#23 on the 2016 Bacon Top 31

LNZNDRF by LNZNDRF

At this point, I’m pretty sure all the guys in The National have broken orbit and expanded into new projects. Two cross-pollenated National / Menomena bands made last year’s Top 31 (Pfarmers and El Vy). And here at #23 this year we have a National / Beirut crossover, with Scott and Bryan Devendorf (the set of non-Dessner brothers from The National) and Ben Lanz (trombone player from Beirut) making some rather proggy, noodly indie-rock.

Remember Secret Machines, that fantastic early 2000s prog-rock trio that brought their own stage to the Showbox and played in the round? That’s what LNZNDRF reminds me of. A few songs on the album have vocals, but the songs without vocals are more intriguing.

The production value of the album is high, as can be expected by anyone in The National. Layers of analog instruments, nothing too overpowering, seamlessly blended together into a cohesive musical story. There’s not much Beirut to be heard here, there isn’t even any horns, which I find surprising. But overall, it’s a lovely album to put on in the background while doing pretty much anything. I suggest doing so at your earliest convenience.

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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

#24 on the 2016 Bacon Top 31

Puberty 2 by Mitski

The album at #24, by the singularly-named woman, Mitski, sounds familiar and unique all at once. In her voice you can hear traces of other powerful singers like St. Vincent, Liz Phair, or Sharon van Etten. Her music, well- but not overly-produced, is a fluid blend of electronic and analog instruments, quiet and then pushed at times to the edge of breaking. Puberty 2 is her fourth album, and this is the only one I’ve listened to, but I aim to hear the others.

I don’t tend to hear the lyrics I’m listening to, the voice tending to be more like another instrument, and Puberty 2 is no different. She could be singing about death and destruction, or happiness and joy, and I’d be none the wiser. But that’s, again, part of the beauty. She’s a half Japanese, half American female Jónsi, leading her own New York-based Sigur Ros.

There. I think I’ve thrown enough confusion at you to spark some interest. Now go listen, won’t you?

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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

#25 on the 2016 Bacon Top 31

Light Upon the Lake by Whitney

It’s always a bit strange to pick up an album you listened to quite a bit over the summer and then listen to it when it’s 34° outside and pitch black. You hear the album in question in an entirely different way. So it is with Chicago band Whitney’s fantastic, and very summery, debut album, Light Upon the Lake.

Take a smidge of Andy Gibb, throw in some reverb, some compressed horns, and a dash of happiness and you end up with Whitney. The band rose up out of the ashes of the short-lived but critically acclaimed Smith Westerns.

Despite the cold and wet outside, I suggest putting this album while lounging in front of a raging fire. Put on headphones to block out the crackle of the fire and close your eyes — you’ll be instantly whisked away to a distant beach, the sun beating down on your face, and you’ll feel an urge to reach for some sunscreen that isn’t there. Now enjoy the music. Just be sure not to catch your toes on fire while daydreaming.

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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

#26 on the 2016 Bacon Top 31

A Corpse Wired for Sound by Merchandise

Circling back to the 80s again (see #31), we find ourselves listening to Merchandise, from Tampa. This is not the kind of music you’d expect to come out of sunny Florida. It’s dark and brooding, somewhere in the vicinity of gothic icons like Depeche Mode, Bauhaus, and Joy Division, with industrial noise, synthesizers, drum machines and well-produced guitars filling in the melodies. Throw in a little INXS-esque pop hooks, and you’ve got a good basis for what to expect with the album. The eighties are alive and well in Tampa, apparently.

This is technically the band’s fifth album since forming in 2008, but I’ve not heard nor am I compelled to seek out their previous work (the description of this album and the band’s history on the 4AD website essentially says that even though the trio that made this album was responsible for the previous albums, this one is entirely unlike anything they’ve produced before it. There’s also a mysterious lack of information about this band; for a band to have five albums, even with a stupidly generic name like Merchandise, you should still be able to find a wikipedia page on them. NOPE.

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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

#27 on the 2016 Bacon Top 31

Away by Okkervil River

Will Sheff, the driver (and lead singer) behind Okkervil River, is sad. Or, at least I think he is. The band’s eighth album, Away, is dripping is depression. This is not foreign territory for the band. Black Sheep Boy, their 2005 album, leaves you with the feeling you’ve been sitting under a dark thundercloud for 45 minutes.

But this can be a good thing — I love hearing an album that makes me feel things, as Away does. It’s ok that those feelings are mostly ones of concern for Sheff’s well-being, but I find that’s often the case with musicians who really put their all into their music.

Take the video above, for instance. It’s for a song called “Okkervil River R.I.P.” Sheff’s lyrics tend to be obtuse, so it’s impossible to know for sure what the song means, but it’s easy to draw some conclusions from that title. Will this be the last Okkervil River album? It could be that this song, which happens to also be the first song on the album, is about the fact that the only common part of the band from previous Okkervil River albums is Sheff himself. Every other performer on the album is new.

But Sheff’s voice is still his voice, and if you’ve liked previous OR albums, I recommend giving this one a listen.

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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

#28 on the 2016 Bacon Top 31

case/lang/veirs by case/lang/veirs

I like to consider the album here at #28 and yesterday’s Sam Beam and Jesca Hoop album) as two parts of a whole. Both albums were produced, mixed and engineered by the inimitable Tucker Martine. Both feature artists that have strong careers separate from the arrangement of people featured on these albums. And both are quiet, country-esque affairs that are better heard as background music than actively listened to.

That’s not a slight on either album. It’s not easy to make music that can bare repeated listening while being so completely unoffensive as to fade into the background like a fuzzy, flocked off-white patterned wallpaper.

You know and love these artists. Laura Veirs has been recording lovely singer-songwriter stuff since the late 90s. Neko Case has appeared on the Top 31 at least twice. k.d. lang is a legend. This is almost too much awesomeness to be contained in one record. And yet…

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29. Love Letter for Fire by Sam Beam & Jesca Hoop
30. Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future by Underworld
31. Preoccupations by Preoccupations

#29 on the 2016 Bacon Top 31

Love Letter for Fire by Sam Beam & Jesca Hoop

Prior to hearing the album here at #29, I was familiar with only half of the duo. I’ve been a fan of Sam Beam, otherwise known as Iron & Wine, for over a decade. Jesca Hoop has been recording music for nearly as long as Beam, but this album was my first experience with her sultry voice.

Love Letter for Fire is a perfectly fine record. It’s gorgeous, a lovely thing to put on in the background when you’re — I don’t know — knitting by a fire, ensconced in a cabin deep in the woods on an island in the San Juans, or at least imagining yourself doing as much.

The album is produced, engineered and mixed by Seattle’s Tucker Martine, who has worked on a mind-boggling high number of albums I’ve loved over the years. Finger picked guitars, violins and cellos, pianos, and the buttery-smooth voices of Beam and Hoop — you really can’t go wrong.

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30. Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future by Underworld
31. Preoccupations by Preoccupations

#30 on the 2016 Bacon Top 31

Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future by Underworld

Oh how the mighty have fallen. If this were the early nineties, I’d be putting my absolute favorite “electronic music” band up near the top of the chart. But today, I feel as though I’m simply throwing them a bone because, hey, the old guys are still willing to give it a shot.

You know the Underworld. “Born Slippy .NUXX,” the outro of the 1996 movie Trainspotting, was the song of an entire generation, able to finally breath after the claustrophobia of our childhood, graduating into our own future. Barbara Barbara, the band’s ninth album in their 28 year history, will feel very familiar to anyone that has heard Underworld before. I believe this to be a fantastic album, just one that I no longer am able to connect with like I did in my twenties. So, to the second-to-last-spot on the Top 31 they go, a Second Toughest of the Infants no longer.

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31. Preoccupations by Preoccupations

#31 on the 2016 Bacon Top 31

(The above video is NSFW) Hello everybody. What a year 2016 has been. In many ways, 2016 will go down as one of the worst years on record. But for me, 2016 has also been one of the best years. I got to share another year of life of earth with my son, who grows up much too quickly. In March I met my girlfriend, Anna, whose mere existence pushes me ways I never knew existed.

And where life in 2016 has been complicated by both good and bad, so, too, has the music of the year. We lost far too many musical geniuses (I can’t bare to list them here, lest I be unable to finish this post, lost in bittersweet memory). But the year has brought us some fantastic new music as well.

Personally, life has gotten so busy, I debated whether or not to continue the Top 31. The fact that I’ve written this post and you’re now reading it tells you where I landed, but it won’t be without sacrifice. December is going to be a little crazy for me, and I’m both excited and overwhelmed by that thought. I’m a bit concerned about getting posts out on time, so I’m making some minor adjustments (hopefully unseen by you) to accommodate. Do please forgive the occassional fuck up. The Top 31 lives on, and without further adieu, here’s your #31 of the year:

Preoccupations by Preoccupations

You may have not heard of Preoccupations before, but if you’ve been a fan of the Bacon Review for any length of time, then you’re familiar with this band, as they appeared at #20 in the 2015 Top 31 under the name Viet Cong. According to Wikipedia, the band formerly known as Viet Song received a lot of flack for their chosen moniker, because called racist, insensitive, and I’m sure many other far worse things. They changed their name to Preoccupations, erasing all mention of their former band name, claiming only their first album was titled “Viet Cong.”

Preoccupations, the album, expresses a lot of the same influences their debut album did last year, and it’s all the better for it. This won’t be the only 80s goth revival you hear on the countdown — I grew up in the 80s. Please excuse the nostalgia.

Radiohead — Daydreaming

Another day, another new Radiohead video. This, along with the song/video they released on Wednesday, will be on the band’s unnamed 2016 album, to be released digitally at 11am Pacific Daylight Time this Sunday, May 8.

The above video was directed by famed director P. T. Anderson, who has created many fantastic movies over the years, including Boogie Nights and Magnolia. Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood has a long working history with Anderson, having written the soundtracks to many of his films, including the oscar-nominated There Will Be Blood as well as his most recent movie, Inherent Vice. Additionally, Anderson directed the documentary about Greenwood’s fantastic side project Junun last year.

I’m totally biased here, but I absolutely love these two new Radiohead songs, and I am so very excited to hear the rest of the album.

Radiohead — Burn The Witch

Two words: NEW RADIOHEAD.

Andrew Bird with Fiona Apple — Left Handed Kisses

When an artist I’ve had a decades-long affinity for releases something that surprises me in its newness, I’m in heaven. As it was for me today with “Left Hand Kisses,” a dueling duet sung between the eccentric violinist Andrew Bird and the equally eccentric Fiona Apple.

I haven’t fallen so hard for a song in a very long time, and I’m damn near ready to declare this to be Bird’s best song ever. I do realize how foolish that sounds, having only heard it for the first time today. The song is from Bird’s ninth studio album, Are You Serious, to be released on this upcoming April Fool’s Day.

It‘s not the beautiful counterpoint that Apple brings to the song that bowled me over, but that certainly doesn’t hurt (especially considering her own own masterpiece was my #1 album of the year in 2012). It’s the structure of the song, the battle between the two, the laissez faire way in which Bird sings “now you got me writing love songs with a common refrain like this one here, baaaaaaaaaaby.” It hits me, just so.

Bird will be playing the Showbox at the Market in May, which is absolutely tiny venue for such a gigantic talent. Will I see you there?

Neko Case — Man

No, Neko Case doesn’t have a new album coming out (BOOOOOOO!). But what she does have is a new vinyl box set called Truckdriver, Gladiator, Mule, which places all of her albums in one gorgeous 180-gram collection. So instead of a new song to promote the set, we get a great video for “Man,” from her lovely 2013 album The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You, which was #5 in the Bacon Top 31.

Love the Neko. Buy all of the things.

David Bowie — Lazarus

On Friday, David Bowie turned 69 and released his 26th album, Blackstar, to critical acclaim. By the end of the day on Sunday, he was dead, having succumbed to an 18-month battle with cancer.

I love David Bowie, and his music will be with me forever, changing, growing, shedding light in otherwise dark corners. He will be sorely missed.

The awesome video above is for the exceedingly honest song “Lazarus” from the new album. In it, he’s all but literally telling us he’s dying:

Look up here, I’m in heaven
I’ve got scars that can’t be seen
I’ve got drama, can’t be stolen
Everybody knows me now

Look up here, man, I’m in danger
I’ve got nothing left to lose
I’m so high it makes my brain whirl
Dropped my cell phone down below

Ain’t that just like me

By the time I got to New York
I was living like a king
Then I used up all my money
I was looking for your ass

This way or no way
You know, I’ll be free
Just like that bluebird
Now ain’t that just like me

Oh I’ll be free
Just like that bluebird
Oh I’ll be free
Ain’t that just like me

And now he’s free.

Yeasayer — I Am Chemistry

Remember that feeling when you played Yeasayer’s awesome 2010 album Odd Blood for the first time, and the opening track “The Children” was so off-putting you wanted to stop the music and throw your headphones out the window?

Prepare yourself. Yeasayer have a new album coming out. Amen & Goodbye, due April 1.

The song in the video above, “I Am Chemistry,” isn’t amazing (yet) but it’s certainly classic Yeasayer. But the video itself is… a sight to behold. Watch it. And don’t give up on it. Wait at least until the dance break around the 2 minute mark. It was directed by a group called New Media Ltd, and I can’t find anything else about the group, but the stop-motion figures are all based on the creepy artwork for the new album, created by sculptor David Altmejd. You can see a few tastes of the artwork on Yeasayer’s website, where they have a handful of teaser videos. Enjoy (?).

San Fermin — Jackrabbit

Early January tends to be a month of regret for me, as it’s when I discover all the albums I missed from the previous year that I should have included on the Top 31. Here’s the first one: San Fermin’s Jackrabbit. This is the Brooklyn-based band’s second album, but it’s the first one I’ve heard. Based on the strength of the title song alone, I’ll be checking out their debut album from 2013 very soon.

Listen above, and I’m sure you’ll agree. And if you’re like me, you’ll turn around and buy tickets to their upcoming show at Neumos on March 29. They’ll be playing with Esme Patterson, who you may remember from such albums as Shakey Grave’s And the War Came, which was my #5 album in 2014.

#1 on the 2015 Bacon Top 31

Every Open Eye by Chvrches

You could see this one coming a mile away. I’ve talked a lot about this album all year, and the Top 31 is chockablock with bands that sound just like this band. But none of them are as good as Chvrches.

You may remember them from their debut album, The Bones of What You Believe, which was #4 in 2013. I didn’t think Bones could be topped, and when I first heard Every Open Eye, I’d believed that. And then I listened to it again. And again. And again. I’ve been listening to it pretty much non-stop since it arrived in late September. That‘s when I knew.

Chvrches is a trio from Glasgow, Scotland. Lauren Mayberry sings lead vocals (and sometimes plays synthesizers and samplers). Iain Cook plays synthesizers (and sometimes guitar, bass, and sings backup vocals — and even lead on a couple songs). And Martin Doherty also plays synthesizers and samplers (and sings backup vocals). Strong female-led vocals on top of synthesizers; Chvrches is defining the synth-pop genre, one glorious song after another.

The video above, for “Empty Threat,” is a fun video, but it’s not the best song on the album. That would have to be “Clearest Blue,” but sadly there’s only a lyric video for that song. You can also see a video for “Leave a Trace” and a couple other lyric videos. “Clearest Blue” is the climax of this album, and demonstrates what makes this band so great. There’s nothing truly surprising about what they do. It’s derivative pop, but isn’t that what pop is all about: taking a well-defined set of tools and changing things around slightly to make it your own? That’s what Chvrches does, and they do it superbly.

I’m somewhat disappointed to say that this is only the second time a woman has topped the Bacon Top 31 in the seven years I’ve been compiling this list (Fiona Apple did it in 2012). Not only that, but I enjoyed more women-led bands in 2015 then ever before, at 10 acts. (In 2009 there were five, 2010 and 2011 just one(!), 2012 and 2013 there were six each, and last year there were nine. This is a good trend.)

While researching for this article I came across this video of Lauren Mayberry singing a duet with former #1 one band on the Top 31, The National, at this year’s Treasure Island Music Festival. Following that, there was this fun little interview between Mayberry and The National’s lead singer Matt Berninger about that performance and other lead-singer #firstworldproblems. Watch that second video and you’ll get to hear Berninger say about The National: “We are the mop bucket of indie rock,” and Mayberry about her musical ability: “I’m the emotional litmus test.” I want to have dinner with them both.

What a great year for music. It took me a while to realize that Every Open Eye deserved to be the #1 album, but after listening to it for the hundredth time, and realizing the staying power their previous album has had in my ears, it’s clear I’m going to be listening to this band well beyond the time it would be merely embarrassing for my son to admit. I look forward to being a grandpa and reminiscing about this band. Or, who knows, maybe they’ll still be producing music then, a la The Rolling Stones. Wouldn’t that be something!

I hope you’ve enjoyed the countdown as much as I have. I’m already listening to things that will be on next years countdown, but did I miss anything this year? Let me know! I always have a couple albums that I regret not having heard sooner (like the San Fermin album Jackrabbit, which I didn’t hear until a couple weeks ago). Until next year…

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2. Coming Home by Leon Bridges
3. My Love Is Cool by Wolf Alice
4. Carrie & Lowell by Sufjan Stevens
5. Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit by Courtney Barnett
6. I Love You, Honeybear by Father John Misty
7. Sound & Color by Alabama Shakes
8. Another Eternity by Purity Ring
9. Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance by Belle and Sebastian
10. Return to the Moon by El Vy
11. Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording) by Lin-Manuel Miranda
12. Art Angels by Grimes
13. The Horse Comanche by Chadwick Stokes
14. Grace Love & the True Loves by Grace Love & the True Loves
15. Shake Shook Shaken by The dø
16. La Di Da Di by Battles
17. Sky City by Amason
18. What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World by The Decemberists
19. Untethered Moon by Built to Spill
20. Viet Cong by Viet Cong
21. The Magic Whip by Blur
22. Savage Hills Ballroom by Youth Lagoon
23. Not Real by Stealing Sheep
24. Beat the Champ by The Mountain Goats
25. Gliss Riffer by Dan Deacon
26. Dark Bird is Home by The Tallest Man on Earth
27. Gunnera by Pfarmers
28. Swimmer to a Liquid Armchair by Ricked Wickey
29. To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar
30. Live in Seattle by Moufang / Czamanski
31. High by Royal Headache

What is the Bacon Top 31?
Past years’ Top 31s

#2 on the 2015 Bacon Top 31

Coming Home by Leon Bridges

You’d be forgiven if you thought the album at #2 was recorded in the early sixties and only surfaced this year. Coming Home,Leon Bridges’ debut album, is 60s soul through and through. Bridges, a 26-year-old from Ft. Worth, Texas, is the living definition of “throw back.”

He is the second coming of Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, and I don’t say that lightly. When playing this album for my dad (who lived through the 60s and enjoyed this type of music when it first came out) this past weekend, his reaction was positive. “I’ve always thought bands shouldn’t try to recreate the sound of a different era with new songs,” he said. “You can duplicate the sound, but they’re never successful in making a hit. But this is different. I like this.”

The album is retro to a fault, however. In the 50 years that have transpired since soul music first hit the scene, recording techniques have improved drastically. But Bridges and his recording engineer took the making of Coming Home to the extreme, making it sound like it was recorded on vintage equipment (it may very well have, but I can’t find evidence of that anywhere). The vocals sound tinny, the production a touch unclean, like we’re listening to a reel-to-reel tape rather than crisp digital or warm vinyl.

Even the design of the album cover is historic. Check it out:

This album is perfect from start to finish. My favorite track on the album is the last track, “River,” a slow, gospel-tinged tune that hits you in all the right spots.

In addition to the video for “Coming Home,” above, there are a lot of places to see and hear more from Bridges. I suggest watching them all:

• Video for “Smooth Sailing”
• Video for “Better Man”
• NPR Tiny Desk Concert
• Take Away Show performance of “River”

No. 1 is coming up tomorrow. If you’ve been paying attention, it should be painfully obvious what’s coming up. I’m still looking forward to writing about it!

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3. My Love Is Cool by Wolf Alice
4. Carrie & Lowell by Sufjan Stevens
5. Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit by Courtney Barnett
6. I Love You, Honeybear by Father John Misty
7. Sound & Color by Alabama Shakes
8. Another Eternity by Purity Ring
9. Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance by Belle and Sebastian
10. Return to the Moon by El Vy
11. Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording) by Lin-Manuel Miranda
12. Art Angels by Grimes
13. The Horse Comanche by Chadwick Stokes
14. Grace Love & the True Loves by Grace Love & the True Loves
15. Shake Shook Shaken by The dø
16. La Di Da Di by Battles
17. Sky City by Amason
18. What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World by The Decemberists
19. Untethered Moon by Built to Spill
20. Viet Cong by Viet Cong
21. The Magic Whip by Blur
22. Savage Hills Ballroom by Youth Lagoon
23. Not Real by Stealing Sheep
24. Beat the Champ by The Mountain Goats
25. Gliss Riffer by Dan Deacon
26. Dark Bird is Home by The Tallest Man on Earth
27. Gunnera by Pfarmers
28. Swimmer to a Liquid Armchair by Ricked Wickey
29. To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar
30. Live in Seattle by Moufang / Czamanski
31. High by Royal Headache

What is the Bacon Top 31?
Past years’ Top 31s

#3 on the 2015 Bacon Top 31

My Love Is Cool by Wolf Alice

The band here at #3 on this year’s Top 31 comes with what I feel has had the most success, at least in the musical circles that I frequent. Wolf Alice, from North London, are a heavily-produced foursome led by original founding members Ellie Rowsell on vocals and backup guitar and Joff Oddie on lead guitar and backup vocals. Those two started the band as a duo in 2010, but then it grew to a traditional rock n’ roll foursome in 2012 with the addition of Theo Ellis on bass and Joel Amey on drums.

This album has been a long time coming, as My Love Is Cool is their debut, collecting the best of the songs they’ve been performing since 2012. There’s a lot of references heard throughout this album, spanning the 80s through to today. I can pinpoint sounds that remind me of all of the following: The Breeders, Garbage, Cranberries, Dubstar, Silversun Pickups, Sleigh Bells, and The Runaways. I’m sure there’s more, but that should give you a good sense of what their sound is like. Rock pop, through and through.

And the album has been heavily promoted, too, with no less than six different songs from the 13-song debut getting the video treatment. There’s “You’re A Germ,” above, and these other five videos, all of which are good songs both sonically and visually:

• “Fluffy”
• “Bros”
• “Moaning Lisa Smile”
• “Giant Peach”
• “Freazy”

Go ahead and watch them all, I’ll wait here until you’re done.

Now then. I know your next move: head to your nearest online or IRL music purveyor and purchase this album. #2 coming tomorrow!

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4. Carrie & Lowell by Sufjan Stevens
5. Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit by Courtney Barnett
6. I Love You, Honeybear by Father John Misty
7. Sound & Color by Alabama Shakes
8. Another Eternity by Purity Ring
9. Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance by Belle and Sebastian
10. Return to the Moon by El Vy
11. Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording) by Lin-Manuel Miranda
12. Art Angels by Grimes
13. The Horse Comanche by Chadwick Stokes
14. Grace Love & the True Loves by Grace Love & the True Loves
15. Shake Shook Shaken by The dø
16. La Di Da Di by Battles
17. Sky City by Amason
18. What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World by The Decemberists
19. Untethered Moon by Built to Spill
20. Viet Cong by Viet Cong
21. The Magic Whip by Blur
22. Savage Hills Ballroom by Youth Lagoon
23. Not Real by Stealing Sheep
24. Beat the Champ by The Mountain Goats
25. Gliss Riffer by Dan Deacon
26. Dark Bird is Home by The Tallest Man on Earth
27. Gunnera by Pfarmers
28. Swimmer to a Liquid Armchair by Ricked Wickey
29. To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar
30. Live in Seattle by Moufang / Czamanski
31. High by Royal Headache

What is the Bacon Top 31?
Past years’ Top 31s

#4 on the 2015 Bacon Top 31

Carrie & Lowell by Sufjan Stevens

Well look who’s setting a dangerous precedent. The last time Sufjan Stevens was on the Top 31, his album The Age of Adz came in at #3 in 2010. And now, here at #4, that’s really saying something: Legendary; Legacy; I’ll be listening to this artist for the rest of my life. And that really shouldn’t be a surprise, given how enamored I was with his 2005 album Illinois. If this trend holds, he’s going to come out with an amazing album every five years.

If you enjoyed Adz like I did, then Carrie & Lowell will feel like a major departure. It’s more Illinois than Adz, but even with the technological layers of Adz stripped away, Carrie & Lowell is quintessential Sufjan. Made up of almost whispered singing and finger-picking guitar, C&L is quiet to the core. It causes you to lean in, to take a moment and really process what Sufjan is singing about. And that’s when it hits you: he’s singing about mortality, existence, and the human condition, and it’s gorgeous.

According to Pitchfork (who put this album at #6 on the year), “‘Carrie’ is the troubled mother Stevens hardly knew, who died in 2012; ‘Lowell’ is the loving step-father who to this day helps run Stevens’ independent record label.” If you were singing about your recently deceased mother and your widower step-father, you, too, would be feeling a bit existential.

Side note: with five years between each of his last three albums, it’s interesting how it doesn’t feel like that’s how the time has been structured between these great albums. Illinois feels like it’s been with me forever, and Adz feels like I was only hearing it for the first time just last year. I wonder how Carrie & Lowell will feel in five years’ time.

This is a beautiful album. I recommend picking it up and listening with intention (something I rarely do), like reading a good book. I hope it makes you feel every bit as alive as it does me.

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5. Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit by Courtney Barnett
6. I Love You, Honeybear by Father John Misty
7. Sound & Color by Alabama Shakes
8. Another Eternity by Purity Ring
9. Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance by Belle and Sebastian
10. Return to the Moon by El Vy
11. Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording) by Lin-Manuel Miranda
12. Art Angels by Grimes
13. The Horse Comanche by Chadwick Stokes
14. Grace Love & the True Loves by Grace Love & the True Loves
15. Shake Shook Shaken by The dø
16. La Di Da Di by Battles
17. Sky City by Amason
18. What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World by The Decemberists
19. Untethered Moon by Built to Spill
20. Viet Cong by Viet Cong
21. The Magic Whip by Blur
22. Savage Hills Ballroom by Youth Lagoon
23. Not Real by Stealing Sheep
24. Beat the Champ by The Mountain Goats
25. Gliss Riffer by Dan Deacon
26. Dark Bird is Home by The Tallest Man on Earth
27. Gunnera by Pfarmers
28. Swimmer to a Liquid Armchair by Ricked Wickey
29. To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar
30. Live in Seattle by Moufang / Czamanski
31. High by Royal Headache

What is the Bacon Top 31?
Past years’ Top 31s