*AHEM* The Bacon Review thanks you for your patience as it took us longer to recover from the holidays than we had previously thought possible. Now then, where was I. Ah yes, #8.

This album, Goodness, has surprised me by its longevity. It’s by a little known band out of Worcester, Mass, called The Hotelier. Formerly known by the rather blah name The Hotel Year, the guys in the Hotelier have been trying to make a go of it for a few years now, finally striking gold (in my book) with Goodness, their third full-length.

Pure emo through and through, Goodness falls somewhere in the void left behind by The Dismemberment Plan, with a dash of Ben Folds Five. At times hard rocking, at others, quiet — the album starts with a spoken-word poem for crying out loud — there’s a little something for everyone in this album. I aim to listen to the band’s previous album, with its Yoda-esque title Home, Like Noplace is There, but I recommend skipping the band’s debut (under the name The Hotel Year). I have it, it’s crap.

The Hotelier have come a long way since that 2011 album, and I predict they have a long way to go before we hear the last of them.

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9. The Mountain Will Fall by DJ Shadow
10. Junun by Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood & The Rajasthan Express
11. The Hope Six Demolition Project by PJ Harvey
12. Amen & Goodbye by Yeasayer
13. Sea of Noise by St. Paul & The Broken Bones
14. You Want It Darker by Leonard Cohen
15. Painting Of A Panic Attack by Frightened Rabbit
16. Why Are You OK by Band Of Horses
17. Not To Disappear by Daughter
18. Sunlit Youth by Local Natives
19. I Had a Dream That You Were Mine by Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam
20. ★ by David Bowie
21. Farewell, Starlite! by Francis and the Lights
22. This Unruly Mess I’ve Made by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
23. LNZNDRF by LNZNDRF
24. Puberty 2 by Mitski
25. Light Upon the Lake by Whitney
26. A Corpse Wired for Sound by Merchandise
27. Away by Okkervil River
28. case/lang/veirs by case/lang/veirs
29. Love Letter for Fire by Sam Beam & Jesca Hoop
30. Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future by Underworld
31. Preoccupations by Preoccupations

Uncanney Valley by The Dismemberment Plan

Some bands have unbelievably bad names and succeed in spite of them. Death Cab for Cutie is probably the best known example of this, but a similar story can be found in Washington D.C.’s The Dismemberment Plan, although with less universal success. You’ve probably not heard of The Dismemberment Plan. Their heyday was ten years ago, when they saw heavy rotation on KEXP and the like for songs from their fantastic albums Emergency & I and Change. The band broke up in 2003, and formally reunited in 2011. Uncanney Valley is the eventual result, after a couple years of touring, writing and recording.

Their sound is a mix of punk rock and white boy hip hop, and various points in between. Travis Morrison has the somewhat grating voice of your best friend from middle school’s older brother. The band mixes guitars, drums, bass, and fuzzy electronics to create a wall of sound that doesn’t really sound like anything you’ve heard before. While less so on this new album, Morrison and the band have always amazed me in their ability to have endearing, close-in stories to share while five minutes later screaming in your ear at the top of his lungs, barely listenable.

Uncanney Valley won’t ever be my favorite Dismemberment Plan album, but it does show the promise of longevity. I find new things I like about it in every listen, and I hope the band will continue to write and perform. Plus, look at that video above, for the best song on the album, “Waiting.” How can you not want to enjoy a band that has signers in the video, having fun with the band?

I picked The Dismemberment Plan for #24 because I think there are 23 albums better than this one this year. Strangely, the day this post goes live — Sunday, Dec. 8 — I’ll have just seen the band live the night before. (And this isn’t the first time this has happened this year — I saw Lorde the night before I reviewed her album at #28 on Dec. 4.) I hope these new songs held up well in the live environment, and that it was a good show. Look for my review of the show to come tomorrow, Monday, Dec. 9.

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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

#8 on the 2016 Bacon Top 31

#24 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar