#3 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

Modern Vampires of the City by Vampire Weekend

The top three. This year it was tough to put in order. It pains me to have to put this lovely album at #3, because it is SO GOOD. On the flip side, I love that three albums as good or better than this one were released this year.

Vampire Weekend have now released three studio albums in the last five years, and every single one of them has been great. But if you disagree, if you’ve tried to listen to their self-titled debut from 2008 or 2010’s Contra and decided this band isn’t for you, I urge you to try again. Modern Vampires of the City is the product of a band that has matured. You will not recognize it as you have previous Vampire Weekend albums. No longer can their sound be compared to other bands or other sounds from years past. Their sound is now their sound, and they are at the top of the mountain, shouting, victorious.

Lead singer, lyricist, guitarist and co-songwriter Ezra Koenig’s playful phrases display a mastery of history, culture and the English language that is unequaled anywhere in pop music. Koenig and the rest of the band — guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and co-songwriter Rostam Batmanglij; drummer and percussionist Chris Tomson; and bassist and backing vocalist Chris Baio — have crafted an album of twelve songs that is an absolute joy to listen to, one that is equally youthful and wise, one I will undoubtedly be reaching for ten, twenty, forty years down the road.

The band came through town as the headlining act on 107.7 The End’s Deck the Hall Ball, and I was there to take it all in. They were the capper of a full nine-hour day of music, and they proved why they earned top billing. Each song played, from all of their albums, had the crowd up and moving about, smiling happily from ear to ear. Koenig, somehow seemingly appropriate for the occasion, was dressed in a matching pants and button-down navy blue with white polka-dots pajama set. He played the whole 1+ hour set dressed that way, but never once seemed ready to hit the hay. It was brilliant.

This album is that rare beast that is universally loved. Debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 when it was released in May, it has been favorably reviewed by nearly every publication that talks about popular music. Both Rolling Stone and Pitchfork have ranked it the #1 album of 2013. Perhaps owing to the earned media it is enjoying, the band has only produced one true music video from the album: “Diane Young,” shown above. There are a couple official lyric videos out there as well, for “Step” and “Ya Hey” (my absolute favorite from the album, although really any one of these songs could be my favorite).

Modern Vampires is a tour de force, an album unequaled in loveliness. You must hear it before making judgment on this band. You will not be disappointed.

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4. The Bones Of What You Believe by Chvrches
5. The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You by Neko Case
6. In Focus? by Shugo Tokumaru
7. Psychic by Darkside
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

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#4 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

The Bones Of What You Believe by Chvrches

There’s been a revival over the past couple years in the sounds of the 80s, and I would pin the start of this revival to the soundtrack for the 2011 movie Drive, which was a throwback itself. The highlights of that soundtrack were “Night Call” by French DJ Kavinsky and “A Real Hero” by another Frenchman, David Grellier, an electronic musician known as College.

The Bones Of What You Believe, the fantastic debut album from Chvrches, from Glasgow, Scotland, is the culmination of this revival. Synthesizers, drum machines and echo effects provide the foundation for an album steeped in the past. There is little surprise to this album, other than it is solid from start to finish. This is no one-hit wonder. Each song on the album is a hit in its own right, one worthy of only the best kind of car karaoke.

A trio, Chvrches is made up of lead singer Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook and Martin Doherty, all of whom play keyboards and drum machines throughout the album. Mayberry’s treacly vocals, dripping with emotion, fuel large swells of passionate, impossibly perfect electronic sounds. “Overly produced” doesn’t even begin to qualify when listening to this album, as it is so over the top that nothing can compare. I would normally shy away from such production, preferring the humanity in the slightly off-key vocal or guitar string, but in the hands of these three perfection is the name of the game, through and through.

Chvrches is the best new band of 2013. No band has created a debut album as powerful as this one in 2013. I got to see the band play Seattle for the first time back in September, and, concentrating on “Recover,” the song shown in the video above, I summed up their songs accordingly:

The band’s songs are amazingly catchy, and very much de riguere. Heavy keyboards driven by repetitive, synthetic drums build each song to a flurry of activity, with Mayberry’s voice imparting a sense of urgency that draws you into your headphones like a tornado. My first experience of the band was “Recover,” from the EP of the same name that was released back in March. What was most unique about the song was also what drove me most crazy. Mayberry’s droning lyric throughout the song “I’ll give you one – more – chance; to say we can change – our – old – ways; and you take – what – you – need; and you know – you – don’t – need me” is every-so-slightly off beat from the underlying synthesizers (go ahead and try to bop your head to the drum beat, rather than her lyrical beat, and the difference is painfully obvious).

While they killed the Showbox that night by playing their entire album, the highlight of their performance turned out to not be one of their songs, but a cover, which they were seemingly unprepared to play but had to for lack of any other song to play in the crowd-demanded encore:

“We only have one more song we can play. Not to be typecast as ‘the band that covers that song,’ but here it is:” a perfectly-played version of Prince and The Revolution’s “I Would Die 4 U.” (CHVRCHES has actually recorded their version of the song, which can be heard here — note the cute name change, too.) It’s almost as if the band was put together and has come so far specifically to play this song.

It’s unclear if this album will stand the test of time. It’s difficult for a band so rooted in the past to hold onto the present while avoiding the “fad” label. But for now, I’m loving it, and you will, too.

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5. The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You by Neko Case
6. In Focus? by Shugo Tokumaru
7. Psychic by Darkside
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

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#5 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You by Neko Case

It’s taken me a very long time to get to this point. I have of course known about Neko Case for a long time, having first fallen in love with her powerful voice on “Letter from an Occupant” from Mass Romantic, the debut New Pornographers album from way back in 2000. I’d heard many of her countryfied solo songs since then, and had even been at that infamous hail-covered Sasquatch! performance in 2006, but while I enjoyed those songs, they didn’t hook me. Five New Pornographers and four solo albums later, (as well as two early albums with Her Boyfriends) here we are with her best work to date, The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You.

This album is unlike anything I’ve heard from Case previously. At times it feels very country and at others indie rock, sometimes full and at others, sparse, and it is gorgeous throughout. These songs are heartfelt and it shows. It feels very much like a New Pornographers record at times, with fast, soaring-chorus songs like “Man,” which revolves around a rocking guitar / piano solo in the middle of the short 3 minutes. In other ways, it reminds me of Fiona Apple’s #1 album from last year, with it’s pared down, nearly a cappella sadness.

“Nearly Midnight, Honolulu” is the quietest, but also the most powerful moment of the album. A terribly sad story about an experience Case had at the airport in Honolulu where she overheard a mother yelling at her young son. It is moving in its starkness. Case sings harmony with herself at points in the song, punctuating the darkness with a chorus of uplifting voices. The song is arresting, and will make you fall in love with Case, the boy that is the center of the song, and with the album itself. You can hear that song here, but I recommend hearing it in the context of the full album to really understand it.

Case and the band recorded a set for Austin City Limits earlier this year, and it will be airing on PBS on January 11. Here’s a preview of the show, with them performing the song “Man” mentioned above. The video above is apparently the only actual video released from this album to date, and it’s a stupid lyric video, which I don’t care for. Be that as it may, it‘s a great song from an amazing album, one that I know you, too, will love.

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6. In Focus? by Shugo Tokumaru
7. Psychic by Darkside
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

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#6 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

In Focus? by Shugo Tokumaru

The album at #6 came out towards the end of 2012 in Japan, but not until January 22, 2013 in the U.S. In Focus?, from Shugo Tokumaru, wins my award for Most Listened-To Album in 2013. It is sheer bliss, in musical form. Tokumaru’s fifth official full-length album, In Focus? is my first experience with the artist.

According to what I’ve read online, Tokumaru is a wunderkind similar to Prince. He writes, performs, records and mixes all of his own music. The album reminds me quite a bit — again — of Sufjan Stevens. Whenever recommending Tokumaru to friends, I would sum him up by calling him “The Japanese Sufjan Stevens.” He has a mastery of the strange and unexpected. In Focus? is chock full of whimsy, giving the listener an almost uncanny sense of musical serendipity upon each listen.

As Tokumaru sings in Japanese, this album has the added benefit of not being too distracting to listen to when trying to write (usually an impossible task for any album with someone singing). This also makes for strange car karaoke, where you find yourself attempting to sing along to Tokumaru’s Japanese by simply mimicking the sounds he is making. I’m positive this would sound horrible to anyone who speaks the language. This became especially problematic when I saw Tokumaru at the Sunset on July 16. I like to sing along with performers when I know the words (but I don’t shout over the performer). But for Tokumaru, I felt 100% self-conscious of sounding like the charlatan that I am, which prevented me from singing at all.

The live show itself, however, was unbelievable. Tokumaru had four other people on stage with him (and one off stage, on the floor, as the stage was not large enough): a bassist, a wild-man drummer and three percussionist / keyboard / backup singers who played all manner of instruments and toys, whirligigs and noisemakers. It was a truly happy show, and my cheeks hurt at the end of it. (You can get a glimpse of what that experience was like by watching this KEXP In Studio Performance from the same day.)

The above video, for the lively song “Katachi,” is featuring on the Bacon Review for the second time. It’s so good, I’ve posted it twice. He also has another video from this album, for the song “Decorate,” which I featured in these pages back in December of 2012. Be sure to watch that one as well.

I would like more people to know and love Tokumaru, but only if it means I can continue to see him in venues as tiny at the Sunset. I know this is an impossible request, so, therefore, please listen, enjoy, and do NOT under any circumstances plan on seeing him live.

Thank you very much.

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7. Psychic by Darkside
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

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A lovely version of the best-ever Christmas song

The Pogues and Kristy McColl’s 1987 song “Fairy Tale of New York” is my absolute favorite Christmas song. On December 11, an indie-rock super group made up of Iron & Wine, Calexico, Kathleen Edwards and Glen Hansard got together and performed the song live on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, which you can watch above.

Looking into the song more, I came across this great article in the Guardian from last year that details the history of the song. I didn’t realize the making of the song involved a two-year process that began with Elvis Costello and ended with Steve Lillywhite. The original demo of the song, which has original Pogues bassist and future Elvis Costello wife Cait O'Riordan singing McColl’s eventual part, is featured within that article as well. Knowing the history makes the song even better, if that were even possible. Below is the original version of the song, starring a young Matt Dillon in the roll of the NYPD officer that throws Pogues lead singer Shane MacGowan in the drunk tank. Merry Christmas!

#7 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

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

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#8 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

AMOK by Atoms for Peace

Thom Yorke slays me. Throw in master producer Nigel Godrich, amazing session drummer Joey Waronker, percussionist Mauro Refosco, and Flea, and, well, you’ve got the makings of the #8 album of the year. But you’ve already heard and formed your opinions about this album, and nothing I say or do here will sway that. You either like Atoms for Peace or not.

The video above is not the best video from the album (see either “Ingenue” or “Before Your Very Eyes” for that honor), but “Default,” the song the video is for, is by far the best song on the album.

I had the enormous pleasure of seeing Atoms for Peace play the Treasure Island Music Festival back in October. But that pleasure was dwarfed by the sheer joy of getting my hands on one of the 100 “Judge, Jury and Executioner” 12" vinyl singles in a hand-printed sleeve that was sold only at Sonic Boom Records back in March (as chosen by Thom himself). It’s been an Atoms for Peace kind of year.

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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

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#9 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

White Lighter by Typhoon

Do you like the lush sound of an orchestra, complete with horns, stringed instruments, and percussion and/or the inherent pain and suffering heard in every word Bright Eyes ever sang? Then you will like Typhoon. No, Conor Oberst is not in the band, but Typhoon’s lead singer, Kyle Morton, sings quite like him, with an amazing amount of emotion dripping off of every syllable.

Morton is one of 11 people in the band. Yes, eleven. There are three horns, and two each of guitars, violins, and drummers. I’ve seen the band cram onto a too-small stage while managing to find room for two full drum kits (usually front and center) as well as the rest of the amps — let alone 11 people. It’s quite a feat.

The benefits of touring with a band this size are obvious. Too often you hear these amazingly rich albums with horns and strings, but then the live experience is significantly diminished by either a) the strings and horns are recorded and played back via the push of a button, or b) the arrangements are modified significantly to accommodate a smaller touring band. Sometimes these new arrangements are quite good, and it’s nice to hear songs reimagined for the live stage, but Typhoon brings the real deal. What you hear on the album is faithfully restored on stage, with a mixed group of eleven late-20s/early-30s happy hipsters from Portland, bouncing and giddily playing to their hearts content.

I define their music as a derivative of “Americana,” a la Head and The Heart, or the overplayed hand-claps of The Lumineers or Of Monsters and Men. But where those bands stick to the road previously traveled, Typhoon chart their own course. These songs are complicated, with orchestration that would amaze the squarest of symphony goers. And Morton’s lyrics of heartache and the pain of everyday life, sung with the conviction of apparent autobiography, are beautifully touching. There are similarities in the notes to bands like The Decemberists (also from Portland) — not in subject matter or voice, but in rich layers of sound and an educated definition of what makes for a good composition.

This album, White Lighter, is the band’s fourth full-length. I discovered their 2010 album too late to put it on the Calendar that year (it would definitely have been on there), but their 2011 EP A New Kind of House made the list in 2011, at #23. If Morton’s voice doesn’t immediately put you off, I believe there’s something in this album for everyone. Give it a listen, buy it, and then wear out the grooves in the record, as I’m sure I will be doing over the next decade or so.

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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

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#10 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

Hummingbird by Local Natives

Top ten of 2013. Let’s do this.

It’s a wonderful thing when a band disproves the “sophomore slump” pitfall that many bands experience. Hummingbird, the fantastic second album from Los Angeles band Local Natives, has the band pushing out the boundaries from their excellent first album, Gorilla Manor, which made the Musical Bacon Calendar back in 2010 at nearly the same spot in the list. Where the first album was bouncy, joyous, a celebration of life, the second album is darker, sadder, and melancholy. This is not a bad thing.

In the time between the first and second albums, the quintet became a quartet, and lead singer Kelcey Ayer’s mother passed away. These two separate but collectively difficult moments became the foundation of what would turn into Hummingbird. Additionally, the band tapped Aaron Dessner, from The National, to produce and perform on the album, which most certainly had an influence on where it would go. Aside from the vocals, which continue to be lovingly delivered by the lead-singing duo of Ayer and Taylor Rice, this could very well be a National album (and you already know how much I love them). Ayer and Rice alternate duties at the lead mic, each of them with gorgeous, higher-register voices with Ayer relying on falsetto and Rice seemingly pushing his voice up without it. Both of whom sound decidedly different from Matt Berninger’s (lead singer in The National) baritone.

The album’s high points are also the most bleak songs on the album: “Three Months” and “Colombia.” The band hasn’t released either of the songs as singles or videos, but there are a number of band-sanctioned live performances out there of the songs, the best of which are from a show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg the week after this album released and this performance from January on air for NPR and KCRW. The videos they have released from this album, including “You & I” above, as well as “Heavy Feet,” “Ceilings,” and “Breakers” all have an irreverance that verges on uncomfortable that makes for an interesting listening/watching experience.

There really is no difference between hearing these songs live or recorded, much to the band’s musicianship. With two albums under their belts, they’ve now proven their ability to craft intelligent, immersive songs that take you to an emotional high only few songs can. This band is still on the unknown side, which is a blessing and a curse. I get to enjoy them at the relatively smaller spaces like The Neptune and the Showbox at the Market, but they don’t get to enjoy the benefits of being an indie band that’s broken through. This will change. Perhaps not on the dour strength of Hummingbird, but maybe on the next endeavor, whenever that will be.

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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

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#11 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

If You Leave by Daughter

On the bubble of the Top 10, here’s English trio Daughter to darken and depress your day. Igor Haefeli plays soundscapes and rolling hills of notes on his guitar. Drummer Remi Aguilella builds the excitement with well-timed, sparse, tribal-like percussion. And lead singer / songwriter Elena Tonra, with her diminutive frame and whisper-like voice, makes the band feel somewhat like that older dog at the pound that you just can’t resist taking home to give some proper love. Tonra plays a guitar in the band as well, her pad-of-the-fingers picking creates notes that are the perfect counterpart to Haefeli’s sonic chorus.

The band suffers from the Sigur Rós Malady, where each song starts off super quiet and builds to a crescendo, a cacophony of sound that’s as exciting and energetic as a lightning storm. And that’s not the only thing they have in common with the band from Iceland. I got to see Daughter play at Neumos back in May, which is when I discovered that Haefeli plays his guitar with a bow, just like Jónsi does. In my review of the show, I summed up Tonra’s voice thusly:

Tonra’s voice is the most beautiful whisper you’ll ever hear, both quiet and pitch perfect, subdued just enough to make everyone in the audience lean, actively working to not miss that one amazing tone we know is coming. Tonra doesn’t appear to suffer from stage fright — she’s not one to put her back to us — but all other signs point to her being a new kind of Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power, in poise and stage presence. Tonra’s stunning vocal range is in the higher registers (unlike Cat Power), but her style of singing intimate songs of breakup and heartache is a perfect match.

The encore of that performance was one for the ages, but unfortunately they played a song you won’t find on the album:

The band played a good array of songs from all three recorded works, and when they finally left the stage after their most well-known song, “Youth,” I got the impression there would be no encore. What could they possibly play, as we’d heard everything we expected to hear? After we gave our best, longest, loudest cheers, the band did indeed come back out on stage, to play the one song I’d heard before and expected them to not play: a cover of Daft Punk’s brand new single “Get Lucky.” When they played the song in late April on BBC One, I’ll admit I listened to it many many times on repeat. So much so that now, when I hear the original Daft Punk version, it sounds like a cover of the Daughter version. Hearing their cover live on stage at Neumos was the perfect capper for the evening.

You may be thinking it’s impossible that there could be ten albums better than this one that came out this year. Just wait and see, the best is yet to come!

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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

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#12 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

Pedestrian Verse by Frightened Rabbit

I haven’t done any exhaustive research, but I’d wager that I’ve written more about Frightened Rabbit than any other band, here on The Bacon Review as well as over at Another Rainy Saturday. If you follow me, you know they’re one of my absolute favorites.

They’re from Scotland. They play straight-up indie rock, with accents. And they mainly sing songs about heartache and loss, but in the hardest rocking way possible. If this description fits your tastes, you really can’t get any better than this.

I’m not going to say much more about them here. I’ve said so much already, I’d like to hear what you have to say now. Give the song above a listen, download Pedestrian Verse, their 4th full-length (the last three of which are in near-constant rotation over here at Bacon HQ). Enjoy.

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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

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#13 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

The Silver Gymnasium by Okkervil River

The last time Okkervil River appeared on the Calendar, they were bringing up the rear with their less-than-stellar offering, I Am Very Far. I thought that album would be the band’s swan song. They’d had a great run in the mid-oughts, with Black Sheep Boy and The Stage Names, but with 2008’s The Stand-Ins the band started to head south, for what I thought would be their final hurrah. I’m so glad to report that I was wrong, as here they are again, this time in the much more favorable #13 spot, with their seventh full-length album The Silver Gymnasium.

This is a great and apparently very personal album for lead singer Will Sheff. There are multiple videos talking about the genesis of this album, and now there’s even a Kickstarter campaign to make a short film about my favorite song from the album, “Down Down The Deep River.”

This is a classic Okkervil River song. If you liked Black Sheep Boy, then this album is for you. It lacks the bombast of songs like “Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe,” but there are plenty of hooks to sink your teeth into. The above video is for a remix of the song “Stay Young.” While I like the original song more than the remix, this version is still quite interesting. I linked to the original version video a month ago, as well as a lyric video for “It Was My Season” back in June, both of which are well worth checking out.

Those songs should be more than enough to convince you this is a renewed band. Sheff seems revived and ready to tackle the world. Pick up the album and there’s a chance you will be, too.

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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

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#14 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

The Next Day by David Bowie

What could I possibly write here that would push you to listen to this amazing new album by David Bowie if you haven’t already listened to it?

Just do it. Don’t sit here any longer. Go buy the album, and marvel at the fact that a 66 year old man can still make fantastic and relevant rock ’n’ roll music in 2013. Nobody can hold a candle to what this man has accomplished in his career.

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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

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You Me & Apollo: We Got a Roof

Just bought tickets to see Colorado’s You Me & Apollo at a show the first week of January, based 100% on their performance in the video above. No idea what the rest of their stuff sounds like, but I see they were at Doe Bay earlier this year, and that’s enough of a reputation for me to be interested. Looks like they’re playing TIMBRRR! later in the month, too.

#15 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

Reflektor by Arcade Fire

And so it was writ: every three years, as the stars and moon align over Montreal, Quebec, Arcade Fire shall bestow upon the people an amazing indie rock album. This has proved true with uncanny regularity for the past 12 years, and you can look for the next one to come out in 2016, I’m sure.

The band’s last album, The Suburbs, landed at #8 on the 2010 Calendar. At this juncture, I don’t really care to listen to that album any more, but I find myself drawn to their first two albums, Funeral (2004) and Neon Bible (2007), with continued consistency. Don’t let the fact that I’m ranking this year’s album, Reflektor, lower than I ranked their last album even though I no longer wish to listen to that album. I’m fairly certain I like this new album much more than The Suburbs. There just happened to be a lot of good music to come out this year, so Reflektor finds itself at the mid-way point.

This new album has the band in a disco kind of mood. It’s a very danceable album, and if you listen to the album with headphones while sitting at your desk at work, I defy you to keep your foot from tapping and your body from bouncing to the beat. It’s a long album, a two-album set clocking in at 85 minutes. And it’s not without its dogs. But those dogs are easily skippable, and they make the rest of the album shine by comparison.

The video above, for the song “Afterlife,” is gorgeous. You should definitely take the time to watch it. Directed by videographer and photographer Emily Kai Bock, it tells the story of a man and his two sons, all dreaming of the wife/mother they’ve lost. The way the dreams are depicted in the video are particularly moving. Bock has directed other videos I’ve posted in the past, such as this one for Grimes and this one for Grizzly Bear. It‘s extremely satisfying to see all three of these videos in the light of each other, an über context that isn’t there when viewing any one of them alone.

Arcade Fire made it onto the Bacon Review a couple times with other videos recently. If you missed them the first time, go back and check them out here and here.

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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

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#16 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic by Foxygen

Rolling Stones, the Velvet Underground, the Kinks — these names evoke a varied number of musical memories, and each of these band’s own respective histories are so diverse that those memories and nearly-forgotten emotions must be different for each person. Which makes stating these artists as clear influences on the album at #16 all the more strange. How does a band combine the sounds of them all in a solid, cohesive, perfectly rock & roll album? Foxygen and their 2013 album We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peach & Magic are here to show you.

Foxygen has been around in one form or another since 2005. They languished in the California indie rock scene for many years before catching the ear of producer Richard Swift (who just happens to have produced one of my favorites from 2012: Damien Jurado’s Maraqopa, which came in at #5 on The Calendar last year.

I’m not familiar with Foxygen’s pre-Swift recordings, so I can’t speak to how much of an influence he’s had on the band. But what I do know is there’s now two stellar Richard Swift-produced albums, and I’m anxious to hear what he does next. But before we get to that, you should give Foxygen a listen. In addition to the influences I mentioned above, you can hear other influences as well (like Belle & Sebastian in the above video for “San Francisco”). The album definitely harkens back to an earlier time, and depending on which passage you’re listening to currently, that time could vary by about 50 years. Something tells me the album will last for a similar length of time.

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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

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#17 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

Lanterns by Son Lux

Sometimes work by one artist sounds so derivative of another that you start to question its validity. Is this a pseudonym? Is this a result of past collaboration? Complete plagiarism? This is true of Son Lux’s third album Lanterns. I was not familiar with Son Lux’s work prior to this album, although I’ve since learned he’s got quite the storied past, such as having once been labeled “Best New Artist” by NPR’s All Songs Considered back in 2008.

The album I most easily compare Lanters to is the #3 album from three years ago: Sufjan Stevens’ Age of Adz. To my ear, the similarities are quite stark, especially on Lanterns’ peak, “Lost it to Trying,” featured in the video above. That song would fit right onto Age of Adz without any reworking needed. The rest of Lanterns has similar Adz overtones, hinting at an underlying dementia or sickness on the part of the performer.

That performer would be Ryan Lott, who is the one-man tour-de-force behind Son Lux. Lott’s even worked directly with Stevens, as part of the strange EP the two of them released with rapper Serengeti as the collective s / s / s. Did Lott have something to do with Adz, which came out a couple years before Beak & Claw, the single fruit of labor from the s / s / s collective )(although apparently another is in the works)? Unless Stevens admits to the collaborators he worked with on Adz, we’ll never really know.

The good news you can take from this is, if you liked Age of Adz, you’ll like Lanterns. Just pretend it’s a Sufjan Stevens album and you won’t even know the difference. Promise.

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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

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#18 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

Howlin’ by Jagwar Ma

I wonder what’s driving the new explosion in great music coming out of Australia and New Zealand. Here we are at #18 with our third band from the area (see #20 and #28 for the other two), Jagwar Ma, a trio from Sydney whose debut album Howlin’ is one of the most danceable albums on The Calendar.

The band does seem to fit a theme similar to that of Cloud Control, who’s sophomore album Dream Cave was featured here two days ago. But where Cloud Control had just a little bit of Animal Collective in their psychedelic rock and roll, Jagwar Ma have a lot of psychedelic rock and roll in their Animal-Collective-esque dance music. The video above, for “Save Me” is a very good representation of the rest of the album. They have at least two other videos for other songs from the album, “Man I Need” and “The Throw,” if you need more of a taste.

Bottom line: if you like Animal Collective, old Primal Scream, or even if you just like to move your hips every once and a while, then you should check out Jagwar Ma. Unfortunately they just came through town just this past Tuesday (I missed them, too), so we’ll have to catch them together next time they’re in town, ok?

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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

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#19 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

Impersonator by Majical Cloudz

I really wanted to hate this band, based on its name alone. Majical Cloudz? That’s the best you could come up with? And the PR push behind this album was so overbearing — it came up as the ad leading into all YouTube videos I watched for what felt like a 3-month span earlier this year — that added to my desire to not want to like them. But then I’d hear them on KEXP. Or maybe because I heard that one song in the ads SO many times it seared onto my brain and I just had to check them out.

Either way, here we are at #19, with a band and an album I actively wanted to dislike and couldn’t. I’m fairly certain you won’t like them. It takes a certain kind of person to tolerate this sort of stark emotion. If you’re a fan of James Blake, you might give Majical Cloudz a shot — but be prepared to go deep and long. There is no light, no happiness, no serendipity in this music.

Majical Cloudz is a duo from Montreal, comprised of Devon Welsh (singing and writing) and Matthew Otto (producing). The band was originally a solo project of Welsh’s. Otto joined him on an EP before collaborating with Welsh on Impersonator, his 2nd full-length album. I have not heard any of the prior material, and I’m not very compelled to go check it out.

I’m sorry. This review is terrible. Here’s an album I clearly like, at least well enough to put it in the top 20 of the year, yet can’t bring myself to admit to it. Part of me feels like this music won’t stand up to time. That in a year, I’ll look back and laugh to myself at the fact that it’s on the countdown at all, kinda like I did a couple weeks ago when I discovered that I put Alt-J at #2 on the Calendar last year. But that’s how music is. Some of it is fleeting, some of it sticks around. If you can figure out why that is, you’d be a rich man.

While you’re thinking about that, listen to some Majical Cloudz. They might point you in the right direction.

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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

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#20 on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar

Dream Cave by Cloud Control

This is not the first band from south of the equator to appear on the 2013 Musical Bacon Calendar, (see Lorde at #28), and it won’t be the last. But this is the first appearance of Cloud Control, a band from outside of Sydney, Australia, whose second album Dream Cave is just gorgeous.

Falling somewhere between the Beach Boys and Grouplove, the band creates psychadelic pop soundscapes. Lots of reverb and echo, harmonies and happiness, like Animal Collective if they actually wrote pop songs with any kind of obvious structure. Cloud Control don’t sound like they’re from Australia (what would that sound like?), but before learning about the band, I’d assumed they were English, as they have that London rock ’n’ roll appeal.

The video above, for their song “Scar,” is the second video they’ve released from the album, which came out back in August. (The first video, for “Dojo Rising,” was featured on The Bacon Review back in October.) I’m not sure what to make of the video, which has the lead singer of the band walking across the (assumed) Australian countryside, near the Blue Mountains where the band is from, dirty and getting dirtier (and even a little bloody) as the video goes on. The song is called “Scar,” I get it, but isn’t that taking it a bit far?

Cloud Control come through town on January 15th, at Barboza. That venue is TINY and it will no doubt sell out, so get on that ASAP.

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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
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2010 Musical Bacon Calendar
2009 Musical Bacon Calendar