#16 on the 2025 Bacon Top 31 — Florence + the Machine

January 16, 2026 by Royal Stuart in 2025, Top 31

Everybody Scream by Florence + the Machine

In the immortal words of our Queen Bey, who run the world? Girls do, of course. And despite my best efforts to try and ignore the artist at #16, Florence Welch and her band The Machine have been in the ruling class for the better part of two decades. It took six albums, but I’m finally here to pay homage to one of the greats.

Florence + the Machine have been making music since 2007. Of the eight musicians in the band, four of them (Florence Welch – the primary songwriter of the band – on lead vocals, Isabella Summers on keyboards, Robert Ackroyd on lead guitar, and Tom Monger on harp) have been together for all 19 of those years. The other four (Cyrus Bayandor on bass, Aku Orraca-Tetteh on percussion, Dionne Douglas on violin, and Loren Humphrey on drums) joined the band in 2018.

The band released their debut album, Lungs, in 2009, which went to #1 in the UK and Poland, and #14 in the US, selling over 3 million copies globally on the strength of singles “Kiss With a Fist” and “Dog Days Are Over.” They were also given the British Album of the Year award that year at the Brit Awards. All worthy accolades. The band released four albums over the next 12 years, landing at #1 or 2 in the UK and within the top 10 each year in the US – amazing feats. And I still didn’t pay close attention.

In the time between their fifth album, Dance Fever, in 2022 and this latest in 2025, Welch made a high-profile guest appearance on what I would call the best song on Taylor Swift’s (#29 this year, and #4 in 2020) lackluster 2024 album Tortured Poets Department, “Florida!!!.” She even performed its anthemic, triple-exclamation-point worthy chorus on stage with Swift at Wembley Stadium during an October 2024 stop on the Eras Tour.¹ Because I live with a couple of Swifties, this meant for a brief time Florence’s voice could be heard throughout my house.

One of the main drivers of The Bacon Review early on was to share music videos. As a child of the 80s, and a designer by trade, I have a deep affinity for the visual forms that music can take. And that is how this album, Everybody Scream, Florence’s sixth, found its way to the front of my playlists in 2025: through a video. I stumbled across the video for “One of the Greats” (featured above), and was enthralled. It features Florence, 39, in the back of an old whale of a car, white leather and polished wood finishes. She’s wearing wayfarers, a black velvet suit jacket over a white button-down, and holding an unlit cigarette, giving a strong Patti Smith vibe, as if she’s on her way home from the shoot for the cover of Smith’s 1975 album Horses. The car is moving forward, with remnants of a recent rain splashed on the windows, and streetlights moving slowly by, while Florence lip syncs to the lyrics. The song is over six minutes long, and the video is done all in one take, locked on Florence and her flowing red mane.

The song is a slow burn that builds, not to a towering crescendo like a lot of F+tM’s songs do, but to a mild cacophony that disintegrates into madness at the end. Welch performed the song once in the studio, with IDLES (#16 in 2024) guitarist Mark Bowen taking lead guitar, performing alongside her during that one take. The song also features guitar and production from Aaron Dessner (he of The National and Big Red Machine, who has been featured on the Top 31 so many times I should probably try running for president of the Aaron Dessner fanclub). The song won me over instantly – the entire package: the video, Florence, Bowen and Dessner.

The video itself was directed by Autumn de Wilde, whose work I’ve been loving for a long while (check out her video for “Once In My Life,” the Decemberists song for their #14 in 2018 album I’ll Be Your Girl). Unbeknownst to me, De Wilde has had a long partnership with F+tM, having directed five videos for the band from their previous two albums.²

That partnership carried into Everybody Scream, starting with a great little teaser called “Bury a Scream” that was released a couple months prior to the album release. Then came the title song, “Everybody Scream.” That, and “Buckle” both feature Top 31 regular Mitski (#9 in 2023, #18 in 2022, and #24 in 2016) on backing vocals. “Sympathy Magic” rounds out the videos de Wilde has made for this album, and goes so far as to feature Welch naked at the beginning of the video (meaning, it’s mildly NSFW).

Bowen and Dessner combine with Welch to take production credits for the entire album. So, what I like about the songs in the videos above stretches across the entire length of the album. “Drink Deep,” is particularly good, with Welch’s drawn out vibrato, evokes another powerful female voice: Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser, from This Mortal Coil’s cover of Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren.” Fraser is one of many voices with whom you can call Welch’s ancestry. You’ll hear odes to Janis, Stevie, Tori, PJ, Fiona, and Sharon throughout.

Who doesn’t love a great and powerful female lead? Don’t let this album slip past you – it’s a swift kick in the gut mixed with the unsettling warmth of a house fire. I’m now a committed Florence + the Machine stan, and I can’t wait to hear what they do next.

^{1. Welch also sang drowned-out background harmonies on The Weeknd’s “Reflections Laughing,” from his 2025 album Hurry Up Tomorrow, which also featured rapper Travis Scott. It’s such a minimal appearance, it barely begs mentioning at all.↩}
^{2. De Wilde directed “Big God” from 2018’s High as Hope, and “King,” “Heaven is Free,” “My Love,” and “Free from 2022’s Dance Fever. That last one, “Free,” is fun, starring Bill Nighy alongside Welch as her anxiety come to life.↩}

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#18 on the 2025 Bacon Top 31 — Black Country, New Road

January 14, 2026 by Royal Stuart in 2025, Top 31

Forever Howlong by Black Country, New Road

Despite having been featured on the Top 31 twice in the past three years, the album at #18 should really be consider a debut studio album. Ants From Up There, the sophomore album from the original incarnation of Cambridge, England band Black Country, New Road, was featured at #11 in 2022. As I wrote in my review of that album, the band’s then lead singer, Isaac Wood, had left the band four days prior to the album’s release. His departure left the band without a front man and a full slate of 2022 festival shows to fulfill. Determined to carry on, the band threw together a full set of new songs to be sung by others in the six-piece.

Just over a year after the release of Ants, the newly defined band with their newly defined sound (they made no attempt to carry on with their Wood-led songs or to try and replace Wood’s gorgeous voice), the band released Live at Bush Hall, which landed way up at #6 in 2024. The album made a statement: we’ve moved on, and we’re even better than we were before. But a studio album it was not. In fact, the songs released on that fantastic live album will likely never be recorded in the studio.

Two years after that, the band has (hopefully?) finished redefining who they are, releasing the first studio album for this new incarnation: Forever Howlong. In place of the missing Wood, the three women in the band are now alternating on singing lead. Violinist Georgia Ellery (who is also half of the duo Jockstrap, whose lone studio release I Love You Jennifer B landed at #21 in 2022); bassist Tyler Hyde (daughter of Kyle Hyde, who is half of Top 31 alums Underworld¹); and pianist May Kershaw (whose “Turbines/Pigs” was my favorite from Bush Hall, and drove me to tears when seen live at THING 2023) each take lead on the songs whose lyrics they wrote.

Beyond the major shift in lead singing, there is very little similarity between this album and their last studio album. (On the interim live album Bush Hall, saxophonist Lewis Evans wrote and sang two songs, but he sticks to his instrument on Howlong.) I’ve been staring at the end of that last sentence for so long, trying to figure out how I would define this new era for BC,NR. The best I could come up with is “indie chamber pop prog rock,” which is, funny enough, how I’d probably define The Decemberists. But they are nothing like BC,NR, so that must be a terrible way for me to describe them.

Instead, I’ll do it the best way I can – by asking you to listen to them yourself. Check out my video from the band’s performance at the Moore Theatre back on May 24 last year, where they played the title song, “Forever Howlong.” You’ll notice the entire band are all playing tenor recorders while songwriter May Kershaw conducts from behind her keyboard. Yes, a song performed entirely with recorders, the instrument we all first learned how to play (badly) in elementary school band. Then there’s the opening track and lead single from the album, “Besties,” written by violinist Ellery. The harpsichord opening to the song is unlike anything else you’ll hear in indie rock today. “Happy Birthday” (featured in the video above), written by Hyde, is a lovely, meandering song about intergenerational discontent. And finally, I recommend watching the band’s KEXP Performance from May 2025. They perform the three songs mentioned above as well as “For the Cold Country,” also written by Kershaw.

It’s been a wild ride being a BC,NR fan for the past few years. I’ve loved every iteration of the band, and will stick with them should they decide to shuffle the deck again. But I also hope they stick with the good thing they’ve got going right now. Either way, I can’t wait to hear what they do next.

^{1. Underworld appeared at #30 in 2016 and #25 in 2024↩}

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#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.

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#11 on the 2022 Bacon Top 31 — Black Country, New Road

January 21, 2023 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Ants From Up There by Black Country, New Road

My guess is that this may be the last surprise of the 2022 Top 31. Sure, you might be surprised by the order in which I place my Top 10, or you might be surprised to find your particular favorite wasn’t one of mine. But I would be surprised if you don’t read the Top 10 as they’re revealed over the next ten days, nod your head at each one, and think “yep, ok, I can see that.”

Not so for Black Country, New Road, here at #11, which you’ve likely not ever heard of, despite some modest level of critical acclaim. And if you have heard of them, then you no doubt know why I’m placing them way up in my top albums of 2022. Known as BC,NR because, well, it’s a lot easier to write and it’s also awesome to have a comma in an abbreviation, the band met in Cambridgeshire, England, in 2018. They named themselves after the subject found at a click of the “random article” button in Wikipedia: Black Country New Road, a street in the West Midlands. Ants From Up There is their second album, recorded with seven members: Tyler Hyde (bass), Lewis Evans (flute, saxophone), May Kershaw (keyboards), Georgia Ellery (violin), Charlie Wayne (drums), Luke Mark (guitar), all of whom played their instruments deftly while singing backup to frontman, guitarist, and principal lyricist Isaac Wood.

Wood’s voice is low, with a vibrato that makes your subs shake — not quite as low as Ian Curtis, not quite as smooth as Justin Vernon, but every bit engaging. His lyrics have a literary lilt to them that don’t quite paint a story, but lead you to the next word, verse, and chorus as if compelled by tendrils of sound. And much to everyone detriment, there will be no more BC,NR albums with Wood at the helm. Four days before the release of Ants, Wood and the band announced on Instagram that he would be stepping away from the band, from the limelight, permanently. His mental health had been suffering greatly, and he needed to take care of himself.

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A post shared by Black Country, New Road (@blackcountrynewroad)

I first heard the album probably a week or so after it debuted on February 4, 2022. It filled me with such excitement, when I first started trying to learn more about the band I was devastated to find the post above and learn I’d never be able to experience the excitement Wood brings to the stage. I listened more and more to Ants over the coming months, and hit a point where I couldn’t put the album down. Pulling from the same influences as Beirut, Neutral Milk Hotel, the Decemberists, Slint, Noah and the Whale, BC,NR bring together heavy orchestration, ivy league intelligence, and prog-rock turns that leave you breathless. This is the album you need to fill the Arcade Fire-sized void left behind because of Win Butler’s sexual misconduct.

You’ll recognize violinist Georgia Ellery’s name, as she is one-half of Jockstrap, featured at #21 just 11 days ago. I’m pretty sure that’s the first time an artist has been an integral part of two separate bands featured on a single Top 31. When Wood announced his departure on January 31, the band had to cancel their upcoming tour and weren’t sure where this would lead them. A few months later, they had picked themselves back up and were touring again, now as a six-piece, with Hyde, Kershaw, Evans, and Wayne taking turns on lead vocals. I have not been able to see this incarnation of the band, but the strength of these songs and these musicians makes me believe it’s still every bit as strong.

Ants came out a year after those original seven band members released their debut, For The First Time, in February, 2021. I missed their debut, and based on how much I love Ants, a fairly sizable oversight on my part. I’m curious to see where the band will go next. I enjoy the Wood incarnation of the band, and am patiently waiting to see what the band will put together next. “Concord,” shown in the video above, is probably my favorite song on the album. But if you like it, I encourage you to explore the rest of the album.

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