#30 on the 2022 Bacon Top 31 — Yeah Yeah Yeahs

January 02, 2023 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

I thought the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were done. Their last record came out in 2013 (Mosquito, which didn’t register on the Bacon Review that year), and no one had heard from them in literal years. So when the Yeah Yeah Yeahs tweeted “Cannot wait to play you some tunes old and NEW! New music! New Era!” in May 2022, along with a set of upcoming shows in NY and LA in October, the music blogging industry started to froth at the mouth.

Cool It Down, the band’s fifth LP in their 20+ year history, came out on September 30. The release of the album was preceded by the lead single / loud declaration of reemergence “Spitting Off the Edge of the World,” which featured Perfume Genius (#15 in 2010) on guest vocals. It’s a slow, droning, powerful statement, indirectly related to the climate crisis. “I see the younger generations staring down this threat, and they’re standing on the edge of a precipice, confronting what’s coming with anger and defiance,” lead singer Karen O about the song. “It’s galvanizing, and there’s hope there.”

The rest of the album is just as good. It feels more grown up, less raw, than their earlier efforts. There are more instruments at play, including a plethora of keyboards. It’s still unmistakably Karen O, and therefore unmistakably Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Picking a favorite song from the wealth of goodness isn’t easy, but once I watched the video for “Wolf,” shown above, starring Britt Lower (who you’ll recognize from Apple TV+’s “Severance”), I suddenly had a favorite. The band has also released videos for the “The Big Sleep” and “Spitting Off the Edge of the World.”

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs aren’t for everyone, and I doubt there’s anyone reading this who hasn’t already decided which side of the YYYs line they fall. If you didn’t like them before, there’s nothing here that’s going to change your opinion. But if you’ve been a fan anywhere in the last two decades, this will do nothing to change that opinion, either. Give it a listen at the links below to confirm.

__________________________________________

31. CAPRISONGS by FKA twigs

There are many ways to listen to the 2022 Bacon Top 31. Subscribe now and enjoy the new albums / songs as they are revealed on the countdown!

Full Album
All albums in their entirety.

Radio Station
A single song selection pulled from each album.

View all previous Bacon Top 31s

#10 on the 2019 Bacon Top 31 — Michael Kiwanuka

January 22, 2020 by Royal Stuart

Kiwanuka by Michael Kiwanuka

We’ve broken into the top 10! British singer/songwriter Michael Kiwanuka barely makes the cut with his fantastic self-titled third album, Kiwanuka. You may or may not know his name, but you likely know at least one of his songs. Back in 2017, “Cold Little Heart,” from 2016’s Love & Hate (which did not make the Top 31 that year, in retrospect a fairly large oversight, but I never heard the album that year) became the theme song for the first season of the wildly popular HBO show “Big Little Lies.” (Related, that song’s video is well worth watching, as it stars then up-and-coming but now big-time actor LaKeith Stanfield.)

Kiwanuka’s music is approachable from any side, and feels like it was created for the widest acceptance from anyone 30 years or older. So, naturally, I love it. It’s a slightly odd thing to go through an album and think “Well that was perfectly acceptable. Not a damn thing was controversial, difficult, or seemingly pushed any buttons (or boundaries).” The album was produced by Inflo (more from him later in the Top 31) and Danger Mouse (whose own 2019 album, Lux Prima, created in conjunction with Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, just barely missed the cut-off for the Top 31). That’s a pedigree behind the music that few artists can claim, and it becomes clear why Kiwanuka is killing it.

In addition to “Hero,” shown in the video above, there are a few other stand-outs on the album. Again: something for everyone. Be sure to check out the other two videos from the album, as Kiwanuka not only has a great audio-production team behind him, but his video-production connections appear to be just as stellar: “Money” and the very very catchy “You Ain’t the Problem.” The whole album is easily consumed and easy to love. Eat it up.

__________________________________________

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

Subscribe to the 2019 Bacon Top 31 Apple Music playlist
2009-2018 Top 31s

July 05, 2013 by Royal Stuart

Just like King Kong, here are the Yeah Yeah Yeahs from atop the Empire State Building, with their fantastic, bombastic song “Despair.” Their fourth full-length album, Mosquito came out this past April, complete with one of the worst covers ever applied to a professionally-produced record.

March 31, 2013 by Royal Stuart

I’m going to try and not read too much into this Memento-esque video for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs first release from their upcoming new album, Mosquito, due out April 16.