#7 on the 2025 Bacon Top 31 — The Mountain Goats

January 25, 2026 by Royal Stuart in 2025, Top 31

Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan by The Mountain Goats

Car Seat Headrest’s concept album The Scholars (at #8) was built on a dream-like, convoluted story that you could easily disregard and still love the music. In stark contrast, the concept album here at #7, the fantastic 23rd (!) album from Claremont, California-via-Durham, North Carolina stalwarts The Mountain Goats, is grounded in a linear, easy-to-follow narrative that is so present in the lyrics and up-front in the vocal arrangement that it is impossible to separate from the music. Neither album should be considered lesser to the other, nor an “incorrect” way to create a concept album — if the idea of “concept album” were a spectrum, Scholars would be on one end and Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan on the other.

The name “Peter Balkan” came to John Darnielle, The Mountain Goats’ lead singer/songwriter, in a dream, along with the album title. The story starts with a fishing boat carrying 16 men sinking in a rough storm, leaving the three survivors (the narrator, Peter Balkan, and us – the listener) stranded on a beach. “Cold at Night” (featured in the video above) tells the story of them immediately after the ship has gone down, making their way to shore. The next few songs bring us, rhyming couplet after rhyming couplet, through the travails of the trio over the next few days. The other video from the album, for the song “Armies of the Lord,” has our crew nearing the end and thinking of those lost. By the song after that, “Your Glow,” Peter Balkan has “disappeared” (died?) and we (the listener) are “well on our way.” The last song in the story, “Broken to Begin With,” sings of the demise of our narrator, bittersweetly repeating the empowering refrain started in “Cold at Night”: “The first thing you learn is how far you can go with no gas in the tank / And the next thing you learn is how cold it can get at night.”

In spite of the obvious recency bias, I have no qualms saying that Peter Balkan is my favorite Mountain Goats album. Two previous albums of theirs, Beat the Champ and Transcendental Youth have featured on the Top 31 (#24 in 2015 and #19 in 2012, respectively), but they don’t hold a candle to this epic tale of oceanic demise. Overall, there are better Mountain Goats songs scattered throughout their 35 year history than any one song on this latest album, but when taken on the whole no other Mountain Goats album comes close.

But The Mountain Goats aren’t for everyone. The driving force behind the band is John Darnielle, who started the “band” on his own, releasing his first album (just his voice and his guitar) — recorded direct-to-cassette on a Panasonic boom box — in 1991. Darnielle has an amazing way with words (The New Yorker called him “America's best non-hip-hop lyricist” in 2005) and a singing voice that is more “middle-class caucasian” than “melodic.” But his lyricism and consistent output has given him a cult-like following in the ensuing 3+ decades.

Peter Balkan is the most orchestral the Goats have ever been, giving the album a “Broadway Original Recording” vibe. Strings, horns, and backing vocals by none other than Lin-Manuel Miranda (on four songs, including “Cold at Night” above) all feature prominently throughout. Tommy Stinson, bassist from the seminal The Replacements, features on my two favorite tracks as well, “Cold at Night” and “Dawn of Revelation.” You can get a great sense of everything working seamlessly together (with Miranda replaced by two female backup singers) on the band’s performance of “Cold at Night” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert from December.

Like Cheekface (at #13), it’s impossible to not smile and get pumped up watching Darnielle perform. He is not your typical lead singer, I would not call him graceful, but he is so god damn earnest. It’s clear he is doing exactly what he should be doing in life, and we’re all lucky to have him. If you’re unfamiliar with The Mountain Goats, give Peter Balkan a shot. Don’t give up after one or two songs – give it a full, undivided listen. If it’s still not for you, rest assured you gave it your all, and that’s fine because it means there will be one less person to be fighting over a seat with next time they come to town.

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#13 on the 2025 Bacon Top 31 — Cheekface

January 19, 2026 by Royal Stuart in 2025, Top 31

Middle Spoon by Cheekface

If Daughter of Swords defined their 2025 album Alex as “a happy-sounding record about the death of humanity on planet Earth” (as read at #15 this year), then I wonder what pithy way the Los Angeles band Cheekface would define their fantastic fifth album, Middle Spoon. Every single album that the trio has released since they formed in 2017 has been pretty much that: dark and dire topics conveyed via bouncy, can’t-help-but-smile hooks.

Middle Spoon is the third Cheekface album to be featured on the Top 31. Their third album Too Much To Ask was (mis-ranked a little too low given how much I still listen to it) at #22 in 2022, and their fourth, It’s Sorted, was (more appropriately ranked) at #8 in 2024. The only reason their first two albums did not make the Top 31 is because I hadn’t yet heard of them, which is a travesty.

Their 2025 album is a continuation of everything great about their previous albums: Greg Katz’s co-songwriting, lead vocals and guitar; Mandy Tannen’s co-songwriting, background vocals and bass; and Mark “Echo” Edwards’ drums sound every bit as good as they always have. They started off near the top of their game, and they just continue to tweak and refine, making the listening experience even better each time.

“Living Lo-Fi” (featured in the video above) is a great example. Upbeat, infectious groove with a killer, infinitely repeatable chorus that you want to learn every word of so you can shout it at the top of your lungs when it rolls around. “Flies,” the other video they released for this record, is equally fun.

My favorite from the record is an already-classic Cheekface song called “Art House.” The chorus is so so good:

You’re an independent movie
And you’re a little hard to follow
And I can only turn you on if I want to get confused
You are a gray and grainy scene
You are not big on dialogue
And I can only turn you on if I want to get confused
Here on the sticky art house floor
You have a weird love language
And it’s hard to read even with the subtitles on
You’re an independent movie
And you‘re so hard to follow
And I can only turn you on if I want to get confused

I’m a big fan of dad jokes (being in my 50s and a dad), and the longform pun that makes up that chorus feels like it’s written just for me.

I learned via the Middle Spoon Full Album Commentary they band put out after the release that for this album, the band had the joy of getting to replace what would normally have been synthesized sounds with real instruments. Grand piano, Hammond B3 complete with Leslie Amp, a live harp, even harmonicas apparently once spit upon by the one and only Elliott Smith (found in a box labeled “Elliott’s Harmonicas” at the studio they recorded the album in) all make appearances throughout.

One of the best things about Cheekface is their connection to their fans. Self-proclaimed as “America’s Local Band,” they remain fiercely independent, doing all of their own promotion and album releases. This year they started up a fan club called The Stubbs Clubb, which is a value at just $7.11 a month. Free merch and special content come your way, and you get to feel good spending your money on something that brings you pure joy – a difficult thing to come by here in the Year of our Lord 2026.

I got to feel that joy first hand (for the 2nd time) when the band came through town in May 2025. Their shows are legendary affairs, and I highly recommend you go check them out next time they play your hometown. Remember the “infinitely repeatable choruses” I mentioned above? That comes out in spades by the sold-out crowd. There is nothing like the feeling of singing loudly along to your favorite songs with 700+ other people. The effort the band puts into keeping a connection with their fans pays off in spaces when the fans get to return that favor at these shows.

I used to call a Flaming Lips show “the happiest place on Earth,” (but having seen them this past summer, I have to say lead singer Wayne Coyne’s demands for “more energy!” from the stage make it feel more like work than fun nowadays). Now? That title goes to a Cheekface show. It is truly the happiest place on Earth – your cheeks will hurt trying to smile as broadly as lead singer Greg Katz does throughout the entire set. Seriously, I can’t wait for the band to come back through town, and I also can’t wait for whatever they put out next. I hope by now you’re on this train with me – but if not, be sure to get on at the next station. It’s quite the ride!

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#24 on the 2025 Bacon Top 31 — Panda Bear

January 08, 2026 by Royal Stuart in 2025, Top 31

Sinister Grift by Panda Bear

The artist at #24 has been with the Bacon Top 31 since the very beginning. Panda Bear, whose real name is Noah Lennox, is a founding and current member of Animal Collective, whose 2009 album Merriweather Post Pavilion was #3 in 2009 and is likely the album I’ve listened to the most from that year’s top 10. (Does that make Merriweather the actual best album of 2009? Likely. But that’s a discussion for another day.)

Born in 1978, Panda Bear started producing music at 21/22 years old, with the release of his self-titled debut album in 1999. His first official album with Animal Collective is their debut album, Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished¹ from the year 2000. Since then, Lennox and his Animal Collective friends have been making music together and in various combinations of solo, duos, and triples ever since. In addition to the 12 albums Animal Collective have released, Panda Bear has released eight other albums, putting him at a pace of roughly three albums every four years for the past 26 years.

That is one hell of a pace for a person to be creating music. Granted, not one of those albums since the release of Merriweather has broken into the Top 31 until now. But to have been making music practically non-stop since 2000 and to still create something unexpected, relevant, and pleasing 26 years later is a huge accomplishment.

Sinister Grift, Panda Bear’s eighth official solo album, is pure joy, and unmistakably Panda Bear. It’s full of bouncy melodies, copious amounts of reverb, and doubled/tripled/quadrupled Beach-Boy-like harmonies. Engineered and mixed by Lennox’s second-grade classmate and Animal Collective bandmate Deakin (real name: Josh Dibb), you could easily mistake the album as being from the full Collective rather than just the two of them.

Numerous people helped with the album, including the other two members of Animal Collective, Geologist (real name: Brian Weltz) and Avey Tare (real name: David Portner), on a handful of songs. Cindy Lee, whose triple album Diamond Jubilee was on the Top 31 at #7 last year, performs on the wonderful song “Defense,” dropping in a masterful guitar solo in the middle of the song.

The video above, for the song “Ferry Lady,” is indicative of Panda Bear and Animal Collective’s trippy aesthetic. Just watch 30 seconds of the video above and you’ll swear someone has dropped something in your orange juice. The video for “Praise” is equally psychedelic.

Lennox put together an actual live band to tour the new album, a first for the Collective. You can watch them perform three songs on their “Tiny Desk Concert” for NPR earlier this year. I had the pleasure of seeing Panda Bear on the band’s tour back in May, and it was lovely if a little underwhelming. Through no fault of their own, I was seeing the band in the middle of my busiest show-going week of the year. Sandwiched between Sharon van Etten, Kendrick & SZA, and Jack White on one side, and Cheekface and Black Country, New Road on the other, my brain and body were experiencing live-show overload, and I was not prepared for the mellow chillwave ² attack that Panda Bear delivered.

I’ve been listening to Sinister Grift on repeat all day today, and I’m now beginning to wonder if I’ve underestimated the staying power of this album. Outside of Animal Collective’s Merriweather and their 2005 album Feels, I have a feeling this new album by Panda Bear is going to keep finding its way back into my rotation. Maybe you’ll feel the same way.

^{1. This album was actually first released as an album by Avey Tare and Panda Bear. It was reclassified as the debut album by Animal Collective sometime later.↩}
^{2. Panda Bear’s unbelievably good 2007 album Person Pitch is credited as the start of the electronic music microgenre “chillwave.” That album, and subsequent songs by Animal Collective and others, carved out a fairly substantial area of the music industry for themselves, resulting in the rise of bands like Neon Indian, Washed Out, and Toro y Moi.↩}

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#8 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Cheekface

January 24, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

It’s Sorted by Cheekface

I like humor in music. In the Top 31 so far this year we’ve got Father John Misty (over the top crooner), King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (good ol’ boys), Vulfmon (downright silly), and even yesterday’s artist, MJ Lenderman, is humorous in his own ironic, lyrical way. The band here at #8, LA’s Cheekface, excels at dry, matter-of-fact humor – the exact kind of humor living in today’s uber-politicized world requires.¹ To whit:

I just want to be popular to watch
In the movie you put on from the camera on your porch
Your across-the-street neighbor walks his dog on TV
The future is now, unfortunately
And if I’m never, ever gonna be alone
Here in my community neighborhood home
Then I wanna be popular to watch
In the movie you put on from the camera on your porch

That, dear friends, is the chorus for “Popular 2,” my favorite song from Cheekface’s 4th rockin’ album, It’s Sorted. I can’t describe what a sense of accomplishment I felt when I was able to finally sing that verse word-for-word by memory. It’s so good! Is this musically challenging, ground breaking music? No! Does it make me smile, repeatedly, on every listen? Yes! Do I regularly put exclamation points in my reviews? No! Does Cheekface make me want to use exclamation points? Yes!

I don’t know about you, but I can’t handle a lot of what’s going on in the world right now. Music has the magical power to take you in all kinds of directions: sadness, elation, anger, happiness, emotional, gleeful. Which direction is not necessarily the point, as long as that direction is away from the right now. Cheekface’s magic is that they keep you mostly grounded in the right now, with blunt reality tinged by dry, direct delivery, while still managing to pull you away to some new reality where the absurdity of life is humorous.

The song “Don’t Stop Believing,” very similar to “Indian Summer” by Beat Happening, features the lines “Everyone cool will die. Everyone weird will also die. What lives on is the destruction caused my market economics. Being unique does not fit neatly into the grid of corporate needs. Still, I work like a dog doing a dog day’s work, and who could blame me? I live in a society.” There is nothing funny about those lives. They’re bleak and sad. But lead singer Greg Katz’s baritone delivery is comical. He stumbles over himself trying to cram in the line about working like a dog. It doesn’t fit the beat, but he successfully pulls it off.

The chorus for “Plastic” goes like this: “Everything is gray now, do you like it? You know I only want it if you want it. Whatever you need now, we can make it out of plastic.” These are not song lyrics, this is a letter from a pen pal who’s on the verge of a mental breakdown. The bridge of the same song is a call-and-response with “Is there recycling?” followed by “It’s sorted.” It doesn’t have to make sense, it just has to make me smile.

I first covered Cheekface for their great third album, Too Much to Ask at #22 in 2022. Here we are two years later and that album still sees regular airplay in my home, along with It’s Sorted. “Life in a Bag” (featured in the video above) is one of many highlights across the album. Each song I listen to as I write this review compels me to put the lyrics here in writing – they’re all just so nonsensical but somehow make all the sense in the world. But I’ll stop – just go listen to the damn thing yourself and watch the lyrics as you do.

You can meet the entire band (Greg Katz on lead vocals and guitar, Mandy Tannen on backing vocals and bass, and Mark “Echo” Edwards on drums) by watching the It’s Sorted Album Commentary the band put out in support of the record. One of the more amazing and endearing things about the band is they self-release and self-promote everything they do. The band is very active on social media, their albums come out on Katz’s own New Professor Music record label, and they have toured extensively for the short few years that I’ve known of them.

I saw Cheekface in 2022, missed them last year, but am excited to get to see them again, at Neumos on May 23. Based on the number of “5th album” talk happening in their social posts and on the band’s hosted Discord, I’m confident their next album will be out by then. At the show, there will be lots of singing along, shouting at key moments, likely Katz leading us in some guided dancing, like we are the puppets and he holds the strings. Cheekface shows are very interactive. And the best part? I am very confident that my cheeks will hurt from smiling by the end of the show. Maybe that’s why they call themselves Cheekface.

^{1. Wikipedia take all the fun out of describing the fun that is Cheekface: “The group's songs, characterized by [lead singer Greg] Katz’s talk-singing, are typically short and lyrics-driven with a dry sense of humor and tend to share a thematic interest in anxiety and sociopolitical unease.” ↩}

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#22 on the 2022 Bacon Top 31 — Cheekface

January 10, 2023 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Too Much to Ask by Cheekface

Cheekface are a riot. The Los Angeles-based trio led by Greg Katz on guitar and lead vocals, Amanda Tanner on bass and backup vocals, and Mark “Echo” Edwards on drums call themselves “America’s local band,” three basic words that reveal a surprising amount about them and what they stand for. Katz and Tanner’s lyrics dive deep into anxiety and sociopolitical unease, topics near and dear to my heart, and Katz delivers them with a talk-singing patter that is dry, witty, and absolutely dripping with sarcasm. The post-punk/power-pop blend works extremely well.

The song above, “We Need a Bigger Dumpster,” became an anthem on my beloved KEXP shortly after Too Much was released, reflecting so accurately the feelings we all experience when we’re forced to face the state of the world around us. Please hit play on the video above and revel in its stock-footage ridiculousness. It was the power of this one song, as played on KEXP and heard for the first time while my son and I were driving to Port Townsend for the 2022 Thing festival that caused us to immediately download the album to hear the rest of its majesty. Throughout the rest of the year, any time “Dumpster” came on the radio, which was often, my family would sing the super-catchy, much-repeated lyrics at the top of our lungs. All music should be this fun.

In my research for this post I learned that some fans of Cheekface, the band whose third LP Too Much to Ask is the #22 album of 2022, call themselves Cheek Freaks. I don’t think I’ll ever be a big enough fan to rise to Freak status, but here in early 2023 I can’t unequivocally say I’m not headed in that direction. Perhaps now you’re pointed down the same road I am. If so, give the album a listen and see what you think. On top of that, the band has released a 3-song accompaniment to Too much, called Don’t Ask (b-sides) EP. It is equally as good and catchy. “Why’d they put the headache so close to my brain?” is a question I never thought to ask but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Enjoy.

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23. Dripfield by Goose
24. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You by Big Thief
25. And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow by Weyes Blood
26. NOT TiGHT by DOMi & JD BECK
27. Preacher’s Daughter by Ethel Cain
28. Live at KEXP, vol. 10 by Various Artists
29. All You Need Is Time by Daisy the Great
30. Cool It Down by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
31. CAPRISONGS by FKA twigs

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