The list of edgy female rockers featured in the 2018 Top 31 continues to expand, adding veteran of the genre, Neko Case. You’ll know her as the one with the most resonant voice among them all, but that doesn’t make her songs have any less bite. Even as you’re enjoying her lullabies and her lilt, it’s her master of story and lyrics that brings that vitriol forward. And it’s gorgeous.

Case has been on the Bacon Top 31 many times over the years. Her last album, The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You, came in at a whopping #5 in 2013. The supergroup The New Pornographers came in at #19 in 2014, and the self-titled trio album she came out with with k.d. lang and Laura Veirs was #28 in 2016.

Case has a distinct ability to amp you up in most New Porographers songs, to belt out harrowing harmonies when singing in tandem (or trio), and in her solo work, like Hell-on, her talent really shines. Quiet, loud, immediate and slow-building — she covers it all. While Hell-on isn’t as strong from start to finish as her 2013 masterpiece, this album still rises above the din. Reach out for that voice, she’ll help carry you through to the end of the tunnel.

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18. Superorganism by Superorganism
19. Living in Extraordinary Times by James
20. Thank You for Today by Death Cab for Cutie
21. Black Panther: The Album by Kendrick Lamar
22. Suspiria (Music for the Luca Guadagnino Film) by Thom Yorke
23. Merrie Land by The Good, the Bad & the Queen
24. Room 25 by Noname
25. WARM by Jeff Tweedy
26. God's Favorite Customer by Father John Misty
27. Vessel by Frankie Cosmos
28. For Ever by Jungle
29. Twerp Verse by Speedy Ortiz
30. Remain in Light by Angélique Kidjo
31. This One’s for the Dancer & This One’s for the Dancer’s Bouquet by Moonface

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2009-2017 Top 31s

case/lang/veirs by case/lang/veirs

I like to consider the album here at #28 and yesterday’s Sam Beam and Jesca Hoop album) as two parts of a whole. Both albums were produced, mixed and engineered by the inimitable Tucker Martine. Both feature artists that have strong careers separate from the arrangement of people featured on these albums. And both are quiet, country-esque affairs that are better heard as background music than actively listened to.

That’s not a slight on either album. It’s not easy to make music that can bare repeated listening while being so completely unoffensive as to fade into the background like a fuzzy, flocked off-white patterned wallpaper.

You know and love these artists. Laura Veirs has been recording lovely singer-songwriter stuff since the late 90s. Neko Case has appeared on the Top 31 at least twice. k.d. lang is a legend. This is almost too much awesomeness to be contained in one record. And yet…

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29. Love Letter for Fire by Sam Beam & Jesca Hoop
30. Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future by Underworld
31. Preoccupations by Preoccupations

#17 on the 2018 Bacon Top 31 — Neko Case

#28 on the 2016 Bacon Top 31