#1 on the 2025 Bacon Top 31 — Rosalía

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

To those of you who’ve hung out with me over the last three months, seeing this jaw-dropping album by Spanish singer / songwriter Rosalía at #1 is likely not a surprise. Sometime in mid-December, my family all made the snap assumption that this would end up being my #1 album of the year, and they weren’t wrong. Some might say I’ve been downright obsessed, but with good reason.

There is nothing available in popular music, of any era or style, like Rosalía’s fourth album, LUX. It’s a testament to the strength and confidence of the artist that she had the power to pull it off at this scale. This album is a modern opera with a full orchestra and pop-music hooks. It’s beautifully written and gorgeously, achingly sung by Rosalía, and features guest appearances of the voices of Björk, Yves Tumor, and Patti Smith; mixing talents by Nigel Godrich; composition from Charlotte Gainsbourg; production from Pharrell Williams; composition and production from Noah Goldstein; orchestration from the London Symphony Orchestra; and literally a hundred more artists and performers who lent their collectively enormous talents to this masterpiece.

LUX is sung mostly in Spanish. Additionally, Rosalía spent three years working with native-born translators, composing and learning passages for her to sing in thirteen (yes, 13) other languages, from English to Japanese to Ukrainian¹. At the album’s center is this angelic voice carrying it all forward, tackling a topic that is equally far-reaching and uber-intimate. As Pitchfork said in their review of the album, “With [Rosalía] as its lodestar, LUX advances like a crusade to conquer the mysteries of human existence.” That‘s all.

At its core, the album is a religious experience, focused on telling the stories of many Sainted and saintly women across time², and using their stories to guide us, question our existence and inform the reasons we carry on through this mortal coil. Within, Rosalía’s voice is otherworldly, and the three albums she’s released prior to this one proved she had the musical chops to pull off something of this scale.

She turned a teenage love of Spanish music into a degree in musicology at the Catalonia College of Music in Barcelona, graduating with honors thanks to her critically-acclaimed debut album Los Ángeles and her sophomore Spanish pop / hip hop / flamenco fusion album El mal querer in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Her third album, Motomami, which also featured production by the likes of Noah Goldstein and Pharrell, and has guest appearances by The Weeknd and Dominican rapper Tokischa, focused on reggaeton beats and experimental Spanish pop. It came out in 2022 and was recognized on a global scale (but had still not broken through my ethnocentric musical leanings).

In 2023, she was featured on “Oral,” by Björk, who both donated their profits from the song as a fundraiser to combat open pen fish farming in Iceland. Rosalía is now 33 (potentially notable as the apparent age of Jesus when he died), and with LUX she has taken the world by storm. Despite only having come out in early November, this album was ranked #1 of the year by Entertainment Weekly, The Guardian, and NPR, seemingly universally loved by critics.

As 98% of the album is sung in a language other than my native English, the listening experience is unlike anything else. I typically love to sing along to songs (ask my wife). I’m no karaoke maestro, but if I even remotely know some of the words in a song I’ll find a way to sing along, deftly mumbling my way through the parts I don’t know, very much like that 30-year-old SNL commercial “Classic Sing-along with the Drunken Asses.” But I’ve butchered my way through the French in “Psycho Killer” and the nonsense European-sounding lyrics at the end of “Sun King” enough to know that trying to gracefully sing along to an album that glides through 14 different languages is another thing entirely.

I do have some non-English albums in my repertoire, but none that I’ve listened to as much as LUX in the past three months (it helps that this was also my 8-year-old’s favorite album of 2025). Being unable to sing along to these songs without feeling like I’m truly doing it a disservice (both lyrically, and sonically, such is Rosalía’s command of her instrument) has been a challenge. It’s resulted in a lot more whistling along, which is also not great (again, ask my wife). So unlike most music I listen to, the singer’s voice becomes another instrument, conveying an emotion, a feeling, without lyrics to guide me. A not dissimilar experience can be had listening to Sigur Rós (#18 in 2023 and #7 in 2012), as lead singer Jónsi (solo at #7 in 2010 as well) sings in Icelandic, English, and a nonsense language he calls Vonlenska. But in Sigur Rós, Jónsi’s voice is often mixed down and unintelligible, blending sonically into the music surrounding it. On LUX, Rosalía is omnipresent, the lead in every sense of the word.

Despite the language barrier, LUX is 60 minutes³ of emotional musical bliss. Each song is a favorite in its own way. “Berghain” (featured in the video above), was the first thing I heard from it, and it hooked me from the very first choral onslaught. Please pause your reading and watch the video above right now. Rosalía sings in a very high register while the symphony and choir sonically dance over, around, and through her. The coda arrives with Björk slowly singing in her unmistakable Icelandic-tinged English “The only way we’ll be saved is divine intervention.” And then Yves Tumor shows up at the very end, shout-quoting Mike Tyson (of all people), “I’ll fuck you till you love me.” It’s jarring and offensive, but matches the Carmina-Burana-like orchestration in the rest of the song. Oh so powerful.

Immediately following that song comes “La Perla,” a much more intricate love story of a song laden with acoustic guitar a butterfly-like flute and swelling strings. I say “love story,” but I can’t say that for sure — there are ways to look at the translation, but it’s much more fun to merely enjoy the lyrics sans translation, letting Rosalía’s tone dictate the story. And that’s probably the most magical part of the listening experience: despite not knowing the words, there’s an emotional quotient conveyed by her voice and the orchestration that tells you everything you need to feel.

For instance, in the delicate “Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti,” we don’t need to know that that title translates to “My Christ Cries Diamonds.” When Rosalía gets to the chorus, the emotional journey you’ve been taken on by her voice and the music tells you “now is when you should cry.” And then, by the end of the song, the vocals and the orchestra builds and builds, coming to an abrupt halt. We then hear Rosalía mid conversation, saying in English “that’s going to be the energy, and then” BRAHNG, humorously conveying to the person she’s talking to, and to us, what is happening to us, live in the song. It’s brilliant.

My current favorite on the album is one of the physical-media-only tracks, “Focu Ranni,” which starts with a robotic auto-tuned sound that evokes Sufjan Steven’s beloved Age of Adz (#3 in 2010). The song sounds more current than some of the more operatic turns on the album, blending digital and stringed sounds together in a way that would never hold together if it weren’t for Rosalía’s voice.

When you find yourself in a place to listen to the whole beautiful album, make sure you’re in an undisturbed space where you can give it your full attention. Headphones are preferable. In addition to the songs mentioned above, pay close attention to “Divinize,” “La Jugular, “Sauvignon Blanc,” and closer “Magnolias.” Each song is a masterpiece unto itself. Together, they are otherworldly.

2025 was an especially rich year for music — I could have easily done a top 50 of the year and still had albums left behind. But there could be no other #1. Not only is LUX the best album of 2025, it’s a strong contender for “album of the century.” Certainly album of the decade. Between this and Geese at #2, it’s nice to know that it’s still possible to experience surprise in music, that not everything is just a rehashing of the past. It leaves me excitedly anticipating what’s going to come out in 2026.

See you next year!

^{1. The fourteen languages for LUX: Arabic, Catalan, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin, Portuguese, Sicilian, Spanish, and Ukrainian.↩}
^{2. Thank god for Wikipedia. The stories of these women factor into the songs across LUX: Saint Rose of Lima Hildegard of Bingen, Vimala (one of the authors of the Buddhist Therīgāthā), Saint Rosalia of Palermo, Saint Teresa of Ávila (Teresa of Jesus), Joan of Arc, Sun Bu'er (of the Taoist Seven Masters of Quanzhen), Prophetess Miriam, Rabia Al-Adawiya, Anandamayi Ma, Ryōnen Gensō, Clare of Assisi, and Saint Olga of Kiev.↩}
^{3. 60 minutes and 18 songs long when listened to via physical media, 50 minutes and 15 songs long when listened to via streaming services. Song 12, “Focu ’Ranni,” 14, “Jeanne,” and 15, “Novia Robot,” can only be heard on CD and vinyl. Additionally, the length of song 10, “Dios Es un Stalker,” is 45 seconds longer on the physical versions, in a higher key and with an additional chorus and bridge.↩}

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#13 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Vulfmon

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

Dot by Vulfmon

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.

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#8 on the 2019 Bacon Top 31 — Elbow

January 24, 2020 by Royal Stuart

Giants of All Sizes by Elbow

From one former #1 (Bon Iver, just seen at #9) to another, this time the venerable British masters Elbow. Unlike Bon Iver, I did not learn about Elbow until well into their musical careers, picking them up on the heels of their fantastic fourth album, 2008’s The Seldom Seen Kid. Every album they’ve released since then has appeared on the Top 31. Even though this new one, their eighth, is appearing in the lofty slot of #8 in this year’s Top 31, that represents a downward slide from all previous Top 31 appearances: Build a Rocket Boys! was #5 in 2011, The Takeoff and Landing of Everything just missed being #1 in 2014, and they quickly recovered with their #1 album Little Fictions in 2017. An outstanding showing overall.

Giants of All Sizes is a bit different from previous efforts, and that may account for their slip here in 2019. Little Fictions took the #1 spot based on its connection to my personal life that year. It featured songs that felt like they were speaking directly to me. Giants of All Sizes evokes a wide variety of new styles and influences for the band, but it doesn’t have that same feeling of connectedness for me. The first time you hear Elbow, your instinct is to compare them to Peter Gabriel, as lead singer Guy Garvey’s voice is Gabriel’s vocal doppelgänger. On top of that, the band’s production sits squarely in the same neighborhood as Gabriel’s later work (1986’s So and after). Outside of that, Giants sounds a bit like The Beatles at times (check out “”).

The lyrics of this album are decidedly darker than past albums — a purposeful slant, as three key figures in the band’s orbit all died during the production of the album (including Garvey’s father). But that doesn’t diminish the sweeping orchestral arrangements and slow builds, which have become Elbow’s signature over their 23 years of existence. If you’ve not listened to Elbow in the past, pick a spot anywhere and dive in. Giants is a perfectly fine spot to get your first taste, but be sure to move onto any of the last three albums. Elbow is consistently great, something that’s surprisingly hard to say about a lot of artists these days.

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9. i,i by Bon Iver
10. Kiwanuka by Michael Kiwanuka
11. The Destroyer (Parts 1 + 2) by TR/ST
12. When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? by Billie Eilish
13. Cheap Queen by King Princess
14. Anima by Thom Yorke
15. Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Parts 1 + 2 by Foals
16. Gallipoli by Beirut
17. My Finest Work Yet by Andrew Bird
18. Four of Arrows by Great Grandpa
19. Designer by Aldous Harding
20. Norman Fucking Rockwell! by Lana Del Rey
21. Our Pathetic Age by DJ Shadow
22. Juice B Crypts by Battles
23. Pony by Orville Peck
24. Hyperspace by Beck
25. Eraserland by Strand of Oaks
26. Dogrel by Fontaines DC
27. You’re the Man by Marvin Gaye
28. Big Wows by Stealing Sheep
29. 1000 gecs by 100 gecs
30. In the Morse Code of Brake Lights by The New Pornographers
31. Radiant Dawn by Operators

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2009-2018 Top 31s

September 14, 2013 by Royal Stuart

This is mind blowing. I consider the medley from Abbey Road to be the single most phenomenal passage of music in all of recorded time. And I say that without hyperbole.

Here we have, through some fancy use of technology, the isolated vocals for the entire passage (except for a lone tambourine and piano that somehow crept in during “Mean Mr. Mustard”)

It’s amazing how much the music makes these famously disjointed parts feel of a family. Stripped down like this, the disparate nature of the song bits is painfully obvious.

Jaw, floor.

/via kotkke.org