#13 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Gorillaz

January 19, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez by Gorillaz

Damon Albarn is a musical chameleon. He got his start with Blur in the early 90s (whose 8th album The Magic Whip was on the Top 31 at #21 in 2015). He’s also appeared on the Top 31 with The Good, The Bad and the Queen (#23 in 2018). And what started as a side project in 2005, Gorillaz has lately become Albarn’s main gig. The band’s seventh album, Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez appears here at #13 for 2020.

I’d lost interest in Gorillaz, despite my ongoing love for Albarn’s music. I haven’t loved anything he’s done with Gorillaz since their 2005 Danger Mouse-produced sophomore album Demon Days, and consequently the four albums prior to Song Machine that were released between 2010 and 2018 did not make the Top 31 cut. I’m glad that 2020 saw the release of another great Gorillaz album.

For those of you living under a rock, Gorillaz is a “virtual” band, with four fictional animated characters illustrated by Tank Girl-creator Jamie Hewlett. Musically, the band’s songs are principally created by Albarn, with a large collection of support characters and guest stars coming in to flesh things out. Since 2016, the band’s song creation duties have been shared with a third member of the band, Remi Kabaka Jr., who mans the lead percussion and produces the songs. Together they create a wide variety of digitally-created music with Albarn taking the lead on vocals, often singing with guest starts.

Song Machine started at the beginning of 2020 as a web-only music video series, a collection of singles released monthly with guest stars appearing on each song. There was no intention of releasing the songs as a full album. But, much like all the other plans launched in the first couple months of 2020, things changed. And we’re all the better for it.

The guest stars on Song Machine, Season One are what propelled this album into a prominent spot of my 2020 playlist. Robert Smith, Beck, St. Vincent, Elton John, and Peter Hook (among many many others) appear on the album. Not only do they lend their voices to these songs, but the songs they appear on shift tonally to the range that these voices are known for. So the album often sounds less like a Gorillaz album, and more like a movie soundtrack filled with great pop songs.

The album is very easy to love. Even if you’ve not been a fan in the past, I recommend checking it out. You just may surprise yourself.

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1. Saint Cloud by Waxahatchee
2. Fetch The Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple
3. Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers
4. folklore + evermore by Taylor Swift
5. Untitled (Black Is) + Untitled (Rise) by Sault
6. RTJ4 by Run The Jewels
7. Shore by Fleet Foxes
8. Serpentine Prison by Matt Berninger
9. The Ascension by Sufjan Stevens
10. Making a Door Less Open by Car Seat Headrest
11. Dreamland by Glass Animals
12. A Hero’s Death by Fontaines D.C.
13. Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez by Gorillaz
14. Mordechai + Texas Sun EP by Khruangbin
15. Introduction, Presence by Nation of Language
16. Free Love by Sylvan Esso
17. Miss Anthropocene by Grimes
18. 3.15.20 by Childish Gambino
19. Women In Music Pt. III by HAIM
20. The Third Mind by The Third Mind
21. Superstar by Caroline Rose
22. Impossible Weight by Deep Sea Diver
23. We Will Always Love You by The Avalanches
24. Ultra Mono by IDLES
25. Visions of Bodies Being Burned by clipping.
26. Thin Mind by Wolf Parade
27. The Loves of Your Life by Hamilton Leithauser
28. Palo Alto (Live) by Thelonious Monk
29. color theory by Soccer Mommy
30. Fall to Pieces by Tricky
31. Quarantine Casanova by Chromeo

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#14 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Khruangbin

January 18, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Mordechai + Texas Sun EP by Khruangbin

Things are heating up on the countdown as we get closer to the top 10, so allow me to introduce a nice cooler into the mix. Khruangbin, the mostly-instrumental band out of Houston, produces the best damn background music you’ll ever hear. Need something light to lift up your quiet afternoon, or the perfect mood-setter for an intimate dinner party (held outside and appropriately socially-distanced, of course)? Put on Khruangbin.

The band, whose name is Thai for “airplane” and is pronounced “KRUNG-bin”, features Laura Lee on bass, Mark Speer on guitar, and DJ Johnson Jr. on drums. Together, the trio create a soundscape of soul, surf, psychedelic, and funk that makes you feel like you’re sandwiched between a heavy down comforter and a fresh flannel sheet: cozy. They often combine their instrumentation with light, repetitive vocals from all three members that act more like a fourth instrument rather than anything that would take the lead.

That’s what you’ll hear throughout their excellent third full-length, Mordechai, and that alone could be enough to make the Top 31. But that wasn’t Khruangbin’s only release in 2020. They teamed up with Top 31 veteran Leon Bridges (whose debut, Coming Home, was all the way up at #2 in 2015) to produce a little EP called Texas Sun. Four songs of perfection, so great I wish they wouldn’t have stopped there. Maybe in 2021 they’ll form a new combined band called Khruangbridges. Until then I’ll have these two albums on repeat.

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#15 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Nation of Language

January 17, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Introduction, Presence by Nation of Language

Throughout 2020, when I wanted to listen to something released in 2020, but be swept back to the simpler emo/goth days of the late 20th century, Brooklyn’s Nation of Language would be there for me. If I were to play their fantastic debut album, Introduction, Presence, for you, and I didn’t tell you who it was, I fully believe you’d wrinkle your brow and say, tentatively, “is this… Joy Division?” or “…Depeche Mode?” or “…The Cure?” depending on the song I put on. Yes, the band’s impersonation of our synth-pop heroes from the 80s and 90s is really that good.

No, I haven’t put any eyeliner on while listening to them, but lord I hope the kids are (please, somebody with a connection to teens or 20-somethings, gather intel and report back). The trio, Ian Richard Devaney on vocals, guitar, percussion; Aidan Noell on synth and background vocals; and Michael Sue-Poi on bass; started on their pilgrimage to another era back in 2016. Since then they’ve released amazing single after amazing single, slowly building up enough songs to compile it into this lovely debut album.

Introduction, Presence doesn’t really have a breakaway hit for me to point you to. Rather, the feeling the album evokes is an entire world I wish I could go back to. I know I’m being exceedingly glib about the late twentieth century (hello white privilege!) but it’s less of an era and more of a younger age sort of longing. The freedom, lack of responsibility, and excess amount of disposable income that comes with youth is what this music reminds me of. But that’s also a great reality check, as I put it on the page. Yes, life was different then. But I also didn’t have my son, who is twelve now. Or my daughter, who is three. Or my lovely wife, who is… not three. Listening to Nation of Language allows me to think of that previous life fondly, and to spread that joy around my currently life. Give it a listen, as I know you’ll find that joy, too.

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#16 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Sylvan Esso

January 16, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Free Love by Sylvan Esso

We’ve reached the apex of the curve, the middle point of the Top 31, and I couldn’t be happier to announce Sylvan Esso is strongly holding the #16 spot. On its surface, Free Love may sound quite similar to Grimes’ Miss Anthropocene, reviewed yesterday, but listen closer. Grimes’ has a knack for dark and gritty dance music, but where Sylvan Esso truly shines is crisp and clear vocals on top of crisp and clear melodies. There’s absolutely nothing gritty about Free Love.

I mean it when I describe them as “crisp and clear.” Put on some headphones and give the song “Free,” featured in the video above. It’s a very quiet tune, as if Meath is standing right next to you, barely singing directly into your ear. Listen for the movements of her tongue and lips in the recording — it’s all there, and it’s magical.

There are quite a few videos out for the album, which hasn’t been the case for most albums on the Top 31 this year (I assume because Covid made it quite difficult to pull a video crew together). I could have chosen any of these as the signature song to feature with this review:

“Frequency”
“Ferris Wheel”
“Train”
“Rooftop Dancing”

Sylvan Esso is two people, Amelia Meath on vocals and Nick Sanborn on the instrumentals, with both of them handling the production. Meath and Sanborn have been playing together since 2014, and they married in 2016. They’re adorable, and so is their music. They’ve been on the Top 31 once before, with their second album, What Now, having hit #19 in 2017. If they keep producing records like this, they’ll be on every Top 31 to come.

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#17 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Grimes

January 15, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Miss Anthropocene by Grimes

Grimes, the Vancouver-born digital dance music phenom, was seemingly able to do more than most in 2020. In addition to releasing her amazing fifth album Miss Anthropocene, she: voiced a singing character named Lizzy Wizzy in the highly-anticipated yet disastrously-released video game Cyberpunk 2077; released an hour-long DJ mix under the character’s name called This story is dedicated to all those cyberpunks who fight against injustice and corruption every day of their lives! (which will not make the Top 31); and had a baby boy in May with her boyfriend Elon Musk, which they named “X Æ A-12” but subsequently renamed “X AE A-XII” to be legally recognized under California state law (you may only use characters found in the modern English alphabet when naming children in California, apparently).

Grimes, whose given name is Claire Boucher, is called “c” by her friends because it is the universal symbol for the speed of light. The woman is clearly an AI-based robot trying to pose as a live human being and failing spectacularly. But hey, the music is great, so I say we keep her.

This is the second time Grimes has appeared on the countdown (unfortunately, as her three previous albums to that one escaped my radar until it was too late). Art Angels, her fourth album, appeared on the Top 31 back in 2015 at #12. Where that album was fairly straightforward, Miss Anthropocene has Grimes noticeably stretching her talents into new and different ways. It is very much a Grimes album, with her clear, soft high-pitched vocals spread across gritty driving beats. But there are also distinct guitar and bass-driven strings throughout, with “Delete Forever” (shown above) taking it to her full indie-pop potential.

If you’ve liked her music in the past, then you won’t be disappointed. If you’re new to the magic of Grimes, this is a great spot to dive in — let it be your main course, and the rest of her albums will be there for you when you’re ready for seconds.

P.S. currently, grimesmusic.com links directly a simple Google Doc titled “VOTING TOOLS” containing literal links to resources for registering to vote and learning about candidates and such. I love her.

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#18 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Childish Gambino

January 14, 2021 by Royal Stuart

3.15.20 by Childish Gambino

Time for another digression. “This is America,” a song that came out nearly two years ago (!), is a perfect song. It’s only gotten more perfect as Trump’s presidency has steamrolled over our democracy while our collective blinders to the massive presence of white supremacy have been slowly and then suddenly removed. In the song, Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino, brilliantly raps, dances, and displays in the video the symbolism of a hypocritical world that squeezes every last drop of joy and attitude out of black culture for its own selfish amusement while simultaneously pressing its collective knee onto their metaphorical and literal necks.

When the horrific facts surrounding the devastating and extremely avoidable deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd at the hands of the police surfaced, in what was already shaping up to be an insanely difficult year, the not-really-melting pot of America boiled over. Protests and vigils and marches began happening at regular intervals (monthly, weekly, and sometimes daily depending on where you lived in the country, and even outside of it) and still continue today, albeit on a much smaller scale. The heat of the summer combined with an inability to leave the house due to Covid-19 lockdowns (as well as smoke from months-long west coast wildfires) blended into a literal fever pitch of anger. All the while, “This is America” played in the background in my head.

Things continue to escalate, as our racist president has made it painfully clear that the bigots and nationalists and white supremacists have his full, undivided support. They have been empowered, and they’re coming out of hiding in droves. I’m ashamed at my own surprise at the truth, that this truly is America. This is who we are.

These painful acts that happen again and again with greater and greater frequency, and each day more horrifying than the last — I once was blind, but now I see. This is America. 57% of the white voting population did so for Trump in 2016. Despite four years of constant disgust and disgrace, and despite 20+ million more voters being added to the rosters, that same 57% of whites voted for Trump in 2020. The vast majority of white voters — 73% more than voted for Biden — voted for Trump. This is America. Centuries of oppression and segregation and suffering. This is America.

And Mr. Glover captures it all in the space of 4 minute song.

This truth weighs on my conscience, and I strive to raise my children in a way that opens their eyes to it. I don’t pretend to have the power or knowledge to fix any of it. But I do know I won’t be letting that fucking genie get back in the bottle.

/digression

“This is America” doesn’t appear on 3.15.20, but the song has never appeared on any album. Despite it being the song that has continually bounced around my head throughout 2020, I feature it here as 3.15.20 is Glover’s first album to come out since the release of “This is America.” Plus I needed another opportunity to watch the video.

3.15.20 is Glover’s fourth Childish Gambino album, and only the first to appear on the Bacon Top 31. I suppose I, too, in a way have been coming out from hiding these past four years. The album doesn’t hook you so much as seep into your skin upon multiple listenings. In his review for allmusic.com, Tim Sendra summed the album up well, saying it is:

“a challenging, hooky, mysterious, and odd record that feels like it was built out of pieces left over from a collision between OutKast, David Bowie, Sly & the Family Stone, and Prince. Add in bits borrowed from Flaming Lips, Tyler, The Creator, and Lee Perry, and it’s a mad scientist’s take on modern pop with Glover at the middle alternately crooning with honey-dipped sweetness, rapping menacingly, crying out in pain, and telling tales”

The call-backs to OutKast and Prince are glaring, but it’s the more subtle nudges toward Bowie and Sly that really get you. This is a soundscape more than a cohesive album. “42.26” (most of the songs on the album are titled by the time stamp they exist on the album), previously released on the 2018 Summer Pack EP titled “Feels Like Summer,” is the most radio-friendly song, and well worth the price of admission.

Glover is supremely talented. He has the potential to join the vaunted EGOT crowd. (To date, 16 people have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award. Currently, Glover has only won grammys and emmys, but it wouldn’t be a stretch for him to earn the final two awards needed to complete the set.) He’s a performer, fully aware of his stardom and exploitation of the world around him for his own personal gain. But we’re all better off with him in the world, opening our eyes and reflecting back to us what I and so many other white people have ignored for far too long.

Rewatch the video above, often. Buy 3.15.20. And then use your power (and privilege) to make constant, significant, and lasting change.

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#19 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — HAIM

January 13, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Women In Music Pt. III by HAIM

At this point in the countdown, at the high end of the top 20, almost the halfway point, I want to acknowledge how each day this past week has been progressively more and more difficult to write these posts. The past week has been very chaotic here in the United States, and the next week — until we’re safely past Biden’s inauguration — is looking to be even moreso. Music is most often an escape for me, but the noise of the world is starting to drown it out. For now, I feel the draw to keep up the pace, but there may come a time in the next week where either I can no longer concentrate on anything but the insanity, or — and more likely — I feel I should no longer distract from what is happening out there with my pithy reviews. If such a time comes up, rest assured it will just be a short break, and not a forever move. We all need closure, in so many ways.

/digression

Yesterday’s band made the point of not creating Top 40 radio-friendly pop music, and today’s band is the yin to its yang. The three sisters known solely by their surname HAIM have really outdone themselves on their third album, Women in Music Pt. III. The album is anything but a collection about women in music, presenting a biting collection of songs that paints the difficult picture of being a woman in the music business.

The sisters pull together all the right elements for a pop-rock masterpiece, including personal difficulty and tragedy, fantastic writing by the three sisters and Ariel Rechtshaid and Rostam Batmaglij, who also produced and engineered the album (the same Rostam who was not only a former member of Vampire Weekend, but who also appeared all the way up at #2 with his own solo debut album back in 2017 – a good reminder to put that album back into the rotation. Man, it’s so good.).

I’ve had trouble getting into HAIM in the past — their first two albums felt a bit vacuous. But Women is just a great time, all the way through. Another addition to the great team the band has collected for this album is their video producer, who is none other than Paul Thomas Anderson. He directed the above video, for the fantastic song “The Steps” as well as four other videos for the album: “Now I’m In It,” “Summer Girl,” and “Hallelujah.” He even took the photo used on the album cover.

This album is the complete package. You best get on it if you haven’t already.

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#20 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — The Third Mind

January 12, 2021 by Royal Stuart

The Third Mind by The Third Mind

The Third Mind is a supergroup you’ve never heard of. You may not recognize the members’ names: Dave Alvin on guitar and vocals, David Immerglück on guitar and keyboards, Victor Krummenacher on bass, Michael Jerome on drums, and Jesse Sykes on guitar and vocals; but the sheer number of hits they’ve been responsible for over the decades is immense, including from such well known bands as Camper van Beethoven, Cracker, Better Than Ezra, X, The Blasters, The Toadies, The Knitters, and Counting Crows. (Alvin even wrote the hit “Long White Cadillac,” from Dwight Yoakam’s album Just Lookin’ for a Hit, which has a special place in my Oklahoma-bred heart). Please don’t expect anything like that here — The Third Mind does not produce intentional Top 40 radio hits, from any genre.

(With so much history here, and the many connections they come from, research for this review sent me down myriad rabbit holes and tangential explorations that resulted in “A ha!” moments, and I’d like to apologize up front for all the parenthetical realizations to follow.)

This is 60s/70s acid-rock psychedelia at its finest. If you like guitar noodling and long jam-band solos, somewhere between the Dead and Pink Floyd, then you’ll want to pick up their self-titled debut immediately. The amount of talent on the album is clear. Aside from one original song, the lovely (but short) instrumental “Claudia Cardinale,” the album is full of fantastic covers of songs I was previously unfamiliar with:

“Journey in Satchidananda,” by Alice Coltrane, 1971.
“The Dolphins” by Fred Neil, 1966 (also performed by Tim Buckley in 1973)
"Morning Dew" by Bonnie Dobson, 1962 (made famous by The Grateful Dead and recently covered by The National on the massive 2016 Grateful Dead tribute album Day of the Dead), and lovingly sung on this album by Sykes
“East West” by Paul Butterfield and his Blues Band, 1966 (The Third Mind version is fantastic, and long, at 16:28. Apparently the vinyl version of the album has two additional takes, at 17:03 and 14:04 minutes long, respectively. That’s 47+ minutes of record dedicated to a single song, not that I’m keeping track)
“Reverberation” by The 13th Floor Elevators, 1966

I was first drawn to them due to Jesse Sykes’ involvement. I’ve had a musical crush on Sykes since around 2004, when she released her debut album with her band The Sweet Hereafter. She released three albums with them, the last came out in 2011 (go back and check them all out if you haven’t before). Aside from guest appearances on a few songs, I hadn’t heard much from her since then. Needless to say, I was excited to hear The Third Mind solely because I knew it meant more Jesse Sykes.

Listening to the album was particularly bittersweet throughout the year. I had tickets to see The Third Mind at the Crocodile on April 12, but of course that show got canceled, along with all of the shows from Spring 2020, on. I hope once the pandemic passes that The Third Mind is still able to pull things together to make up the tour, but a lot can change in a year’s + time. Meanwhile, I’ll keep listening to the album and hoping.

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#21 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Caroline Rose

January 11, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Superstar by Caroline Rose

From Loner to Superstar — I’m not sure either title is quite accurate, but it paints a good picture of the dual aspirations of Caroline Rose, whose fourth full-length earns the 21st spot on our countdown. She brings great indie rock with fantastic pop hooks worthy of superstardom, coupled with the strong ironic lonerism of a millennial that makes you want to stay just outside of arms reach, lest you get hurt. It’s a balance not many could pull off.

Her last album, Loner, thoroughly wowed me and consequently appeared at #12 two years ago. Superstar, her fourth, is a continuation of everything I loved about her previous album, and it’s a testament to the wealth of good music released this year that it appears only in the bottom half of the countdown.

“Feel the Way I Want To,” shown in the fun video above, is the biggest hook, featuring Rose’s signature keyboard work, constantly driving beat, and impossibly catchy chorus. The rest of the album doesn’t disappoint, carrying forward what I loved so much about Loner. If you didn’t pick up that 2018 album, I recommend starting there. By the end of it, you’ll find yourself compelled to keep the party going right into Superstar.

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#22 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Deep Sea Diver

January 10, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Impossible Weight by Deep Sea Diver

How is it that Deep Sea Diver, Seattle’s little engine that could, is seemingly everywhere in my area, but barely talked about outside of the Pacific Northwest? Impossible Weight, the band’s third full-length album in their 16+ year history, is utterly fantastic, but if you’re not my neighbor, you’ve probably never even heard of them. The album was #1 on KEXP listener’s Top 90.3 albums of 2020, yet Pitchfork doesn’t have a single article about them. It’s as if we’re watching two parallel universes battle it out right in front of us.

Be that as it may, please now consider yourself part of the inner circle. Now you know. And if you’re a long-time follower, you might have already known, as the band’s debut album appeared on the Top 31 at #23 back in 2012. On top of that, Sharon van Etten (no stranger to the Bacon Top 31), makes an appearance on Impossible Weight’s title song, creating a duet with Deep Sea Diver’s Jessica Dobson that’s entirely overloaded with singing talent. Makes me wonder if Pitchfork, in their lack of recognition of Deep Sea Diver, has a beef to pick with someone related to the band and is being spiteful.

I guess Deep Sea Diver isn’t for everybody, but if you’re a fan of female-led indie rock, you’ll love them. Someday Dobson’s name will be as well known as van Etten, or Barnett, or Phair. Until then, all we can do is enjoy them with additional fervor and shout their name from the rooftops. The rest of the world will catch up eventually.

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#23 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — The Avalanches

January 09, 2021 by Royal Stuart

We Will Always Love You by The Avalanches

“Well-known vocalists singing atop dreamy electronic music” has always been a favorite genre of mine, yet somehow The Avalanches have eluded me until now. Granted, they’ve only released three albums in their 23 years as a band, but all three are phenomenal, and I’m ashamed to have missed out on them until now. It’s ok, go ahead and laugh, I deserve it. But if you, too, haven’t heard of them before, have I got an album for you!

We Will Always Love You, at 71 minutes long, might actually be better bylined “The Avalanches and a mind-boggling number of collaborators.” A cake of fantastic original instrumentation blended with hundreds of samples, with the icing of roughly twenty “with…” names scattered across the 25 songs on the album. To whit (along with links to the videos):

“The Divine Chord” with MGMT and Johnny Marr, shown above
“Running Red Lights” with Rivers Cuomo and Pink Siifu
“Interstellar Love” with Leon Bridges
“Take Care In Your Dreaming” with Denzel Curry, Tricky & Sampa The Great
“Wherever You Go” with Jamie xx, Neneh Cherry and CLYPSO
“Reflecting Light” with Sananda Maitreya and Vashti Bunyan
“We Will Always Love You” with Blood Orange
And other song collaborations without videos featuring Orono, Perry Ferrell, Cola Boyy, Mick Jones, Kurt Vile, Karen O, Cornelius and Kelly Moran

Additionally, there’s another video medley of songs from the album, blended together as a film of experimental choreography created using 3D volumetric capture techniques in collaboration with TEM Studios and Rambert Dance London.

Whew! Impressive, to say the least. If you like Washed Out or Odesza, you’re going to absolutely love this record. Jump on it ASAP.

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#24 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — IDLES

January 08, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Ultra Mono by IDLES

If ever there was a year for loud, positive-change-oriented punk rock, 2020 was it. IDLES, the five-piece band of rockers from Bristol, are very much in the right place and the right time. The first time IDLES appeared on the Top 31 was for their 2018 album Fear as an Act of Resistance (#16 that year), and I was a reluctant convert. It took me a bit to warm up to the band that year.

Sure, there was plenty to be angry about in 2018, but nothing like the insanity of 2020. Ultra Mono, the band’s third album, instantly grabbed me. When the heavy bass and drums kick in on the opening song “War,” you’re jolted out of your seat and immediately flooded with adrenaline. 43 minutes later you emerge exhausted and drenched in sweat, having experienced every emotion in the most cathartic therapy session ever.

Lead singer Joe Talbot’s lyrics circle around easy breezy topics such as the modern sociopolitical climate, class struggle, mental health and toxic masculinity. He barks at you in the angry, violent tone typically reserved for army sergeants at boot camp. And the two guitars, bass and drums carry his voice along a war-torn, muddy path running along no-man’s zone. It’s not quiet, at all, ever.

But it’s perfect for 2020.

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#25 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — clipping.

January 07, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Visions of Bodies Being Burned by clipping.

“Horrorcore rap” was not a genre I listened to, let alone enjoyed, prior to 2020. I use the term “enjoyed” very loosely in regards to the genre, since the band at #25, clipping., is the only band I can name in said genre. But here we are, having thoroughly enjoyed some horrorcore rap and living to tell you about it.

clipping. is more than the silly full stop at the end of their name that makes it difficult to write about them. They’re a trio of late-thirties men who met in various grade-school/college settings: two producers (William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes) and a lead rapper Daveed Diggs. Yes, that Daveed Diggs. In fact, when I first heard clipping., it was on KEXP, and I was stunned to hear Diggs’ vocals singing not about guns and ships and what he’d missed, but instead about gore and blood and horror movie-related nastiness.

I wasn‘t super excited about what I was hearing, but I was a big enough Hamilton fan to look deeper. This was when the band’s previous album, There Existed an Addiction to Blood, was making the rounds a couple years ago, and when I listened I was totally put off and never went back to it. It didn’t make an appearance on the 2019 Top 31.

This new album, Visions of Bodies Being Burned, is actually an extension of that previous work, so you’d think I’d continue to have that bad taste in my mouth, and I did upon first listen. But over time I found myself going back to it a few times. It was the band’s KEXP at home session that pushed them over into the “Top 31 worthy” category for me. Watching the trio put these complicated songs together separately from each of their homes, and then hearing their interview with Larry Mizelle, Jr. afterwards, I found them quite endearing.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you dislike this music. It’s not easy to get into, for sure. But watch that KEXP session linked above, and I think you might have a change of heart.

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#26 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Wolf Parade

January 06, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Thin Mind by Wolf Parade

Starting up this review, the first thought I had was “it wouldn’t be a Top 31 if a Spencer Krug or Dan Boeckner band wasn’t on it.” While that’s not entirely true, with the latest Wolf Parade album here at #26, these two men have now appeared on 66% of my Top 31s: three times combined as Wolf Parade (#17 in 2010, #14 in 2017, and now Thin Mind in 2020; Krug thrice as Moonface (#27 in 2011, #23 in 2013, #31 in 2018); and Boeckner twice (with The Divine Fits at #11 in 2012 and The Operators at #31 just last year). The men are prolific at making great rock music.

Thin Mind is Wolf Parade’s fifth LP, and they continue to build upon the same formula that brought them to mass stardom with Apologies to Queen Mary back in 2005. There isn’t much “new” about this new album — it’s still unmistakably them, thanks to the unique vocals from Krug and Boeckner. According to the album description by their label, the always-great Seattle-based Sub Pop Records, the subject matter of this collection of songs is all about how “…the way that being around too much tech has made our focus thin” according to Krug, but I would never know it. My love of Wolf Parade is purely about the music and the voices-as-instruments of the two lead singers. The same guitar-driven hooks dominate, the bouncy Modest Mouse-like choruses get you banging your head in just the right way.

Wolf Parade was prominently on my brain in 2020 not just because of this great new album. They were also one of the last bands I saw live (February 11, 2020) before our ability to gather anywhere in public dried up thanks to Covid-19 lockdowns. The band always puts on a stellar live show, and while I was sadly missing watching live performances throughout the remainder of the year, the memory of that show, on The Showbox stage, has helped carry me through the drought. Putting the album on in my house takes me back there, every time.

Even though you weren’t there with me, maybe the album can do the same for you. Put it on, close your eyes, and imagine you’re standing on the upper level of The Showbox, ear-plugged, just to the left of the sound board, with a great view over the heads of the crowd on the floor. Now lean back and enjoy the experience. Soon we’ll get to go back there in person.

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#27 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Hamilton Leithauser

January 05, 2021 by Royal Stuart

The Loves of Your Life by Hamilton Leithauser

I love a musician who is consistently good — someone you can recommend to anyone at any time, knowing that whatever album they choose to listen to will be well received. Hamilton Leithauser, former lead singer of the Walkmen, is one of those artists. This is now the fifth time he’s been featured in my Top 31 (with the The Walkmen at #26 in 2010 and #9 in 2012, and without at #11 in 2014, and #19 in 2016), and if I’d started the Top 31 prior to 2009, The Walkmen’s prior albums would no doubt have appeared as well.

He’s damn good.

Leithauser is a crooner, but one who’s taken 24-grade sandpaper to his vocal cords. He pushes his 42-year-old voice to the brink, sacrificing his throat’s well-being with an intensity that not many would dare try. The roughness of his voice is in direct contrast to the pristine, perfectly engineered instrumentation of his music. Blended together, he creates a sound matched by no other.

As he says at the start of the promo video above, the songs on The Loves of Your Life are all about specific people Leithauser knows personally. His circle of friends and acquaintances proves to be ample clay from which to mold, as the album’s 11 songs each form a unique, beautiful piece of storytelling. The album is a fitting continuation of his 20+-year career, and one I’m proud to recommend to you now.

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#28 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Thelonious Monk

January 04, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Palo Alto (Live) by Thelonious Monk

I’ll be the first person to tell you that I know next to nothing about jazz. I always enjoy it when I hear it playing, but the most jazzy my house ever tends to get is the one month of every year that we listen to the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Thankfully, that changed in 2020. As a fan of new music, and good graphic design, I was drawn to the Palo Alto (Live) album cover, so I downloaded and listened. Of course I already knew the name Thelonious Monk, but I couldn’t tell you the name of any of his albums, or particular performances of his that were good. Upon listening to Palo Alto (Live), a previously unreleased recording of his from 1968, I was immediately taken back in time. The quiet, almost polite sounds of the audience clapping, the smooth sounds of the drums, sax, bass and Monk’s piano, all capture an era very much removed from today.

Monk died at age 64 back in 1982, so he personally had nothing to do with the release of this music for us to all enjoy. The story of how a 15-year old kid pulled this Palo Alto High School concert together (captured in the documentary above), the recording by the school’s janitor, and the tapes being stored away and “lost” for 50+ years, all adds to the music’s mystique.

Being completely uneducated about jazz, I can’t give you good reference points for what to expect here. But what I can tell you is that if you love the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas like I do, then you should love this recording by Monk and his band.

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#29 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Soccer Mommy

January 03, 2021 by Royal Stuart

color theory by Soccer Mommy

Sophie Allison, otherwise known as Soccer Mommy, has a talent for layering dark, grim lyrics on top of bright, catchy pop hooks. Whereas Tricky’s darkness stemmed from a lifetime of external difficulty and suffering, Allison’s pain comes mostly from within. If the stories contained on the Nashville-based singer/songwriter’s fantastic second album, color theory, are to be believed, she suffers from imposter syndrome and plenty of inner turmoil. Part of this singular focus on herself is likely due to her age – at roughly 23 years old, she’s not lived enough life to really know how much the world could hurt her. Additionally, it’s quite difficult to make a living as an indie-rocker, and that’s only going to fuel that inner fire.

Allison’s first album, Clean, unfortunately evaded my radar long enough to be overlooked for the 2018 Top 31 — not the first time I’ve made a mistake in my 12 years of chronicling the years’ best albums. (Incidentally, it occurs to me that I’ve been writing about my favorite albums each year since Allison was about 11 years old. Yeesh.) But since discovering her in the early months of 2019, Soccer Mommy has taken hold of my playlist and continues to add to and build up my love for her music.

The growth that Allison has shown in her music from Clean (an excellent album on its own) to color theory is subtle at first listen. Upon repeated plays, the songs on the second album demonstrate a greater intelligence. The same ties to the bluntness of Liz Phair or use of rhyming couplets like Taylor Swift are still there, but color theory shows Allison bringing a depth to the music that is all her own. And this is only her second album! I can’t wait to see what lies ahead for Soccer Mommy.

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#30 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Tricky

January 02, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Fall to Pieces by Tricky

Whereas the album at #31 was bubbly, dancey and fun, the album at #30 is the polar opposite: dark and moody — and if you dig a little deeper on it, depressing.

Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws, aka Tricky, has been around a long time, and he’s had his share of tough times. His stellar 1995 debut album Maxinquaye was rooted in feelings about his mother, who had died when he was only four years old. Just a month after the release of that album, his daughter Mina Mazy was born. Tricky’s musical career has shadowed his daughter’s life ever since, each progressing through ups and downs over the 24+ years from her birth.

Sadly, Mazy took her own life in May 2019, and it hit Tricky as it would any parent who’s child has died. He receded from the public eye, pulled into himself, and didn’t write anything for a long while. He eventually turned back to music, just as the global pandemic was warming up. The 13 albums he’d released up until her death were the end of a 24-year chapter in his life. (Check out his album False Idols at #30 back on the Top 31 of 2013.) Fall to Pieces, released in September 2020, is the result of all that pain and suffering, and the beginning of the next chapter.

On the surface, the album feels very Tricky. He is the master of trip hop, after all, and he doesn’t let his longtime fans down here. But the lyrics and stories the album builds over its scant 28 minutes leave you with a sense of foreboding and loneliness that hit exactly the right target for me over the last year. I sometimes seek out music that expands upon my inner darkness — it helps to spill it out into the world, get it out of my head and into my surrounding space (even if it is just in my headphones).

Yesterday I watched this great KEXP at home performance and interview with Tricky. After a handful of remote video songs, Tricky and DJ Larry Mizelle, Jr talk about his career and what went into making this album. Tricky is quite humble, and forthcoming about his journey after the death of his daughter. He’s in therapy for the first time (at 52!), and he’s nowhere near the end of recovering from the loss.

“I’m getting stronger. The secret now is finding what the point is of being here. I’m getting there, gradually.”

He also talks about the new material he’s started working on with the legendary Lee “Scratch” Perry, for a future album he’s already named Lonely Guess which will hopefully come out this year. While we anxiously await that new material, check out the moving Fall to Pieces. It’s short, and worth every minute.

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#31 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Chromeo

January 01, 2021 by Royal Stuart

What a year this has been. Covid-19. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and the Black Lives Matter movement. Months of devastating fires along the west coast and Australia. An anxiety-inducing election cycle ending in the winding down of the worst presidency America has ever seen. Things are dire, and we find ourselves improperly equipped to deal with it all.

I am one of the lucky ones; I have my family to support me — my loving wife, Anna, and our two wonderful children. I know a lot of people don’t have that built-in parachute. I don’t know how I would have fared on my own, without having people I love stuck inside with me. But I do know we all can share in the healing power of music.

You are not alone.

This became my mantra throughout 2020, thanks in large part to KEXP (Seattle’s wonderful public radio station, found at kexp.org or 90.3 FM), who constantly repeated those four words, and furthermore, proved it every day through the music they played and the collective healing they instigated. Despite the chaos of the year, KEXP was always there, playing exactly what I needed to hear.

More often than any other year, I reached for music as a form of therapy. A lot of what I sought out were old standards — albums I knew that could predictably lift me up out of, or to help expand upon the feelings of melancholy and sorrow I was drowning in. In addition to that, thankfully, the industry continued to kick out amazing new music for me to latch onto, despite them being unable to spread that music through live performance for most of the year.

While reeling in the years I still listened to plenty of new music. As per usual, I had a tough time narrowing down to just 31 new albums that I felt sum up the year best for me. There are some Top 31 regulars on countdown this year, and also a lot of new artists. Some albums that will make you sad, and others the will put a smile on your face. And hopefully some surprises along the way. This first one will make you laugh for sure.

Quarantine Casanova by Chromeo

This almost feels like cheating. Quarantine Casanova, by Canadian electro-funk duo Chromeo, is intended to be a joke, and it is so painfully current. Musicians David "Dave 1" Macklovitch and Patrick "P-Thugg" Gemayel put together five stellar songs about the current global pandemic, and then extended that concept by tacking on the instrumental versions of those five songs, making for a funky dance “album” that is just over 30 minutes long.

They sing about our collective social distance standard on “Six Feet Away.” They name drop Dr. Fauci on “’Roni Got Me Stressed Out.” And in the video above, they sing about being someone’s “Clorox Wipe”. These words didn’t mean anything a year ago, but now they’re burned onto our brains and will forever more bring back specific memories to everyone who has lived through this pandemic.

Chromeo clearly has fun with their music. Over the years I’ve danced through their live set at least once or twice, a huge grin on my face. Quarantine Casanova is their sixth release, and their entire catalog is full of danceable fun. I’m 99% sure I’ve not included a joke album like this on the Top 31 in the past, and I likely won’t again in the future. This album is for right now, and right now only. It got my family up and dancing about while giggling a few times throughout the year. And if you haven’t heard it, I recommend firing it up right now – as Chromeo sing, “I gotta take care of my mental health.”

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#1 on the 2019 Bacon Top 31 — Lizzo

January 31, 2020 by Royal Stuart

Cuz I Love You by Lizzo

Of course it’s Lizzo. How could it be anyone else? I’m guessing most of you saw this coming from a mile away. Nobody would have predicted Tool at #2, but turns out “Lizzo’s going to be your #1” was a pretty safe statement to make in my proximity. I had a lot of conversations about music in 2019 (much like any other year), and of all the artists I spoke about throughout the year, Lizzo’s name is the one that got brought up the most, and with good reason.

If you’ve not yet heard of Lizzo, you need to pull yourself out of that cave you’ve been living in the past few years. Cuz I Love You is fantastic from start to finish, with a huge number of banging pop / hip-hop songs. This was an album many years in the making. She started her career with two independently-released albums that never hit my radar: Lizzobangers in 2013, at age 24, and Big Grrrl Small World in 2015. In the time between that 2015 album and what culminated in the 2019 release of Cuz I Love You, Lizzo, now 31, released song after huge-internet-famous song. In 2016, she released her first major-label record, an EP called Coconut Oil, which notably contained “Good As Hell,” eventually added as an extra song on the “Super Deluxe” version of Cuz I Love You. In 2017, she released the standalone single “Truth Hurts,” which would also eventually appear on Love, albeit in a “Deluxe” version.

And that’s about when I first started hearing about her. Not enough to really start paying attention, but it started to be impossible to escape her name popping up. Then, in January 2019, “Juice,” the true lead single from Love, (and featured above), started to get play on KEXP and I could ignore her no longer. The full Love album came out in April, and I’ve listened to that album at least once a week ever since.

It is SO GOOD.

The album and its surrounding hoopla reminds me a lot of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s ascendance to the top of the world back in 2012. The duo was inescapable, and their album, The Heist, (#8 that year), was chock full of phenomenal hits. Unlike Macklemore, Lizzo has the full weight of a major label (Atlantic Records) behind her. Like Billie Eilish at #12, Lizzo and her people have mastered the marketing side of the equation, to great effect. In addition to “Juice” above, Lizzo has released seven other videos from Cuz I Love You:

“Good as Hell,” two versions: original from 2016 and new version just released back in December.
“Water Me”, originally released back in 2017.
“Truth Hurts,” originally from the Coconut Oil EP in 2017.
“Boys,” which came out in 2018.
“Cuz I Love You,” the second single released from the album, came out in February.
“Tempo,” with Missy Elliott, came out back in July.

As you can see, Lizzo, whose real name is Melissa Viviane Jefferson, does not look like your typical pop diva. How she carries herself is a definite part of her overall charm. As the lyrics to “Exactly How I Feel” say:

Love me or hate me
Ooh, I ain't changing
And I don't give a fuck, no

I don’t believe that she doesn’t give any fucks, but I do think the fucks she does give are not what you would call “typical.” She wants to be loved and accepted for who she is and how she is, and she is consequently the best embodiment of the word “empowerment” you will find out there in 2020. This album is sexy and raunchy, but in the most positive way. As a middle-aged white man, I’ll admit it’s a bit odd to hear myself loudly sing “Once upon a time, I was a ho; I don't even wanna ho no mo,” but her music is so infectious, her charisma so potent, you can’t help but be moved to join in.

Some years I have trouble knowing who I want to put atop the list. Other years, it’s much easier. This was one of the easier years. I knew back in, oh, October, that this was going to be my #1 album of the year. Lizzo dominated 2019, and all signs are pointing to her dominating 2020 and beyond as well. I plan to be right there alongside her.

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2. Fear Inoculum by Tool
3. Father of the Bride by Vampire Weekend
4. Two Hands + U.F.O.F. by Big Thief
5. Remind Me Tomorrow by Sharon Van Etten
6. I Am Easy to Find by The National
7. 5 + 7 by Sault
8. Giants of All Sizes by Elbow
9. i,i by Bon Iver
10. Kiwanuka by Michael Kiwanuka
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

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