an interview his next project would be a “non-rap album,” calling it “alternative” and “like a psychedelic alternative project. It’s different. It's all live instrumentation.” It’s not his fault nobody took him at his word, because a year later that’s exactly what he released.

You’ll need to put the album on yourself to hear first hand the album that could cause so much turmoil. It might not be for you, but you’ll better understand why so many people are so confused by it.

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#1 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — The War on Drugs

January 31, 2022 by Royal Stuart

I Don’t Live Here Anymore by The War on Drugs

We’re now a month into 2022, I’m 48 years old, my kids are 13 and 4, and I’m finally willing to admit it: I love dad rock. My parents raised me on classic rock (shout out to KMOD 97.5 FM in Tulsa, Oklahoma). My tastes have been shaped by a heavy foundation of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and The Eagles (for better or worse). I’m aware that a lot of what I have loved in the past decade could be categorized as dad rock – previous Top 31 #1s like The National, Elbow, Phosphorescent, and Bon Iver all qualify. But none of those are so obviously Dad Rock with a capital D as the #1 of 2021: The War of Drugs. I’m fairly certain if you look up “dad rock” in the dictionary, you’ll find a glamour shot of lead singer / songwriter Adam Granduciel, with his flowing locks, vaseline smeared on the lens, with ghostlike images of his band flanked around him.

I Don’t Live Here Anymore, their fifth studio album, quickly jumped into the running for top album when it was released on October 29, 2021. At the time, I had already convinced myself that Big Red Machine was going to be my #1, given how much my family loved hearing How Long Do You Think It‘s Going to Last over the year. But the first time I heard that strong piano ring out on the opening song of Anymore (“Living Proof,” shown in the video above - hit play on that right now while you read on), my knees got shaky, my confidence wavered. There’s just something about Granduciel’s raspy voice, his beautiful songwriting, his strong melodies — this album grabbed ahold of my playlist and muscled its way to the front. My wife fell in love with it, too – we must have listened to the album at least three times a week from the day it came out. And the excitement when it comes on hasn’t yet worn off – will it ever?

The War on Drugs perfected the form: that classic rock sound of the 70s and 80s, in songs about lost love while driving down the highway over sweeping crescendos and slow guitar solos. This album took me back to my childhood so much that I actually sent the album to my dad for Christmas, and of course he loves it, too. Truly Dad Rock. I dare you to listen to the fourth song, “I Don’t Wanna Wait,” and not picture in your mind’s eye a musical montage showing Crockett and Tubbs flying across the waves of the Atlantic in a speedboat on their way to break up a cocaine deal gone bad.

Granduciel, whose real name is Adam Granofsky, leads the charge in the band, but there’s five other members who make up the current lineup: David Hartley on bass, Robbie Bennett on keyboards, Charlie Hall on drums, Jon Natchez on sax and Anthony LaMarca on rhythm guitar. Various members have dropped in an out since they formed in 2005 (including Kurt Vile, who was an original member before breaking off for his own solo work), but this lineup has been intact since their third album, Lost in the Dream took the world by storm (and appeared at #13 in the Top 31 that year).

This is now the third album put out by this particular War on Drugs lineup. In addition to Dream, their last album, A Deeper Understanding, also appeared on the Top 31, but it was near the bottom at #29 in 2017, mainly due to me not giving the proper chance. It won Best Rock Album at the Grammys that year. I have no excuse, but I do plan on returning to it, thanks to the strength of Anymore.

And Anymore is such a strong album. I recommend headphones when you put it on. Granduciel is legendary for the amount of time he spends on the production of his albums. Hints of Jimmy Iovine’s production of Tom Petty’s Damn the Torpedoes run throughout. It’s a pristine recording, something you can’t hear just anywhere. One of my favorite sounds in all of music is the quick, high-pitched yet intimate sound that the pads of fingers make when quickly moved up and down the neck of a guitar while searching for that next chord. Listen for it – once you hear it, you can’t stop hearing it.

Granduciel and band have found the top of the mountain. The tip top comes at the second song on the album, “Harmonia’s Dream.” At nearly six and a half minutes, it builds an amazing wall of sounds across two verses and choruses before taking a turn at 2:45 when the keyboards pierce through at the three minute mark into an extended bridge that will leave you in a fit of anticipation but the time the full band kicks in again at the 4:45 point. Then everything hits all at once and you’re moving and shaking uncontrollably when the guitar solo kicks in at 5:15. “You’re on your own” the band sings in harmony – and they’re right. The world has melted away, the bad is gone, and you’re left with pure joy.

The title song is also fantastic, with the gorgeous harmonies of Lucius filling in the chorus.

Granduciel appeared on Song Exploder to talk about the making of this song, how Lucius got involved, how the end of the first stanza is filled with nonsense words… it’s a good listen.

The War on Drugs hit peak form, and I’m very curious to hear where they head next. Similar to the Nation of Language album at #4, I have trouble imagining them continuing without breaking out of their tried-and-true format. But they’ve done it consistently now for three albums, so maybe the formula is so dialed in that it doesn’t need to change. It’s clear that what started in the 70s and 80s has retained enough uncharted territory to leave room for new music here in the 2020s. I’m so excited to hear what’s next, and hopefully it hits on all the right 40-year-old notes.

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#7 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

December 25, 2013 by Royal Stuart

Psychic by Darkside

I’m a bit at a loss on how to begin this review of Psychic, the phenomenal debut album from Darkside, a collaboration between Nicolas Jarr and Dave Harrington. I don’t really have a clue how to describe it. All I know is, if you haven’t heard the album yet, you absolutely must stop whatever it is you were doing before you started reading this post and hit play on the above video. (And yes, this is a video and that is not a still image. It is an extreme slow-mo shot of a house burning down. Seriously.)

You may have heard of Jarr, an electronic musician, from his many remixes or various other slow dance ventures over the past few years. He also released a solo album that reached a modest following in 2011 called Space Is Only Noise. Harrington, a multi-instrumentalist, is unknown to me outside of this project. Together, Jarr and Harrington have managed to create an album that is indescribable by modern day standards. This is an album more fit for the early 80s, where the clash of guitars and spacey landscapes of electronic sound defined an era dominated by Pink Floyd.

When I first heard the album — shortly after it was released in October — I reached out to a good friend to tell him about it. I thought he’d love the album, because it reminds me so much of Pink Floyd, a band I knew he loved. It was with complete innocence that I suggested he should listen to it. The irony of suggesting a band called Darkside to someone who loves Pink Floyd was completely lost on me until he started laughing.

Be that as it may, the connection to Pink Floyd is still there for me. This album is spacey, layered in such a way that I continue to hear new things in it every time I listen, even after multiple plays in my headphones. The album is almost entirely instrumental, and when a voice does flow in, it’s more melodic and treated as one of the instruments, rather than front and center.

Apologies for the dumbfounded nature of this review. Just listen to it, will you?

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8. AMOK by Atoms for Peace
9. White Lighter by Typhoon
10. Hummingbird by Local Natives
11. If You Leave by Daughter
12. Pedestrian Verse by Frightened Rabbit
13. The Silver Gymnasium by Okkervil River
14. The Next Day by David Bowie
15. Reflektor by Arcade Fire
16. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic by Foxygen
17. Lanters by Son Lux
18. Howlin’ by Jagwar Ma
19. Impersonator by Majical Cloudz
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