#4 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Beyoncé

January 28, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

Cowboy Carter by Beyoncé

If you know my family, then you knew Beyoncé was going to make the Top 31. Both my wife and daughter love her, and more importantly in the case of this blog, I do as well. So prevalent she is in our lives, in mid-December when I was talking with my friend Pete about the albums that had potential to show up on the upcoming Top 31, he said “Oh I know you’re a Beyoncé family,” and I responded “Beyoncé’s album was last year.” As a family, we’d not stopped listening to Beyoncé for two-and-a-half years: her fantastic #2 album Renaissance had come out on July 23, 2022, and that had blended right into the release of the phenomenal Cowboy Carter. It didn’t help that we’d seen her on the Renaissance World Tour in September 2023, either. Consequently, I had mistakenly remembered Cowboy Carter coming out in 2023, and not on March 24, 2024.

Few artists have been as consistently great as Beyoncé has. I personally was pretty late to the party, having only fallen for her on her groundbreaking album Lemonade (#6 in 2016), when she’d already been 16 years (!) into her singing career (including her Destiny’s Child work, which began in 1998). Beyoncé has been on a meteoric climb for as long as I can remember, but it was Kanye West’s outburst at the 2009 VMAs¹ that serves as a good demarcation line for the careers of both Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. From that fateful day, the two women have been battling each other to command the most eyes and ears of the ever-widening consumer public. Who is in the lead at any given point depends on by which metric you’re measuring (note Taylor’s 2024 album The Tortured Poets Department will not be appearing on the Top 31), but there are no other artists in contention for that top spot, nor have there been for the last few years.

Cowboy Carter is Beyonce’s eighth solo album, and fifteenth album overall when considering her work with Destiny’s Child and others. The album is the second of an announced trilogy that began with 2022’s Renaissance. These two albums, along with the apparent third yet to be released, were started in 2019 and then recorded during the pandemic. Cowboy Carter was supposed to be “Act I,” but Beyoncé swapped the order due to the pandemic still going strong in 2022 (she knew we all needed to dance). While Renaissance is unequivocally a dance / R&B album, Cowboy Carter blends many genres and is widely considered Beyoncés country album. By everyone except Beyoncé, that is. “I hope this music is an experience, creating another journey where you can close your eyes, start from the beginning and never stop,“ Beyoncé said in an Instagram Story just before the album’s release in March. “This ain't a Country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album.”

Personally, I wish she’d stayed more on the dance side of the spectrum. The country-esque songs are fantastic, and the inclusion of legends Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, and Linda Martell on the album speaks to the reach Beyoncé has achieved. And even if country isn’t Beyoncé’s strong suit, her country songs are still the current best in the genre. But it’s the power of her dance songs, like my favorite song on the album, “Ya Ya,” featured in the video above, that really makes this album a stand-out.

Beyoncé didn’t tour in 2024, and her Renaissance world tour ended in October, 2023. She had exactly one live performance, and she invented a new way to get in front of as many eyes as possible: the “Beyonce Bowl.” The NFL Christmas Game Day broadcast featured two games, to be broadcast on Netflix, who had no experience broadcasting football games to date. By connecting the games with Beyoncé, Netflix was bringing the big guns.

Overall, the viewership hit 27 million during Beyoncé’s performance, drawing the biggest Christmas Day NFL game audience since at least 2001. Beyoncé and Jay Z’s daughter Blue Ivy (12) even made an appearance (as she did when I saw her at Lumen Field in Sept. 2023, as well, when she was only 11), dancing alongside her superstar mother to an audience of 27 mil. It will be interesting to see where she goes over the next few years.

Beyoncé was set to have a big announcement on January 14, 2025, but she postponed due to the devastating wildfires ravaging LA at the time. New album? New documentary? New tour? All of the above, probably? We’ll know soon enough. We won’t know exactly what the overarching theme of Beyoncé’s trilogy is until we get the third album, but it seems a safe bet to expect something in yet another genre. Maybe we’ll get a folk or rock n’ roll album. Or maybe a jazz album that invokes Billie Holiday. Whatever she gives us, I’ll be first in line. It’s bound to be stellar.

^{1. This was the incident where Kanye West ran on stage unexpectedly to interrupt Taylor Swift’s Best Female Video acceptance speech. “Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!” referring to “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It),” which itself ended up taking “Video of the Year,” rendering his entire interruption pointless.↩}

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#16 on the 2022 Bacon Top 31 — Kendrick Lamar

January 16, 2023 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers by Kendrick Lamar

Despite it being called the best album of 2015 by Rolling Stone, Billboard, Pitchfork, and almost every other popular-music–ranking service, Kendrick Lamar’s How to Pimp a Butterfly barely made the Bacon Top 31, sneaking in at #29 that year. I ended my review of the album saying “I can’t say I love it, and I doubt I’ll listen to it a lot going forward.” That’s true, I didn’t. But I was very shortsighted in how much Kendrick Lamar.

What I didn’t understand then was that my taste in music was still maturing, still growing. I wasn’t ready for Kendrick Lamar in 2015, but it laid the groundwork for my love of Frank Ocean’s Blonde, (#4 in 2016). I still couldn’t find the right groove for Lamar’s next album, 2017’s DAMN. which came in at #22 that year, but he opened the door wide with his stellar Black Panther: The Album. My love for the form continued to grow in 2020 with Run the Jewels (#6 in 2020). And that’s how we get to today, with my and Kendrick’s relationship in much better shape.

I listened to Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers more than I have to any other Kendrick Lamar album, and I would have listened even more if it didn’t conflict with my family’s musical tastes. (There has to be a limit somewhere on the amount of cursing I can tolerate around my five year old, right?) The double album, 1 hour and 19 minutes in length, is fantastic. But that doesn’t mean the music is free of difficulty and controversy. For instance, “We Cry Together,” towards the end of the first half, is an abrasive, spoken-word, emotionally violent duet between Lamar and actress Taylour Paige. The couple in the song is arguing angrily, devolving into a yelled chorus: “[sexual expletive] you [racial slur], [sexual expletive] you [derogatory term for female]” back and forth. It’s brutal to listen to, but the video (NSFW at the very end) is highly compelling to watch because it is extremely well acted by the two.

Don’t miss the video for “The Heart Part 5” shown above. While Lamar lip-syncs the rap while standing in front of a deep-red background, the one-take video uses deepfake technology from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s studio Deep Voodoo to transform him into six other famous black men: O. J. Simpson, Kanye West, Jussie Smollett, Will Smith, Kobe Bryant, and Nipsey Hussle. The overall effect is mesmerizing. Each verse of the song as sung by the alter egos is written from their perspective, adding an additional meta layer to the song. “Heart” is technically not from Morale, but instead was released just prior to the album coming out as a teaser. It is included here because why the hell not.

There have been other videos from the album released: “N95,” “Rich Spirit,” and “Count Me Out,” with actually features Helen Mirren, of all people. Lamar’s video output proves he’s a master of both sound and visuals. He took his myriad talents to the top of the mountain back on on October 1, when he performed three songs from the album on Saturday Night Live. He managed to pull off a feat I don’t know that I’ve seen before on SNL – he made the live performances have an element of music-video-ness to them. See the fantastic shadow-play in “Rich Spirit + N95 - live on SNL,” and watch the walls literally move in on him in “Father Time (feat. Sampha) - live on SNL.”

The steady progression of Lamar-produced albums moving up in the ranks of the Top 31 is more an expression of my changing musical tastes than his changing production. I don’t see myself leaving behind the usual dad-rock and indie-pop albums and artists I enjoy. It just makes for a more diverse list, a wider variety of music to tap into when the mood strikes. It also makes me more excited to hear what comes next.

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17. Inside Problems by Andrew Bird
18. Laurel Hell by Mitski
19. Full Moon Project by Phosphorescent
20. Skinty Fia by Fontaines D.C.
21. I Love You Jennifer B by Jockstrap
22. Too Much to Ask by Cheekface
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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#2 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Big Red Machine

January 30, 2022 by Royal Stuart

How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last? by Big Red Machine

Every year there’s the big obvious acts that continually appear on the Top 31. At the top of that list are both The National and Bon Iver, both of whom have had #1 albums (2010 and 2016) along with three additional, separate appearances on the Top 31 each. In fact, I haven’t done the math, but I’m confident in saying that Aaron Dessner (20% of The National) and Justin Vernon (99% of Bon Iver), combined, have been responsible for the largest percentage of all music I’ve listened to in the last 15 years.

The two of them have done many things together, arguably the most prominent being the work they’ve done together as Big Red Machine. Their first foray into a partnership was a collaborative song called “Big Red Machine” on the Dessner-produced Dark Was the Night compilation in 2009 (#10 that inaugural Top 31 year). According to wikipedia, Dessner reached out to Vernon via MySpace, and they collaborated on the song remotely, and didn’t meet in person until a follow-on performance for the collaboration was hosted later that year. They continued to work together while producing and creating with their respective bands. They formed a record label, 37d03d, which released the first full Big Red Machine album in 2018 (self-titled, #13 that year). In addition to Dessner and Vernon, that album also features Phoebe Bridgers, Dessner’s brother Bryce and Bryan Devendorf from The National, and multi-instrumentalist Richard Parry from Arcade Fire, among many others.

Then they turned their attention to Taylor Swift, or many she turned her attention to them. The two albums that came out of their collaboration had a big impact on my 2020 Top 31, coming in collectively at #4 last year. But Swift is not the only Dessner/Vernon produced artist I’ve enjoyed. From the very first Top 31 in 2009, with the aforementioned Dark Was the Night compilation and Bon Iver’s Blood Bank EP, there have been only two years (2014 and 2015) that one or both Vernon and Dessner did not appear on the Top 31 as performer or producer. Sharon van Etten, Local Natives, Frightened Rabbit, Taylor Swift, Kanye West — they’ve all benefited from the magic touch of Aaron Dessner and/or Justin Vernon in the last 15 years.

There were also a couple of Big Red Machine singles to come out in 2020 that haven’t appeared on any albums: “No Time For Love Like Now” with Michael Stipe, and a get-out-the-vote in Wisconsin cover of Aimee Mann’s “Wise Up” featuring 4 of out 5 members of The National and others.

And now we’re finally up to the present, with How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last?, the supergroup’s 2nd full-length album under the Big Red Machine name. The album features a daunting list of guest appearances: Taylor Swift on two songs, James Krivchenia of Big Thief, Anaïs Mitchell on three songs, Ilsey (a prolific singer/songwriter who has written for and sung with a dizzying number of artists you’ve heard of), Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold, Naeem (otherwise known as rapper Spank Rock), a song called “Hutch,” dedicated to the lost-too-soon lead singer of Frightened Rabbit, Scott Hutchison, featuring Sharon van Etten, Lisa Hannigan, and Shara Nova (lead singer of My Brightest Diamond), La Force (aka Ariel Engle of Broken Social Scene), Ben Howard, and This is the Kit (Kate Stables).

Whew.

There are many highlights to this album (as there should be for a #2 album of the year). The Robin Pecknold / Anaïs Mitchell sung “Phoenix,” shown in the lyric video above, is my personal favorite (mostly because it’s the favorite of 4-year-old, who demanded I play that song over and over again throughout the summer of 2021). But even the most stripped down songs, such as the two where Aaron Dessner finally takes the spotlight all by himself, playing guitar and singing on “The Ghost of Cincinnati” and “Magnolia” in what can only be described as his best Elliott Smith impersonation. The Taylor Swift collaboration “Renegade” is a poppy, Swiftian jaunt you’ll love – it could have easily been created for Swift’s 2020 albums folklore or evermore.

It’s hard not to look at How Long as the capper of one hell of a musical decade for Dessner and Vernon. There’s no way that either of them is done making music. But if you look at the arc of U2, R.E.M., or The Stones, now is about the time in their respective careers that the drive to create something new and different clashes with the desire to slow down, spend more time with family, and rely heavily on the income from previous hits rather than create something new and earth shattering. Selfishly, I hope they choose a different path and continue to give us everything they’ve got. We’ll find out soon enough – 2022 is a new year, and maybe there’ll be another Bon Iver or National album, or some new Dessner- or Vernon-produced project that will simply blow us all away. I can’t wait.

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3. Jubilee by Japanese Breakfast
4. A Way Forward by Nation of Language
5. Things Take Time, Take Time by Courtney Barnett
6. Little Oblivions by Julien Baker
7. Valentine by Snail Mail
8. sketchy. by tUnE-yArDs
9. A Very Lonely Solstice by Fleet Foxes
10. Hey What by Low
11. Local Valley by José González
12. Head of Roses by Flock of Dimes
13. The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows by Damon Albarn
14. Collapsed in Sunbeams by Arlo Parks
15. Loving In Stereo by Jungle
16. Flying Dream 1 by Elbow
17. Screen Violence by Chvrches
18. Blue Weekend by Wolf Alice
19. Mainly Gestalt Pornography by Pearly Gate Music
20. Peace Or Love by Kings of Convenience
21. These 13 by Jimbo Mathus & Andrew Bird
22. Mr. Corman: Season 1 by Nathan Johnson
23. Home Video by Lucy Dacus
24. I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute to The Velvet Underground & Nico by Various Artists
25. Siamese Dream by Fruit Bats
26. NINE by Sault
27. Observatory by Aeon Station
28. The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania by Damien Jurado
29. A Beginner’s Mind by Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine
30. Where the End Begins by Knathan Ryan
31. Private Space by Durand Jones & The Indications

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#21 on the 2016 Bacon Top 31

December 11, 2016 by Royal Stuart

Farewell, Starlite! by Francis and the Lights

I didn’t discover this album until five days ago, even though it came out in September. I’d had a different album for this spot until I realized it was disqualified due to it having come out in November (putting it into the time frame for next year’s Top 31). So I was glad that this album came along, and I’m glad it’s powerful enough to show up here, at #21.

Francis and the Lights is a man who had his name legally changed to Francis Farewell Starlite. While Starlite has been performing as Francis and the Lights in front of as well as behind the mic since 2007, Farewell, Starlite! is his debut album. And it’s full of auto-tuned goodness. It’s dancey and poppy and makes me feel good inside. There’s not much more I can say about it.

Be sure to watch the video above, for the song “Friends.” It features Kanye West and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, along with Starlite, who dances like an idiot before joining in lockstep with Vernon in a jokey little choreographed routine. It’s brilliant in it’s silliness.

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22. This Unruly Mess I’ve Made by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
23. LNZNDRF by LNZNDRF
24. Puberty 2 by Mitski
25. Light Upon the Lake by Whitney
26. A Corpse Wired for Sound by Merchandise
27. Away by Okkervil River
28. case/lang/veirs by case/lang/veirs
29. Love Letter for Fire by Sam Beam & Jesca Hoop
30. Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future by Underworld
31. Preoccupations by Preoccupations