#13 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Vulfmon

January 19, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

It feels good to write a blog. It feels good to write a blog. It feels good to write a, write a blog. Yeah!

This is going to be one hell of a rambling, wandering review, because I’ve unexpectedly fallen into a sprawling world that was previously unknown to me called Vulfmon. Hopefully by the end you (and I) will have been able to make some sense of it all.

Vulfmon’s out-of-left-field 2024 album Dot came to me as a recommendation from my friend Ryan just over a month ago, on December 10. Everything in my life up to that date shall now be known as BV (before Vulfmon) and we are currently living in the AV (after Vulfmon) timeline. Let’s talk about the album without any other context, as I first heard it on that fateful day. This album will catch you off guard. These songs are really, really good. But they also sound of another era, as if this is a movie soundtrack or compilation from the 60s/70s that I am only now hearing, made up of all sorts of acts I recognize but can’t quite place. “The Beatles” are on this album (“Little Thunder”). As are “The Jackson 5.” There’s funk, there’s disco, there’s more than one sax solo (see “Hit the Target (Vulfmix feat. Eddie Barbash)”). And there’s actually a legit Beach Boys cover of “Surfer Girl” that lends to the legitimacy of the other soundalike-but-not-the-real-deal songs.

So there’s the angle that these are songs made to sound like other songs, other eras of songs. And then there’s the humor. The collection of people working with Vulfmon on this album were clearly having a blast. Songs like “It Feels Good to Write a Song” and “Too Hot in L.A. (Vulfmix)” are so over the top silly but yet infinitely catchy, you’ll be humming them to yourself long after you’ve put the album down for the day. This isn’t “Weird” Al parody, it’s more along the lines of Reggie Watts’ “Fuck Shit Stack.” Notice I didn’t even mention “Disco Snails,” (featuring vocals from Zachary Barker) which is the video featured above, and not to be missed. “The simple answer is they’re dancers.”

This is a great album. Vulfmon has figured out the formula that hits the right spot in my brain. But what the hell is going on, how did it get made, why does it exist, and who is this Vulfmon? Vulfmon is the mononym of Jack Stratton, from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and he’s been making music since he picked up two drum sticks when he was a kid. He is one of four founding members of the band Vulfpeck, who formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan when Stratton (keyboards, drums and guitar) started an “imagined German version of the U.S. session musicians of the 1960s” band with his U-M friends Theo Katzman (guitar, drums and vocals), Woody Goss (keyboards), and Joe Dart (bass). Vulfpeck has been making music together since 2011, and have released six studio albums since then.

You may have heard of Vulfpeck’s work, but would have potentially dismissed it as “legend” or “folklore.” Back in 2014, the band came up with a scheme to take advantage of Spotify’s royalty structure to then turn any royalties they received into an admission-free tour. They created an “album” called Sleepify that had ten tracks of literal silence and no actual music on it, and encouraged their listeners to stream the album on repeat while they slept. The album flew under the radar on Spotify, gaining thousands of plays while listeners streamed the album on replay overnight, until Spotify caught on and pulled it down two months later. The ploy exposed a loophole in Spotify’s royalty calculation, and it cost the company a total of $20,755, with which Vulfpeck made good on their free-of-charge tour in September 2014. I know I’ve heard some flavor of this story over the years, and I’m glad to now have a real world reason to get back to it.

Dot is Stratton’s third solo release in three years. “Solo” is a bit of a misnomer, because most if not all of these songs were created with like-minded individuals. The most prevalent collaborator is Jacob Jeffries, who appears on four songs and is now a touring member of Vulfpeck. Jeffries’ sings backing vocals on those songs, except for the Jackson 5-esque song, “Nice To You (Little Yacov Version),” where he takes the lead. But for that song, his voice has been run through an AI filter to sound like young Michael Jackson, to great effect.

Another frequent collaborator on the album is Evangeline Barrosse who appears on three songs: “Got To Be Mine,” “Letting Things Go,” and “Tokyo Night feat. Evangeline.“ They are all fantastic, and her voice fits the vibe perfectly.

In addition to everything above about Vulfmon, Vulfpeck, and the many facets of their music, there’s even more that contributes to the amazingness of this man and this band. Vulfpeck.com is a well-designed, very bare-bones website, currently offering links to buy tickets to the band’s two upcoming shows at Red Rocks and Madison Square Garden (these guys have a major following). The website also has a link to the Vulf Compressor – Stratton’s own digital compression tool for making instruments sound old or sampled, used widely on songs you’ve definitely heard before (such as on HAIM’s 2020 album _Women In Music Pt. III, #19 in 2020). Additionally, there’s a link to the Vulf Conservatory, where Stratton offers a Masterclass in Mixing for $250. And there’s a link to their two fonts, Vulf Mono and Vulf Sans. Yes, I said fonts. Mind-blowing.

I’m sure I could keep digging and producing weirder and more endearing shit, but I think I’ll stop there. I’m hooked. Vulfmon and Vulfpeck, you have my attention (and I’m aware I’m late to the party by a lot of people’s standards, as I watch their 2023 performance on the Bonnaroo main stage). I know there are a lot of links in the post above – if you’ve not been able to click on any of them, I recommend you skip them all and just watch all the videos in one go with the 30-minute “Full Visual Album” of Vulfmon’s Dot. I predict you’ll be as blown away as I have been. I’ll be sure to ping you when the next batch of craziness gets released.

__________________________________________

Subscribe to the Top 31 playlists!

Full Albums
All albums in their entirety

Radio Station
The best song pulled from each album

View all previous years’ Top 31s

#14 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Sunset Rubdown

January 18, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

Always Happy to Explode by Sunset Rubdown

I have an infatuation with Spencer Krug, the principal songwriter, lead vocalist, and creative force behind Sunset Rubdown, whose fifth album Always Happy to Explode has risen with a bullet all the way up to #14 on my Top 31 of 2024. If you don’t recognize Krug’s name, you’ll probably recognize his voice. Go ahead and hit play on the video above, for the song “Reappearing Rat.”

My infatuation with the man is plain as day: I’ve written about Krug numerous times, thanks to his efforts as half of the singing/songwriting of Wolf Parade, as well as his solo-ish work as Moonface. Those two Krug projects have appeared on my Top 31 six times: #17 in 2010, #27 in 2011, #23 in 2013, #14 in 2017, #31 in 2018, and #26 in 2020.

Krug, 47, from Penticton, British Columbia, first hit my radar on Wolf Parade’s 2005 album Apologies to the Queen Mary, and I loved Sunset Rubdown’s 2006 and 2007 albums, Shut Up I Am Dreaming and Random Spirit Lover, respectively, as well as Wolf Parade’s 2008 album At Mount Zoomer. In my inaugural year of Top 31s (2009) I somehow missed Sunset Rubdown’s album Dragonslayer, but nearly every other album release that Krug has been a part of in the ensuing years has ended up in my Top 31 (his three true solo albums released in the Covid years 2021-2023 barely missed the cut as well).

His voice is entirely unique, unlike any other singer you’ll hear. While I can’t define his voice by saying that he sounds like any other singer, it’s easier to compare his voice to the not-unpleasant sound of a cat whose tail has been stepped on. (The sound of his voice is not-unpleasant, but I’m sure the cat whose tail gets stepped on feels much different). And in case you couldn’t tell from the wealth of albums and bands mentioned above, the man is prolific. He’s been a part of 26 album releases since 2002, an average of more than one album a year – not the same pace as King Gizzard, but he’s close.

This great new Sunset Rubdown record, Always Happy to Explode, is coming at us a full 15 years after the previous Sunset Rubdown album. When they released Dragonslayer in 2009, they soon thereafter disbanded quietly. No official announcement, but also no hint of anything new coming out. Of course Krug had his many other alternative creative outlets he was able to tap into in the ensuing years, with no real reason to go back to the Sunset Rubdown well. But then, according to Wikipedia, Krug had a dream in which a reunion with the band did happen and it was enjoyable. So he acted on that dream, called up his previous bandmates, and together they decided to put a tour together, because why not? That was 2023.

From the success of that tour came the drive to record together. Krug has maintained a Patreon account since 2019, where he releases a newly-written song every month. From those songs, the Sunset Rubdown crew chose nine songs to recombine and rework and record, and thus we now have a fantastic new Sunset Rubdown record.

It must be magical to be in Spencer Krug’s creative circle. To be given a call, out of the blue, to suggest you join him on tour, have a great time, and then, hey, let’s get in the studio and remake some of these 60 songs I’ve self-released over the last five years. I want to be in that circle, but I’m no musician. So I’ll gladly take all the creativity he puts out into the world and consume it with fervor. I don’t yet subscribe the Patreon, but I’m about to change that. He’s given me lots of joy over the last 23 years, and it’s the least I can do to repay him. That, and gushing about him here on The Bacon Review. Enjoy the music!

__________________________________________

Subscribe to the Top 31 playlists!

Full Albums
All albums in their entirety

Radio Station
The best song pulled from each album

View all previous years’ Top 31s

#15 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — The Cure

January 17, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

Songs Of A Lost World by The Cure

The first time my ears were exposed to The Cure, the goth rock gods here at #15, was when I first heard “Lullaby,” from their genre-defining 1989 album Disintegration. The 45 had been added to the jukebox at the Pizza Hut I worked at (at the request of my coworker and friend, Matt Leland) when I was 16 years old (so therefore this was likely sometime in the summer of 1990 — 34+ years ago), in rural Oklahoma. The internet wasn’t yet available, and I didn’t have cable (aka no MTV), so in my own defense as to why I came to The Cure so late: I had no legitimate way to hear any music outside of what limited music was being played for me on classic rock station KMOD 97.5 FM. By introducing me to The Cure in this way, at this impressionable time of my life, my friend Matt had inadvertently shifted the course of ~~time~~ my musical tastes forever.

That fall (November 1990) I purchased Mixed Up, a collection of remixes, acting as a “greatest hits” and opening for me the door to The Cure’s extended back catalog of wonderful songs. From that point I was hooked. In the following 18 years, the band released only five new albums, to ever-middling results, never able to match the majesty of Disintegration or anything from the seven albums that preceded it. I don’t know that I ever listened to 2008’s 4:13 Dream, the last album they released until the unbelievably good Songs of a Lost World came out a full 16 years later.

I could have happily listened to The Cure’s 1979-1990 catalog (plus a few singles from the later years) for the rest of my life. I didn’t need or expect any new music from the band in 2024, and I certainly didn’t expect that it would be this great. But great it is, and there’s word that even more is coming (a companion album has been hinted to come out later this year, before the band embarks on another world tour in support of it).

Songs of a Lost World evokes the same feelings the 16 year old me felt back in 1990, listening to Disintegration. The albums are very similar, and that connection is definitely intentional, despite the 35 years that have passed between them. Hit play on the video above, “A Fragile Thing (Radio 2 In Concert),” and you’ll hear that Smith’s voice and the band’s sound has not aged a day – to great effect. (The same cannot be said for Smith’s appearance – the man looks like a bloated Mrs. Potato Head that’s been bleached white from sitting atop the dump pile for far too long). When the album launched on November 1 (intentionally on the day after Halloween, at lead singer / songwriter Robert Smith’s insistence), the band performed and broadcast a three-hour live stream for all to see. They came out on London’s Troxy stage to the sounds of a dreary thunderous rainstorm, played all eight songs from the new album, took a short break and then returned to play 23 more songs from the rest of their catalog. They’ve released those first eight songs of the performance as a live album, Songs of a Live World: Troxy London MMXXIV. It is a tour de force.

Songs of a Lost World marks the first album since 1985’s The Head on the Door that was composed solely by Smith. His voice, his guitar, his orchestration, his songs – The Cure is Robert Smith, but he did not play all the instruments. Smith is the only original member of the band, but note that bassist Simon Gallup has only missed inclusion on two of their 14 studio albums. The current band lineup, as represented on the album and in the stage band, is Smith, Gallup, Reeves Gabrels on second guitar (since 2012), Roger O’Donnell on keyboards (since 1987), Perry Bamonte on keyboards (since 1990), and Jason Cooper on drums (since 1995). That’s a lot of old dudes making great music.

My head keeps wanting to draw a parallel to any other band that has enjoyed the history The Cure has. Songs came out 45 years after The Cure’s 1979 debut, Three Imaginary Boys. When The Rolling Stones, for instance, released their 2005 album, A Bigger Bang, which would have been 41 years after their debut self-titled 1964 album, was the reception as big for it by fans of the entire Stones catalog as was the reception for The Cure? I have no real frame of reference, no way to know for sure.

But it does feel as though this feat Smith and band have pulled off feels unreal. Maybe that’s how he wanted it. Maybe we’ve all been asleep for the 35 years that have passed since Disintegration came out. That was one crazy dream we had between 1989 and 2024, wasn’t it?

__________________________________________

Subscribe to the Top 31 playlists!

Full Albums
All albums in their entirety

Radio Station
The best song pulled from each album

View all previous years’ Top 31s

#16 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — IDLES

January 16, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

TANGK by IDLES

My love and acceptance of IDLES as a force to be reckoned with has been a long time coming. I got swept up in the KEXP-driven mania around the band back in 2018, and ranked their sophomore album that year, Joy as an Act of Resistance, at #16. I hold by that ranking, that’s a great album and the accolades are well-deserved. In 2020, the band’s third album, Ultra Mono, slipped a little, down to #24. Their fourth album, Crawler, from 2021, failed to stay on my radar; I was aware of its existence, but I had no place for it in my listening habits of those middle Covid years. Enter TANGK, the band’s fifth album, here at #16, and the band has come roaring back with a vengeance.

A few factors have led to this shift of opinion, with IDLES being able to ascend to somewhere near the top of my proverbial “favorites” list: TANGK is their best album yet, and it was produced by Nigel Godrich; the band has released some phenomenal videos in support of the album; and I got to see the band live at the Paramount this past May.

TANGK is still a loud, in your face album that will put off a lot of people. But when compared to IDLES’ œuvre, TANGK is downright tame, much more approachable than past works. I have to believe that Nigel Godrich, who coproduced the album with Kenny Beats and Mark Bowen (IDLES’ lead guitarist), had something to do with this album appealing to my ears more than any of their past albums. Godrich is responsible for the production of all the Radiohead albums that I love , as well as the Beck albums Mutations and Sea Change, all of which would have qualified as “best album of the year” had I been documenting my Top 31 in the late 90s / early 00’s¹.

The band is visually minded in addition to producing great, anger-inducing music. Check out the video above, for the song “Grace,” and watch closely. Rather than spoil it for you, I’ll pause here so you can watch the first 30 seconds of the video or so, then leave it playing while you come back here to finish reading. No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you: that is Chris Martin from 25 years ago, as seen in the original video footage for Coldplay’s 2000 song “Yellow.” But this time, he’s singing the words to IDLES’ “Grace,” through the magic of Deepfake AI. The video is a result of a dream Talbot had, who then took the concept to Martin who was more than happy to lend the video to the band, so much so that he even helped them train the AI model that built the new mouth movements.

Other videos from the album include “Gift Horse,” which is a great song with a disjointed, nonsensical video. “POP POP POP,” a song that amazingly rhymes “strong like bull” with “vulnerable,” has a video that concentrates on Talbot’s magnetic, mustachioed face. The band recently released an alternate version of this song with an electric new verse by Danny Brown to open the song. And finally, “Dancer,” which was the lead single for the album and has a video that sees the band… dancing? One of the many things I love about this band is their ability to not take themselves too seriously.

IDLES’ live performances are not to be missed. Their show back in May was intense and emotional. It was also the only time I’ve shed a tear at a live show in recent memory. I was sitting in the front row of the balcony, looking down on the band on the stage and the very active mosh pit in the middle of the floor. At one point the band’s two guitarists, Mark Bowen and Lee Kiernan, came down off the stage and slowly worked their way through the crowd while the roadies did their best from the stage to keep their guitar cables from becoming disconnected. When the guitarists got to the middle of the pit, they began playing back to back while encouraging the crowd to rotate around them, like a human tornado. The sea of people circling around the two musicians was a site to behold. During this time in the show, I noticed an older man (ie: my age) carrying a smaller child in his arms and hanging around the outside of the maelstrom but not completely outside of it. This clearly aging rocker was introducing his son to the wonders of the pit in as safe a way as one can – “that’s one lucky kid,” I thought.

After the guitarists returned to the stage, and the tornado calmed down to a more normal turmoil, I couldn’t stop watching this dad with his child from above. They were having a great time, the dad never putting the child down, staying near the edges of the moshing. Between songs at one point, Joe Talbot, the charismatic, deep-throated lead singer, noticed the pair, too. “I’ve got bad eye sight, so my eyes may have been deceiving me, but I swear I saw a child out there in the pit. Is there a child out there?” The crowd pointed them out, and Joe proceeded to have a conversation with the dad and child from the stage, while 3,000+ people listened on. Through this conversation, I learned that it was a boy, that he was 8 years old, and this was his first mosh pit experience. “Well, this is a good most pit to be in. IDLES fans take care of each other.” Joe asked him a couple more questions, with the child and the dad yelling their answers back as loudly as they could to be heard on the stage. At the end of their conversation, Talbot got serious for a minute. “If there’s one thing I want to make sure you take away with you from this show, one thing that will live on with you long after you leave here, it’s this: if you ever feel down, or withdrawn, or sad – tell someone. It’s important for you to share those feelings, because that’s how you will find out you are not alone. Seriously, that is so important: YOU ARE NOT ALONE.” And that’s how I got choked up, my eyes welling up at a fucking IDLES show of all things. It chokes me up writing about it now. What a positive message to impart on this impressionable kid.

“You are not alone” is the tag line from my favorite radio station, KEXP, and a constant message delivered from the morning DJ and the station’s loudest cheerleader, John Richards. He and Talbot have been very close since Joy made an impression in 2018, and they are kindred spirits. “You are not alone” is such an important statement, very much needed in these current times of unrest. As our 47th president is sworn into office next week, “you are not alone” is a sentiment I carry with me daily, and will lean on a lot in the coming years. That, and also the fact that IDLES is a band of great people who make great music, and KEXP is a great radio stations that plays that great music for us all to hear. It makes me feel not alone just thinking about it, and I hope you feel it, too. You are not alone.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

^{1. If my listening habits in the ensuing years are any indication, it is not hyperbolic to say that Radiohead’s 1995 (The Bends), 1997 (OK Computer), 2000 (Kid A), 2001 (Amnesiac), 2003 (Hail to the Thief), and 2007 (In Rainbows), albums, and Beck’s 1998 (Mutations) and 2002 (Sea Change) albums – all produced by Nigel Godrich – would have been #1 in their respective years if I had written up a Top 31 in those years. Only the production credits of George Martin, aka “the fifth Beatle,” has had more influence on my musical tastes than Nigel Godrich.↩}

__________________________________________

Subscribe to the Top 31 playlists!

Full Albums
All albums in their entirety

Radio Station
The best song pulled from each album

View all previous years’ Top 31s

#17 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Nilüfer Yanya

January 15, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

My Method Actor by Nilüfer Yanya

I remember seeing the artist at #17 – London, England’s Nilüfer Yanya – back in 2019 when she was promoting her debut album, Miss Universe, by opening for Sharon van Etten’s national tour. Yanya made quite the impression on van Etten to ask her to open the tour, and on the crowd in attendance. It’s not an easy feat to open for a powerhouse like van Etten, but Yanya filled the spot easily.

Because of that performance, I’ve been tracking her career for five years, and I’m so glad to report that the strength of that opening act five years ago is finally translating to a recorded version that has ascended to a place on the Top 31. My Method Actor, Yanya’s third album, is fantastic. Her sound falls into the quieter side of Sharon van Etten, or somewhere alongside Mitski. Not as pop-y as Japanese Breakfast, and also not as unexpected as Naima Bock back at #23, My Method Actor is a perfect gem of an album.

Yanya, born to an Irish/Barbadian mother and Turkish father, was (according to Wikipedia) named after a Turkish pop singer from the 90s who went by the singular “Nilüfer.” Turkish and classical music were the most common sounds that Yanya grew up with, and she is apparently starting to embrace her Turkish heritage even more by learning the language.

My Method Actor was produced by Yanya’s longtime production partner Will Archer, who cowrote the songs and plays nearly every instrument on the record. Yanya’s voice is often doubled throughout the album, to give her a more full sound. “Like I Say (I runaway)” (featured above) is my favorite track on the album, evoking St. Vincent in its rhythm and loud treatment of the chorus. Yanya has released a couple other videos for the album: the title song “Method Actor” and the lovely acoustic-guitar driven “Just a Western.”

If you’re a fan of any of the strong female voices I’ve mentioned above, then you need to be listening to Nilüfer Yanya. Much like Doechii from yesterday, I suspect Yanya is just getting started. I’m excited to hear where she takes us next.

__________________________________________

Subscribe to the Top 31 playlists!

Full Albums
All albums in their entirety

Radio Station
The best song pulled from each album

View all previous years’ Top 31s

#18 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Doechii

January 14, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

Alligator Bites Never Heal by Doechii

You don’t need to remember the name Jaylah Ji'mya Hickmon, but you’ll most definitely want to remember her stage name, Doechii. While this may be the first time you’re hearing her name, it will certainly not be the last. Doechii, 26 years old, was born in Tampa, Florida, currently resides in Los Angeles, and with her third full-length mixtape in her short five-year career, Alligator Bites Never Heal, she is finally being discovered by the half-centenarian suburbanite market.¹

Doechii came up with her nickname as she was moving from elementary school to middle school in 6th grade, as something of an alter ego. She had been bullied for her shyness in elementary school, so came up with a new name to represent a different side of her personality. Jaylah was bullied, but Doechii would never stand for that.

While I’d no doubt heard Doechii’s voice prior to hearing Alligator for the first time, the first time I saw her name and thought “who is this?!” was her guest spot on the song “Balloon” on Tyler, the Creator’s 2024 album Chromakopia. That led me to Alligator and I quickly fell in love with the album. There are some great hip hop songs on here. “Nissan Altima,” one of the early singles, one of the most vulgar songs, and also my favorite song from the album, demonstrates Doechii’s skill as a rapper and lyricist.

In “Nissan Altima,” Doechii declares, “I’m the new hip-hop Madonna. I’m the trap Grace Jones.” With Doechii, it’s easy to accept this level of bravado as fact. The music is amazing, don’t get me wrong, but the reason I know she’s going to grow to become one of the most popular voices in pop culture – as big if not bigger than Madonna or Grace Jones – very soon is her attitude and outlook on the music industry and life. A couple interviews she’s done recently do a good job of showing Doechii, the person: “[Zane Lowe’s Apple Music interview]”(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQI9zoqmcqM) from Dec. 14, and “[Nardwuar² vs. Doechii]”(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bjFEMRgOz8) from Dec. 20.

In case you couldn’t tell, Doechii is exceedingly media savvy. In addition to the video for “Nissan Altima”, she also released two other visually compelling videos around the same time this past summer, before the full mixtape came out on August 30:“Bullfrog” and “Catfish.” That could have been enough on its own to carry the album to great success, but the hype machine continued. She performed “live on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on December 5, and then released an “NPR Tiny Desk Concert a day later.

She then kicked it up to a full maelstrom of content, all leading to the release of the amazing video featured above for the fantastic song “Denial is a River.” To increase hype for the song and video, Doechii worked with directors Carlos Acosta and James Mackel to release a series of odd TV-based teasers, using the song title (but not the song itself) as the name of a fictitious new 80s TV show. Over the days between Boxing Day (Dec 26) and the full video being released on January 2, she released a total of five such teasers on Instagram and other social media outlets (in addition, I believe, to playing them on actual broadcast television, “Adult Swim”-style):

Teaser 1: Denial Is A River Show Opening Credits (featuring the theme song to “Family Matters”)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Swamp Princess (@doechii)

Teaser 2: Doechii Slaps Brad Pitt (aka Earl Sweatshirt)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Swamp Princess (@doechii)

Teaser 3: La Rosa De Doechii

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Swamp Princess (@doechii)

Teaser 4: Can I Hit That?

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Swamp Princess (@doechii)

Teaser 5: The Doechii Experience

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Swamp Princess (@doechii)

That last teaser pays off the name of the song by finishing the age-old joke, “Denial is a river in Egypt”. The day after that last teaser, the full video for the song came out. Meanwhile, Doechii and a cast of characters hosted a nearly 2-hour live stream called “Denial is a Stream.” All told, the list of guest stars across the entire set of videos is long, including (but not limited to) actor-comedians Zack Fox and Rickey Thompson, and Top Dawg Entertainment peers ScHoolboy Q and SiR, as well as Teezo Touchdown, Earl Sweatshirt, Baby Tate, and DJ Miss Milan (no, I didn’t know all those names prior to watching the videos, but I’m learning). That is an impressive amount of preamble for a 2 minute, 44 second video for an even shorter (but no less great) song.

It seems all but inevitable that Doechii will be taking home a handful of Grammys when the award show airs the first weekend of February. She’s nominated for four awards, and it would not be surprising to see her on the stage four times. Mark my words: this is just the beginning. We’re nowhere near the top of what Doechii can achieve, and at 26, she’s got a long, star-studded red carpet ahead of her.

^{1. I jest – there’s nothing lucrative about my personal demographic when it comes to up-and-coming or even currently-hot-shit musicians. But I have a strong sense that I’m probably very much in the minority of my peers who have heard of Doechii. But I’m also certain that that will be changing very soon.↩}
^{2. I’m ashamed to admit I only discovered Nardwuar this year. (Thanks Pete!) If you’ve never heard of Nardwuar, I encourage you to watch him interview Doechii (link) and then watch any number of the thousands of interviews he’s done since he started in October, 1987. His interviews are unlike anything you’ve ever seen, and you will not be disappointed.↩}

__________________________________________

Subscribe to the Top 31 playlists!

Full Albums
All albums in their entirety

Radio Station
The best song pulled from each album

View all previous years’ Top 31s

#19 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Jack White

January 13, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

No Name by Jack White

It’s safe to say I’d fallen out of love with Jack White. I had his band The Dead Weather’s debut album Horehound at #14 in 2009 (the Bacon Top 31’s inaugural year). Since then, there have been two additional Dead Weather albums, a Raconteurs album, and five Jack White solo albums, none of which landed in my Top 31 favorites of the years they were released. White did appear once as part of another album: he played on Beyoncé’s Lemonade in 2016.

And so it is with immense pleasure and a small amount of surprise that I can say that Jack White released a wonderful new solo record in 2024. Playfully titled No Name, there’s a very good reason why this album has drawn my and others’ attention more than White’s more recent releases: it sounds like old Jack White, the one we all fell in love with in the early 00’s. His original band, The White Stripes, was groundbreaking – the husband and wife performed stripped down garage / blues rock, almost exclusively with Jack playing electric guitar and Meg playing drums. And over 8 years (1999 - 2007), the duo produced six stellar albums.

Meg retired from music in 2011, Jack continued on, but the White Stripes were no longer. The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather, and White’s solo albums since then have all been outside of the pure garage rack ethos. Bigger groups, more full production, seemingly more “crafted” for a wider audience but somehow much less interesting. No Name is not that. Minimal production, fuzzed out guitar, White’s screeching voice – this is a true return to form, and it’s glorious.

Like the White Stripes albums, No Name is a family affair, with White’s current wife, Olivia Jean, from the band the Black Belles, playing bass and drums on three tracks and White’s daughter Scarlett playing bass on two other tracks. White produced the album himself, with a cadre of additional people filling in at poignant spots, playing almost entirely guitar, bass, and drums. Keyboards make an appearance on four of the 13 tracks, and there you have the full album instrumentation.

White has only released one video in promotion of the album, for the song “That’s How I’m Feeling” (featured above). The song features one of the many scathingly loud and raucous choruses on the album. The video is nothing like the Stripes’ groundbreaking video work with Michel Gondry – it’s just simple live shots of Jack White performances. It’ll do.

I’ll be seeing Jack White later this year, and the strength of this album has got me very excited at the prospect of hearing new and old songs from him. For now, this new album will tide me over. Here’s to hoping White produces more of the same in the future!

__________________________________________

Subscribe to the Top 31 playlists!

Full Albums
All albums in their entirety

Radio Station
The best song pulled from each album

View all previous years’ Top 31s

#20 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

January 12, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

Flight b741 by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

As I wrote in my entry for the band here at #20 in last year’s Top 31 for their two 2023 albums (at #5 last year), I was only recently indoctrinated into the lighthearted cult that is King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Now that another full year has passed since I wrote that, I am fully vested in the band. To whit: I jumped on their latest album, the phenomenal Flight b741, and devoured it as soon as it came out in August; I got to see the band perform a balls-to-the-wall 3-hour set at my favorite summertime venue, The Gorge; and I’ve now bought a ticket, a flight, and a hotel room for a one-night excursion to see the band in another city (San Diego) in 2025. I am 100% all in.

Go back and read last year’s entry (linked above) to learn more about the band and their 15-year history. As is their wont, Flight b741, their 26th album (and surprisingly, the only album they released in 2024), is completely unlike either album they released in 2023. Gone is the barking, driving rhythms of heavy metal and the techno-centric bleeps and bloops. In its place, there’s wailing harmonica, high-energy fuzzed-out guitar, and swinging southern-blues rock & roll. Forget Metallica and Animal Collective, and instead think of Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Black Crowes. It’s a complete 180, but it’s expected from KGLW, and it’s great.

Thus is the power of King Gizzard. These six guys from Melbourne have a knack for adaptation and synthesis. To my ears (admittedly still in elementary school when it comes to KGLW), the only consistent sound across their albums is the “wooo!” from the band’s most consistent frontman, Stu Mackenzie¹.

After having spent many Memorial Day weekends at the Gorge in the 00’s and 10’s for the best-ever music festival (Sasquatch), it holds a special place in my heart. When I saw King Gizzard play there in September, that feeling came back — not just because of the venue, but because of the breadth of music played by the band. With 26 albums in their catalog, and so many genres to pull from, you’d think you’d get a bit of whiplash going from genre to genre to genre. But instead, you’re guided along, each song feeling like it belongs with the previous and the following, as if the band is some aural trail guide taking you on a previously unexplored adventure. We left there feeling as if we’d been to a full music festival, rather than having seen a single band peform.

KGLW also did something completely unheard of for last year’s tour: they had a multi-camera film crew stream every show live on the web for free. And afterwards, anyone could choose to host the live video on their own YouTube channel, again, for free. Eventually the band put the livestreams up on their own YouTube channel (watch “Live at the Gorge ’24”). I found out as I was researching for this article, in the link description for that Gorge performance the band posted the full high-quality audio files from the show for download, again for free. They also provided a separate Dropbox link to be able to download the stems from the show – meaning, anyone could have Cavs’ (Michael Cavanagh’s) drums, or Ambrose Kenny-Smith’s² keyboards singled out from the 3-hour performance, to remix and use however they see fit. All for free. This type of overabundance of goodwill towards their fans goes a long long way in creating the kind of adoration from their fans that evokes the “cult” label.

While being prolific on the tour circuit, they were pretty subdued on the recording front. They’ve only produced one video for Flight b741, linked above, for the song “Le Risque.” But it’s a good video, and it shows just how much fun these guys have together. I’m jealous.

Despite only releasing one album in 2024, later in the year the band released a non-album track called “Phantom Island” and announced that they indeed did have another album in the hopper, that was recorded at the same time as Flight b741:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by kinggizzard (@kinggizzard)

And that is why I will be flying to San Diego to see them perform later this year – in promotion of the yet-to-be-released album, they’ll be touring with a full 28-piece orchestra, and they decided they weren’t bringing the orchestra anywhere near the Pacific Northwest. So, to them, I go, because of course I do.

It feels as if eventually everyone will become a fan of KGLW. They are infectious, and they produce so many different kinds of music, they’re bound to land on something you like. If you didn’t like last year’s albums, give this year’s album a try. And if that’s not your bag, maybe their 2025 release(s) will float your boat. It’s ok if it takes time; I know eventually everyone will come around.

^{1. A quick aside here to give a shoutout to the anonymous writer on Mackenzie’s wikipedia entry, who quipped, “Mackenzie formed King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard as a casual band for his friends in the Melbourne music scene to play together in without needing to rehearse or practice. They have since recorded 26 studio albums.”↩}
^{2. I’m ashamed to admit I never did get around to listening to Ambrose’s side-project album he made with Jay “GUM” Watson, called Ill Times, but I’ve heard good things about it.↩}

__________________________________________

Subscribe to the Top 31 playlists!

Full Albums
All albums in their entirety

Radio Station
The best song pulled from each album

View all previous years’ Top 31s

#21 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — The Decemberists

January 11, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again by The Decemberists

At #21 we find a band I thought we’d never see on the Top 31 again. What’s even more surprising is that there’s at least 3 other bands coming up in the 2024 Top 31 that I would have lost money betting on them never making another appearance. So, I believe kudos are in order for The Decemberists, that merry band of minstrels hailing from Portland, Oregon, for truly surprising longevity, and for producing a truly great album in As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again.

It’s been six years since we last heard from the quintet (I’ll Be Your Girl, #15 in 2018), and it’s the fifth time the band has appeared in the Top 31 (rounding out the five are #18 in 2015, #3 in 2011 and #2 in the inaugural 2009 list). I’m confident had I been making my list since the turn of the century, all four of the band’s even earlier albums would have made an appearance. 22 years, The Decemberists have been making music. And it’s safe to say I’ve been a fan for the entire journey.

I must be suffering from some strong recency bias, as As It Ever Was ranks not only as a great record, it ranks as a great Decemberists record, much better than any of the past, oh, 3 albums. And yet here I am, placing it further down the list than any previous Decemberists album has appeared. Be that as it may, I’m going to stick with the narrative that this new album is a real return to form for the band. I suppose I should have expected that, given the title blatantly saying as such.

All the usual melancholy themes are here: death, darkness, and dread, sung with the same chipper trill I’ve loved for two decades from lead singer/songwriter Colin Meloy. Chris Funk (guitars), Jenny Conlee-Drizos (keyboards, and, more importantly, accordion), Nate Query (bass), and John Moen (drums), have all returned, happily writing and performing complex baroque-pop prog rock music accompaniment.

The band has traditionally produced some great videos to pair with their highly visual songs, but not this time around. The video above is a live version of “Oh No!” produced by the band, and a great Squirrel Nut Zippers-esque song. You can watch the band’s KEXP Live performance to hear a handful of other songs from the album, all great. But if you want to hear my favorite song from the album, you’ll have to tune into an “Official Audio” version from YouTube.

That song is “Joan in the Garden,” and it is a 19 minute, 21 second masterpiece. It has all of Meloy’s favorite words in it, like “firmament,” “mariner,” and “parquet.” It sounds a bit like a lost track from Pink Floyd’s The Wall. And it is wonderful. The Decemberists have excelled at the exceedingly long epic. There first was “California One / Youth and Beauty Brigade,” from their debut album, clocking in at 9 minutes, 50 seconds. Their EP, The Tain, from 2004, a telling of the Irish mythological story Táin Bó Cúailnge, covers the span of 18 minutes, 35 seconds of prog rock bliss. “The Island, Come And See, The Landlord’s Daughter, You’ll Not Feel The Drowning,” (yes, that’s the title of a single song), from 2006’s The Crane Wife, is 12 minutes, 26 seconds long. And that album also has its title song, broken up and switched around across parts “3” and “1 And 2” at 4:18 and 11:24, respectively (15 minutes, 42 seconds total). The Hazards of Love had “The Hazards of Love” parts 1-4 (“The Prettiest Whistles Won’t Wrestle The Thistles Undone,” “Wager All,” “Revenge!,” and “The Drowned”), but in reality the entire album is a single story, clocking in at 58:37. “Joan in the Garden,” from the year of our lord 2024, is better than all of them.

How a band of misfit theater nerds has ever achieved the longevity and accolades that The Decemberists have is beyond comprehension. Colin Meloy is a master storyteller, and the musicians who have long made up the band are masterful in their craft. While I never expected to get another great album from them, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again was a very pleasant surprise, and well worth the wait.

__________________________________________

Subscribe to the Top 31 playlists!

Full Albums
All albums in their entirety

Radio Station
The best song pulled from each album

View all previous years’ Top 31s

#22 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — The Smile

January 10, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

Wall of Eyes and Cutouts by The Smile

Sometimes I’ll get to the end of the year, export the list of albums I downloaded to my library in Apple Music over the past 12 months, and be surprised to learn upon review that such-and-such album only came out this year (as opposed to earlier). Such is the case with Wall of Eyes, the first of a pair of albums from Radiohead side-project The Smile that were released in 2024. Wall of Eyes came out nearly a year ago, on January 26, and its sister album, Cutouts, on October 4.

The Smile – the trio of Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead, and Tom Skinner on drums – also appeared on the Top 31 with their 2022 debut album, A Light for Attracting Attention, which landed at #15 that year. While Nigel Godrich produced the debut, both of the 2024 albums were produced by Sam Petts-Davies, who previously worked with Yorke on his soundtrack for the movie Suspiria that came out in 2018 (#22 that year) as well as his Confidenza soundtrack, which came out in April this year and will not be appearing on the Top 31 because, frankly, I had forgotten it existed until right now (whoops!). These two The Smile records mark the first time we’re hearing output from the duo of Yorke and Greenwood that was not produced by Godrich since Radiohead’s debut, Pablo Honey, (32 years ago!).

Petts-Davies’ production allows Greenwood, Yorke, and Skinner the freedom to move about, opening the door for a more raw, immediate, and guttural execution than anything you’ll hear on a Radiohead album. Between the two 2024 albums, the latter Cutouts feels more amped up, featuring a number of guitar-driven songs that have Greenwood playing like a kid set loose in a candy store. Currently, my favorite song across both albums comes from this frenzy: “Zero Sum,” which has an appropriately crunchy, digital visualizer created by artist Weirdcore (who created visualizer videos for the entire Cutouts album).

When Wall of Eyes came out, it was ushered into the world with two PT Anderson-directed videos, for “Friend of a Friend” (featured above) and title track “Wall of Eyes.” Outside of those two “proper” videos, the rest of Wall has visualizer videos created by animator Sabrina Nichols and longtime Radiohead visual collaborator Stanley Donwood. I’ve come to realize I’m a much bigger fan of live-action short-film videos as opposed to visualizer videos, which have a place more as the backdrop to a live band than they do as a vehicle to carry a song.

These albums don’t have the overhead that a Radiohead album would, and that rough-around-the-edges feel contributes to a more ephemeral vehicle for Yorke’s always-dreamy vocals. He will always sound like himself, but without the Godrich production and the rest of Radiohead to back him up, I’m guessing I won’t often reach for these two albums down the road. Why would I, when I can just as easily put on any one of Radiohead’s albums and be infinitely more pleased? Despite all that, please don’t be deterred in listening to these alternate-universe Radiohead songs. Even a second-rate effort by Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood is better than a first-rate effort from the other 99% of the music world. It is literally impossible for them to produce anything less. Listen now and enjoy.

__________________________________________

Subscribe to the Top 31 playlists!

Full Albums
All albums in their entirety

Radio Station
The best song pulled from each album

View all previous years’ Top 31s

#23 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Naima Bock

January 09, 2025 by Royal Stuart in 2024, Top 31

Below a Massive Dark Land by Naima Bock

The artist at #23 is truly a product of the world. Naima Bock was born in England, to a Greek mother and Brazilian father. As a child she spent equal time in England and São Paulo. Living in two global metropolises, each an order of magnitude larger than New York City, has got to have a positive influence on your outlook on living. The myriad cultures of both locations, and of both parents, must have helped shape Bock’s view of music, because the amalgam of sound she produces has hints of many cultures and ideas, resulting in a sounds all her own.

Hit play on the video above, for the song “Gentle,” and you’ll hear a little bit of Aimee Mann’s guitar folkiness, a touch of Fiona Apple’s instrumentation, and a pinch of Dolores O’Riordan’s yodel. But there’s no mistaking Bock for any of those three, as she is quite unique. Below a Massive Dark Land, Bock’s second album since departing the London-based post-punk band Goat Girl, is lovingly assembled from acoustic guitar, horns, woodwinds, and drums. Generally quiet, with punctuations of loud, it sounds orchestral and intimate, as if Bock is leaning over your shoulder to whisper something in your ear while a small cacophony of brass happens in the loft space above you.

Listen and watch the video for “Kaley,” and you’ll hear something a bit more traditional indie-pop. “Feed My Release” is more acoustic guitar driven, quieter and subdued. “Lines,” released over a year ago as the first single from this album, eschews most of the horns for violin, electric guitar, and a Rhodes piano. There’s so much to love about these songs: the instrumentation, Bock’s vocals, and the band’s backing vocals. It all comes together magically, everything produced to a pristine, clear finish.

But don’t be thinking Bock is merely a studio-assembled band. Watch her KEXP Live Performance from this past September, where she is backed by a full six-person band in the KEXP live room, faithfully reproducing four of the album’s songs.

I haven’t yet heard Bock’s debut album Giant Palm (both albums are out on SubPop Records), but from what I’ve read, the two albums are very similar – that is to say, they’re both great. I can’t wait to dive into that earlier record, and I also can’t wait for you to experience either one. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

__________________________________________

Subscribe to the Top 31 playlists!

Full Albums
All albums in their entirety

Radio Station
The best song pulled from each album

View all previous years’ Top 31s

#24 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Father John Misty

January 08, 2025 by Royal Stuart in 2024, Top 31

Mahashmashana by Father John Misty

I’m ready to accept the reality of my situation: I am an unbelieving, reluctant Father John Misty fan. At 12+ years into my fandom, I’m confident this outlook will never change. I have a pattern for each of his releases. Step 1 is surprise: “Oh, I guess FJM is still producing music.” Step 2 is reluctance: “OK, I’ll give it a listen, but this won’t be as good as his past work.” Step 3 is acceptance: “Yep, it sounds like an FJM album, but I’m not really feeling it. Good background music I guess.” Step 4 is back to surprise: “Wow, ok, the FJM record from this year is a great record.” Mahashmashana, Josh Tillman’s sixth Father John Misty record, is no different – it is, unbelievably, another great record.

I don’t think my reluctance to expect greatness from FJM is solely my fault. Everything about Tillman’s alter ego is an intentional joke, taking the piss of the entire indie rock star genre. From his name (seriously, “Father John Misty,” really?), to his sultry, make-ladies-throw-their-panties-on-stage crooner stage presence, Tillman is clearly having a ton of fun. These aren’t laugh-out-loud jokes – they’re knowing winks that are easy to pick up if you’re paying even the mildest amount of attention. And I’m — gulp — very much here for it.

All six of Tillman’s Father John Misty albums have been on the Top 31:

Fear Fun: #14 in 2012
I Love You, Honeybear: #6 in 2015
Pure Comedy: #15 in 2017
God's Favorite Customer: #26 in 2018
Chloë and the Next 20th Century: #9 in 2022

I won’t be able to give you a ranking of the albums – put any one of them on, and you’ll have the same, pleasant experience. It takes about five complete listens of any FJM album to start really appreciating the individual songs. “Screamland,” featured above, is a unique video of a great song. The video is formatted for vertical phone viewing, like a 6+ minute Tik Tok movie. Tillman has a couple other videos out, for songs “She Cleans Up” and “Josh Tillman and the Accidental Dose,” and watching all three videos back-to-back will give you a good sense of the depth of this album, and really what Father John Misty is capable of across the board.

One other video I’d like to direct your attention to is “Real Love Baby,” which only came out this year, despite the non-album single having been released back in 2016. The song was originally written by Tillman for Lady Gaga, but according to Wikipedia he became enamored with it so much he ended up keeping it for himself. The groundbreaking video takes the happy song to an over-the-top explosion of joy, making this my nominee for top feel-good song of 2024. Watch the video – featuring a collection of Tik Tok dancers who were not originally dancing to FJM’s song, but happened to be hitting the right beat, so are repurposed to appear as though people from all walks of life are all enjoying the same FJM song.

According to Pitchfork, Mahashmashana is an anglicization of mahāśmaśāna, the Sanskrit word for “cremation ground”: the burning wasteland before the next life. While it feels to me like Father John Misty hasn’t really changed (or needed to change) much over the last 12 years, that title makes me feel like Tillman believes he’s changed. He did become a father between the creation of this album and the previous album, Chlöe, and while this album doesn’t gush about fatherhood, maybe that is the change Tillman is speaking to. Only time will tell, and likely another album that I reluctantly listen to, begin to enjoy, and eventually love, to determine whether he’s made any noticeable change. For now, we have six albums that are each great in their own right. There is no denying, Tillman is one of the best, and Mahashmashana fits right in.

__________________________________________

Subscribe to the Top 31 playlists!

Full Albums
All albums in their entirety

Radio Station
The best song pulled from each album

View all previous years’ Top 31s

#25 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Underworld

January 07, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

Strawberry Hotel by Underworld

29 years ago, two seminal events happened that changed the course of my media intake forever. 1: Trainspotting, Danny Boyle’s life-affirming film of Scottish author Irvine Welsh’s heroin-fueled novel, hit the theaters on February 23, 1996, bringing with it a phenomenal soundtrack, including a lesser-known electronic band called Underworld and their top-10 all-time song, “Born Slippy .NUXX.” 2: Underworld released their sophomore album, Second Toughest in the Infants on March 11, 1996.

Trainspotting features a handful of mid-twenties friends trying to make it through life, at a time when I myself was coming into my mid-twenties. Both the novel and the film connected with me in a way that nothing else had to date. The soundtrack features a wide variety of artists, from classic rock of the 70s in Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, through 80s brit pop in New Order, Blur, and Pulp, to 90s electronic artists like Leftfield and Underworld. I developed a love of ALL of the artists featured on the soundtrack, but Underworld were above and beyond my favorite band of my 20s.

I remember the CD shop I frequented in college, and remember the day I picked up Second Toughest there. I can picture the location, the CD in my hand, excited to bring it to my apartment and listen to it. From its opening track “Juanita” through the closing “Stagger,” it is a phenomenal album through and through.

In addition to making great music, Karl Hyde and Rick Smith — the duo that make the bulk of Underworld’s music — were part of a graphic design collective called Tomato that, along with folks like David Carson, shaped the zeitgeist of design in the 90s. Being in school and studying visual communications at that time, absorbing everything aural and visual created by the band, seared them onto my still-forming mind.

I went back in time and fell in love with their great 1994 debut, Dubnobasswithmyheadman, and continued to love them through their third album, 1999’s Beaucoup Fish. As I grew older, they kept making albums, but I started to move on. I enjoyed their 2002 album, A Hundred Days Off, but 2007’s Oblivion with Bells didn’t fit my mid-30s world. I started documenting my Top 31 in 2009, but the band’s 2010 release, Barking, didn’t make it onto that year’s Top 31. Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future, from 2016, made it onto the list at #30, but reading my words about the album then make it clear they were receiving a consolation prize, a shadow of their former selves. 2019’s Drift Series 1 did not rate.

But I still found myself going back to those 90s albums — more out of reminiscing than anything else. I bought the vinyl reissue of Dubnobasswithmyheadman in the mid 10’s, and I love it. But nothing new they were creating in the 2000s was matching their 90s greatness. This is my long, circuitous route to getting to the crux of the matter: this sentiment has changed with the duo’s 2024 release, Strawberry Hotel, their 11th album. This album is a resurgence of the Underworld of old. It hits all the same notes for me, despite the fact that I am now in my 50s.

Hit play on the video above, for the opening track “Black Poppies.” Gorgeous and lush, this song creates a soundscape of warmth that hums with excitement. You can also watch an alternate version, “Black Poppies (Unplugged), performed by a six-piece string group of college students that was put together by the band. Absolutely beautiful. And the band still has a grasp on driving, thumping beats: watch the visualizer for “Techno Shinkansen” and you’ll hear what I mean.

Maybe now that I’m working on my fifth decade of living I am in a nostalgic world, trying to reclaim my youth. It’s impossible for me to not hear Underworld from that biased stance. But I do love Strawberry Hotel, and I’m energized by the fact that they (and by extension, me, too) can keep making relevant, exciting things in 2025. I hope you’ll join me in this excitement.

__________________________________________

Subscribe to the Top 31 playlists!

Full Albums
All albums in their entirety

Radio Station
The best song pulled from each album

View all previous years’ Top 31s

#26 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Middle Kids

January 06, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

Faith Crisis Pt 1 by Middle Kids

A huge influence on what I listen to is my local publicly-funded radio station KEXP. If you live in the Seattle area, you have no legit reason to NOT listen to – and I don’t say this lightly – the greatest radio station in the world while you drive around town. But no matter where you live, you can always stream the station live from kexp.org, or you can use their streaming archive to listen to anything they played on the air from the previous two weeks. So, really, nobody reading this has any excuse for not listening to KEXP.

It’s because of KEXP I first heard of the band here at #26, Sydney, Australia’s Middle Kids, back in 2017. And it’s because of KEXP, because of morning DJ (and Associate Program Director) John Richards, that I fell in love with the Middle Kids in 2024. Specifically, there is one song from which this love has grown: “Bend,” featured in the video above. It certainly helps that this song was the most-played song by John in the Morning in 2024. Go ahead and hit play above, listen in full, then come back to this point. I’ll wait.

Stellar, no? This song is not indicative of the other songs on Faith Crisis, and I have to admit, the trio’s “alternative” sound on the rest of the album creates a barrier of entry that probably puts off a lot of folks who read this blog at first. But once you hear the album a few times, it grows on you, in you, and around you to create this bouncy, joyous, love of life, melodic, polished rock & roll tour de force.

The band is made up of husband-and-wife duo Hannah Joy (vocals and guitar) and Tim Fitz (bass), plus drummer Harry Day (who went to school with Joy)¹. Faith Crisis, Pt. 1 is their third album, and the first to come after the birth of Joy and Fitz’s two children. They talk a bit about how their personal lives influenced this record in their KEXP performance from earlier this year.

In addition to “Bend,” featured above, the band has released six (6!) additional videos over the past year in promotion of Faith Crisis:

Despite the fact that 2024 has now come and gone, there’s no way this will be the last time I hear “Bend” or the Middle Kids. Perhaps this is the first time you’re hearing of them, and I hope you’ll join me in seeking them out in the future.

^{1. With those names, its crazy to me they didn’t name themselves Joy Fitz Day or something like that, but of course they didn’t talk to me about it. If any of you know the band at all, feel free to put them in touch with my lawyer and we can work something out I’m sure.↩}

__________________________________________

Subscribe to the Top 31 playlists!

Full Albums
All albums in their entirety

Radio Station
The best song pulled from each album

View all previous years’ Top 31s

#27 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Fontaines D.C.

January 05, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

Romance by Fontaines D.C.

Fontaines D.C. have managed a feat very few other bands have: they’ve released four albums as a band, and all four of those albums have been on the Bacon Top 31: their debut, Too Real was #26 in 2019, A Hero’s Death was #12 in 2020, and Skinty Fia came in at #20 in 2022. Their fantastic fourth album, Romance, is coming in at #27 here in 2024. That’s an impressive run of great albums.

Romance feels different from the band’s past post-punk efforts. This album is darker, more The Cure-like, with a little more force behind it, reminding me of Clinic’s 25-year-old (!) album Internal Wrangler. There’s still Grian Chatten’s Irish-accented, more sung-than-spoken lead vocals, and the four other members building out the music. But there’s more depth to the songwriting that didn’t used to be there. Hit play on the video above, for their song “Starburster.” The monotone verses that lead into the deep-breath chorus immediately puts you on edge. Then at the bridge of the song, you’ll hear Chatten channeling his best Damon Albarn.

These are all positive shifts in the music from Fontaines, but let’s also talk about the videos. “Starburster” above is a strange, alien mystery of a narrative. Chatten uses an inhaler to fill in on the song’s deep-breath choruses, and the story shifts at each breath. Crazy makeup and costumes abound, all in an off-kilter way that makes you feel uneasy. Then there’s the video for “Here’s the Thing,” which features a girl mocked for her high-school talent-show riverdance set who then finds a supernatural girl group to enact revenge on the mockers.

The craziest video is for the song “In the Modern World.” Ewan Mitchell, aka Game of Thrones’ Aemond Targaryen, takes center stage, as a low-life who engages in non-sactioned car-jitsu in public settings. Pretty sure you won’t know what car-jitsu is any more than I did, so watch the video and you’ll get a sense for it. Yes, it’s a real sport. And yes, it’s ridiculous.

The most “normal” video of the bunch is for the song “Favourite,” which leans heavily on old home video footage from the band members’ families, jumping around in the band’s history from birth to now. It actually feels kinda pleasant, especially when compared to the other three videos.

I’m loving this shift in musical direction for Fontaines D.C., and I’m not the only one: KEXP listeners voted Romance as the #1 album of 2024. While I can’t make it number one, it does speak to the strength of the music that came out this year that I’m only able to put it in at #27, through no fault of Romance. Give it a listen, even if you haven’t liked Fontaines in the past. You may be pleasantly surprised.

__________________________________________

Subscribe to the Top 31 playlists!

Full Albums
All albums in their entirety

Radio Station
The best song pulled from each album

View all previous years’ Top 31s

#28 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Jessica Pratt

January 04, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

Here in the Pitch by Jessica Pratt

Jessica Pratt, the folk singer / songwriter out of Redding, California, turned 37 in 2024. Meaning she was – unbelievably – born in 1987, well after the 1960s. Go ahead and hit play on the song “Life Is,” featured in the video above, and I dare you to tell me you haven’t been transported to some tropical island locale from 60 years ago.

Here in the Pitch, Pratt’s fantastic 2024 release, is her fourth album. She’s been releasing lovely, critically-acclaimed music since her self-titled debut album in 2012, when she would have been only 25, and based on the strength of Pitch I aim to cue up those previous releases ASAP. She’s the closest you’ll get to new music from Leonard Cohen in the 21st century.

A gorgeous, dreamy, acoustic-guitar and brushed-drum-laden blanket of warmth – that is what you experience in these quiet-yet-powerful songs. Pratt’s voice is echoed throughout, as if she were singing on a darkened stage in an abandoned cathedral. Guitar, voice, and soft percussion are the mainstay, with an occasional doubling or harmonizing of her own voice, and “Life Is” is not an anomaly – check out “World on a String” and you can extrapolate the rest of Pitch from there.

Put this album on while hosting your next Kodachrome-colored back-yard BBQ or luau, or have it playing in the background of your next key party. Pop it onto your reel-to-reel, blast it through your hi-fi, light up a joint and be whisked back to the era of your parents (or grandparents?). Pratt’s music just hits better that way.

__________________________________________

Subscribe to the Top 31 playlists!

Full Albums
All albums in their entirety

Radio Station
The best song pulled from each album

View all previous years’ Top 31s

#29 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — BODEGA

January 03, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

Brand On The Run / Our Brand Could Be Yr Life by BODEGA

Wikipedia strangely calls the band at #29, New York City’s BODEGA, a “punk band,” when nothing could be farther from the truth. Granted, my only experience with the band is their phenomenal fifth album, Our Brand Could Be Yr Life (which has a differently named deluxe version: Brand on the Run – an album name I am predisposed to love given its connection to the band Wings and to the word “brand,” which is the type of work I do in the daylight hours). It is most definitely not a punk album.

I guess I have more listening to do to truly understand who BODEGA the band is, and until that time I’ll concentrate on this latest album only. I’ve been listening to the album since just December 11, which is the day I pinged my more musically-inclined friends to ask them “what albums would you be disappointed to not see on this year’s Top 31?” My friend Ryan suggested BODEGA, and I couldn’t be happier about his suggestion.

He recommended I start listening at “Myrtle Parade,” featured in the video above, which is also track 1 of the bonus songs included in the aforementioned deluxe version. That song is indicative of a lot of the songs on the album – catchy, poppy, strong bass line and very much out of sync with the other indie-rock sounds of today. This song feels more like an early 90s song you’d hear on MTV’s 120 Minutes, paired with Camper van Beethoven and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin. Other songs, like “ATM,” or the album-closing “N.A.S.S.,” must be outtakes from an early 80s Adam and the Ants album. “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Drum” stole its baseline from Green Day.

New wave, post-punk, “alternative” – anything but punk. Give some more songs a listen. “Cultural Controvery III” – a jangly, fast moving song on the album, has two similar-but-different slower versions, titled “I” and “II” naturally. The band even released a “IV” that is not on the album. Other videos from the album that you can enjoy are “Tarkovski” and “City Is Taken,” the latter of which has Nikki Belfiglio taking over on vocals.

BODEGA have been around for about 10 years, and the songs on Brand are apparently a retelling of songs the band recorded in 2015 under the slightly different “Bodega Bay” name. As you can tell from this review, the band jumps all over the place in their sound, begging us to commit to multiple repeat listens to fully understand what they’re driving at. I’ve done so, and will continue to do so, as I find myself being rewarded in new ways each time.

__________________________________________

Subscribe to the Top 31 playlists!

Full Albums
All albums in their entirety

Radio Station
The best song pulled from each album

View all previous years’ Top 31s

#30 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Future Islands

January 02, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

People Who Aren’t There Anymore by Future Islands

Admittedly, I have been slow to get on the Future Islands train. The Baltimore four-piece have been around for nearly 20 years. People Who Aren’t There Anymore is their fourth album for 4AD, and their seventh full-length album overall. It is fantastic.

The band first hit my radar with their song “Seasons (Waiting on You),” the opening banger on their first 4AD album, 2014’s Singles. While I’ve loved that song for a decade, the band has never been able to rise above their “steady, pleasant background music” status in my library. People Who Aren’t There Anymore would probably have stayed in that same category if it weren’t for the sense of FOMO I started to feel in the build-up to the band’s September 13, 2024 show at the Paramount Theater here in Seattle. Enough of my friends were excitedly talking about going to that show that I felt I needed to see what the hubbub was all about.

And wow am I glad I did. The band’s keyboard-driven electro-pop sound is well produced and sounds smooth as a Baileys on ice in recorded form. But in a live setting it morphs into something else: expert staging combine with driving beats and intense strobing lights, while lead singer Sam Herring pulls you into this world he and the band have built. The 40-year old singer dances and struts around the stage like an amped up Mick Jagger – lots of high kicks and jumping slides. He is electric, and an absolute joy to watch. After seeing that show, I vowed to never miss Future Islands when they come back to town.

Hearing the songs from People Who Aren’t There Anymore in this setting changes your understanding and perception of the songs. “The Tower,” featured in the video above, is a great example of what the band is capable of. If you listen closely and close your eyes, you can imagine how this might translate to the live stage. Make sure you picture Herring’s non-stop moving about the stage like his batteries have been overcharged.

You can watch a couple other videos of songs from the album. “Deep in the Night” is a slower ballad that makes you feel something you didn’t know you had. “The Thief”, a bit more upbeat, doesn’t have the band in the video, but instead features four dancers in a modern-dance performance choreographed to the song.

I encourage you to also watch their performance of the album‘s opening track “King of Sweden” on Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show back in February 2022. If you’re in a hurry, fast forward to about the 3-minute mark to get a taste of Herring’s stage presence. Then imagine that kind of energy stretched out over 90 minutes of pure bliss.

Next time Future Islands come through town I’ll be sure to rope you in so you can experience it first hand. For now, enjoy People and keep your eyes peeled and ears open for new albums to come.

__________________________________________

White Roses, My God by Alan Sparhawk

Subscribe to the Top 31 playlists!

Full Albums
All albums in their entirety

Radio Station
The best song pulled from each album

View all previous years’ Top 31s

#31 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Alan Sparhawk

January 01, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

Welcome to the 16th annual Bacon Top 31. I love sharing new music that I enjoy with others, and that’s what the Top 31 is all about. It’s where I share my top 31 albums of the previous year, in descending order, one a day throughout the month of January. For each album, I write a little bit about the history of the artist, their presence (if any) on past Top 31s, and why this particular album was special to me in 2024.

In addition to being a judgmental sharer of the music I love, I’m a visual person. As part of my reviews, I share at least one music video from each album, if there are any of available to share. My music blogging started back even before the invention of YouTube in 2005: I had a strong desire to share the cool music videos that I’d come across on the still-young internet. I love how a music video can bring music to life in a whole new way.

The Bacon Top 31, as well as my taste in music, has been through a lot these past 16 years. Sure, I’ve settled into the half-century mark squarely in the “sad dad” scene, but my musical loves have grown out in strange and interesting ways, influenced by my wife and kids, but also by my own pointed efforts in broadening my horizons. A few years back I did a survey of female voices over the past Top 31s, and was appalled to find out that there was very little representation of women in my tastes. These last few years, that has changed drastically.

I plan to do some further cross-year examination into genres where I feel like I’ve grown considerably, but that will have to wait so as not to spoil the fun of revealing who I’ve been listening to and loving these past 12 months. For now, I’m glad that you’re here – and if this is your first year reading, or if you’ve been with me since 2009, I hope you enjoy these next 31 days of reviews. Let the Top 31 begin!

White Roses, My God by Alan Sparhawk

Mimi Parker, longtime wife of Alan Sparhawk, who together formed the core duo of the band Duluth, Minnesota band Low, lost her battle against ovarian cancer at the age of 55 on November 6, 2022.

Low only appeared on the Top 31 one time, for their final album Hey What, at #10 in 2021. I was a fan of Low off-and-on for most of their 30-year history, and while I didn’t love every one of their 13 albums, and never once saw them live, their Christmas EP has been played religiously (ha ha) in my house since I first heard it over two decades ago. Low was iconic, despite never having had a hit single, and the music Sparhawk and Parker made together will continue to live on atop an indie rock pedestal of high regard.

Friends, it’s hard to put the universe into language and into a short message, but

She passed away last night, surrounded by family and love, including yours. Keep her name close and sacred. Share this moment with someone who needs you. Love is indeed the most important thing.
— LOW (@lowtheband) November 6, 2022

White Roses, My God is Sparhawk’s first foray into what comes next, his first attempts at creating something when half of his creative soul has been torn away. The album is rudimentary in its execution, very much unlike anything Low created, but it’s also somehow very much Sparhawk. The electronic sounds, the mutated vocals singing seemingly stream-of-consciousness lyrics, the album is not an easy listen. I can’t imagine what it would be like to listen to the album without knowing its provenance. But in the context of Sparhawk’s life, it makes perfect sense.

The second song on the album, “I Made This Beat,” appears childlike, with Sparhawk singing the title over and over again throughout. It is simple, droning, and on its own: fairly unlistenable. But with the context of understanding that Mimi Parker, the main person who played the drums in Low, the one responsible for the beat of all Low songs, is no longer able to make the beats for Sparhawk. He isn’t just searching for something to sing to carry over the top of the beat he’s made — he’s wallowing in the fact that it was he who had to make the beat, because he has lost his previous source for such creation.

Since Parker’s passing, Sparhawk has thrown himself into music-making, in a creativity-as-mourning shift. In addition to recording and releasing White Roses, he’s:

formed a funk band called Damien, with he and Parker’s son
joined another funk band called Derecho Rhythm Section, which features both of their children
created a Neil Young covers act called Tired Eyes, and
formed a noise-rock band called Feast of Lanterns

According to Pitchfork, next year he’s releasing a collaborative album with Duluth bluegrass group Trampled by Turtles. And he even plays on the Father John Misty record that came out in November (more to come on that).

Low, and Mimi Parker, will be deeply missed. But their music will live on. Thankfully for us, Sparhawk himself has no plans of receding into the background. He is carrying on, and we are all the better for it.

__________________________________________

There are many ways to listen to the 2024 Bacon Top 31. Subscribe now and enjoy the new albums / songs as they are revealed on the countdown!

Full Albums
All albums in their entirety

Radio Station
The best song pulled from each album

View all previous years’ Top 31s

#1 on the 2023 Bacon Top 31 — boygenius

January 31, 2024 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

the record by boygenius

“Give me everything you’ve got”: the first words you hear, sung in glorious three-part harmony by Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus. And “everything” is exactly what boygenius, the group formed by these three already-plenty-accomplished singer-songerwriters, has given us. Ladies and gentlemen, the record by boygenius is the Bacon Review #1 album of 2023.

You have likely heard of these three — each of the individual most recent albums from Baker, Bridgers, and Dacus have appeared in past Top 31s (Little Oblivions at #6 in 2021, Punisher at #2 in 2020, and Home Video at #23 in 2021, respectively (but none of their earlier albums because I had my head in the ground, apparently). And while I do love the music from each of them individually, there is something “super” about the music produced by this supergroup.

I first fell in love with boygenius on their self-titled 6-song 2018 EP. The three women met while Bridgers and Dacus both opened for Baker on separate tours in 2016, and joked about the “pipe dream” of the three of them forming a band. They booked a co-headlining tour in 2018, and sat down to write one new song that they all could perform together on stage. The EP came out of that initial energy, written, recorded and produced in four days. While the EP was well-received, it didn’t appear on the Top 31 that year because I had stupid restrictions about what could make it onto the list, and EPs didn’t qualify. ¹

As time went on, signs were pointing to them doing something more together. All three performed on each others’ 2020 and 2021 albums mentioned above, contributing mostly backing vocals to a handful of songs. And then in late 2021 they performed together as boygenius again at a benefit show in San Francisco. They separated throughout 2022 to allow themselves to headline on their individual tours to promote their Covid-released albums from the years prior. In the fall of 2022 they got back together and secretly recorded what would become the record. The official announcement of the album came on January 18, with a release of the trio of tracks, “$20,” “Emily I’m Sorry,” and “True Blue” as the lead singles from the album. (the film, featured above, is the accompanying video that was released a couple months later. Directed by actress-cum-director Kristen Stewart, it focuses on each of the three women on the song in which they were the lead writer on: Baker, Bridgers, then Dacus.)

The pre-release hype continued to build with the release of a fourth single, “Not Strong Enough,” along with an accompanying video shot by the three singers and edited by Bridgers’ brother Jackson (who also directed the video that features Bridgers for The National’s “Your Mind Is Not Your Friend,” mentioned in yesterday’s #2 album review). All four singles were instant, ear-worm classics, on repeat in the Bacon Review home up until March 31 when the record finally saw full release. It was an easy transition from listening to the four singles back to back, to listening to the full album on repeat, and it continues through to today.

Each individually known for their command of deep, emotive lyrics, and each with their own singing / vocal style, the record plays well to their strengths. Some songs have a clear lead throughout, with the other two women singing harmonies. And some songs, such as “Not Strong Enough”² and “Cool About It” (and it’s great animated video) feature each singer separately taking a verse or bridge all to themselves. Their voices are distinct between them – Bridgers higher and raspier, Baker full-bodied, and Dacus lower with all the edges filed down.

Not only did I love this album,³ it resonated well with my family, and that always factors into what gets played in the household. One of the beauties of this album in particular is my son, who is fifteen and has broken free from my musical clutches to form his own tastes, came to me one day and asked “have you heard of boygenius?” I’d be hard-pressed to find a parenting moment as rewarding as having my child discover a band himself and love it independent of my direct influence (while clearly having been indirectly influenced by living under my roof for 15 years).

There are many moments in this album where the lyrics are so heartfelt and gorgeous, paired with the perfect rise in volume or culmination in instrumentation that it causes chills. The chorus of “True Blue” (“and it feels good to be known so well, I can’t hide from you like I hide from myself”). The third verse of “Cool About It” (with its interpolation of Paul Simon’s “The Boxer” so strong they thanked him for the inspiration on the liner notes), that goes “Once, I took your medication to know what it’s like, and now I have to act like I can‘t read your mind.”

The climax of “$20” is particularly brilliant, with Baker on lead singing “Gas, out of time, out of money, you’re doing what you can, just making it run” while Dacus sings “Take a break, make your escape, there‘s only so much I can” and Bridgers slowly repeating “Can you give me twenty dollars” over and over building to a screaming crescendo. Each of their voices weave in and out, all layers and words, yet entirely distinct to the careful listener.

None of the members of boygenius are yet 30. While I can’t say for sure there will be more songs/albums to come from the band, they each have literal decades in front of them to continue to blow us away. From what I’ve seen, the tour videos, and the instagram posts, the three of them have been having a blast writing and performing together. It feels impossible that they won’t be able to figure out how to keep that energy going well into the future. Maybe they’re establishing a pattern – get together, record and tour, then break for some solo replenishing, only to reconvene four years later. Or maybe they’ve truly given us everything they’ve got. We’ll continue to get solo music from each of them for sure, so if we’ve gotten all the boygenius songs we’ll ever get, the ep, the record, and the rest, would be more than enough.

^{1. You can watch their Tiny Desk Concert or their Live on KEXP performance if you’d like a little snippet of what they all sounded like 5+ years ago.↩}
^{2. Watch their SNL performance from November, backed by their all-girl band, to see how this plays out across “Not Strong Enough.” Baker taking the “Always an angel, never a god” bridge to its full climax is awe inspiring.↩}
^{3. The band released an additional EP in October, called the rest. It featured four slower songs recorded during the sessions for the record. “The Voyager” from the rest is particularly great, featuring additional writing from Conor Oberst.↩}