#9 on the 2023 Bacon Top 31 — Mitski

January 23, 2024 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We by Mitski

Mitsuki Miyawaki, aka Mitski, had an eventful 18 months after the release of her sixth album, Lauren Hell. She had her first chart topper, when her song “The Only Heartbreaker” from that seminal 2022 album hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Songs chart in March 2022. She continued to struggle internally with everything that comes from being famous. She co-wrote a song with David Byrne (#15 in 2012) and Son Lux (#17 in 2013) for the soundtrack to the best movie of 2022, Everything Everywhere All at Once. She got nominated for an Academy Award for said song. She chose not to perform the song during the ceremony, likely related to the previously mentioned inner turmoil related to being potentially even more famous¹. She and Byrne and Son Lux did not win an Oscar for said song, despite the movie taking home nine other academy awards. And she found the time to record her best album yet, her seventh, called The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We.

Miyawaki’s voice and tone remain unchanged on the new album, but everything around it has been beefed up. Subdued are the electronic-pop intonations of Hell, replaced by the warm embrace of a Mitski-led 17-person choir, along with a full orchestra conducted by none other than Drew Erickson, who arranged the big band feel of Father John Misty’s Chloë and the Next 20th Century (#9 last year) and the fantastic strings in Weyes Blood’s And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow, (also last year, at #25). This album has a majesty unlike anything Mitski’s done before. Check out the choir, as featured in the video above, for the song “Bug Like an Angel.” The only other song she’s released a video for from this album is “My Love Mine All Mine,” a shorter, non-choral song reminiscent of a number of Father John Misty’s recent songs.

On my past two reviews of Mitski’s albums, Lauren Hell at (#18 last year), and her fourth album, Puberty 2 at #24 in 2016,² I’ve written a lot about how it’s taken me a long time to understand Mitski. “Understand” is probably not the right word – I can feel like I know where she’s coming from with her songs and what she puts out in the world, but I can’t really say I know her, let along “understand” her. But my brain has finally caught up to her music. She was so far out ahead of me, I couldn’t see her past the horizon. I’m still behind her now, but I’m no longer losing ground. Here’s to hoping she comes through town when I’m available to see her in all her gory. In the mean time, I’ll keep Inhospitable on repeat.

^{1. Stephanie Hsu, the young actress who performed in the movie and was nominated for an academy award as well, performed in Mitski’s stead.↩}
^{2. I’ll never be able to forgive myself for being so disconnected as to not even put her genre-defining fifth album, Be The Cowboy, in the Top 31 of 2018.↩}

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#18 on the 2022 Bacon Top 31 — Mitski

January 14, 2023 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Laurel Hell by Mitski

Mitski Miyawaki, who writes and performs under her first name, Mitski, quit music in 2019. Shortly after her critically-acclaimed fifth album Be The Cowboy entered the mainstream, at the final show of her tour supporting that album, she announced to the crowd that it would be her last show indefinitely, and she meant it. “I was thinking this was the last show I would perform ever, and then I would quit and find another life,” she told Rolling Stone when looking back at that time in the build up to the February 2022 release of her wonderful sixth album, Lauren Hell. Her triumphant return, in more ways than one.

Lauren Hell was not a return to form or an unexpected surprise to me — it was the catalyst to finally understanding Mitski and her music. Despite placing her fourth album, Puberty 2, at #24 in 2016, I’ve never really connected with Mitski before. Her fifth album, the one that got her so much popularity that she had to sever all ties from the music world “indefinitely” barely hit my radar in 2018. I think I probably listened to it only once, maybe twice, never to be heard again. Even in the build up to this year’s list, with Lauren Hell, — similar to Big Thief at #24 this year — I knew I should like it, and I tried a few times but it just didn’t click.

Then I compiled the 2022 list towards the end of the year, as I do every year. I took a stab at where things would likely land, and this album was somewhere in the upper 20s. But in the day or two before I was to write about it, like I do every album on the list, I played the album a few times back to back to back. This time, the light bulb turned on. This was not a bottom-of-the-list album, it was better than that. So I shuffled things around. I didn’t push it too far up – I’m not crazy enough to think it’s better than 17 other albums from 2022 – but where each album is placed is meaningful to me, and having this album fall in the middle of the list is saying something. This album is great.

The songs of Lauren Hell are predictable in the best way possible. They start off quieter, they swell to a crescendo in the middle, and then they fall slowly at the end. They’re approachable, and impeccably crafted indie pop. She carries the torch first lit by Kate Bush, carried forward by Tori Amos, and most recently hoisted up by St. Vincent (2009 #24, 2012 #15 with David Byrne,2017 #27).

Mitski conveys a little bit of “off-kilter” similar to those artists in her videos as well. Watch “Love Me More” above, as well as “Working for the Knife” and “Stay Soft,” and you’ll find a performer fully invested in themselves and without shame. She continually puts herself in strange and unusual positions that are fantastic to watch while listening to her beautiful constructions. I didn’t sit with them to try and sort out the deeper meaning, but I’m convinced it’s there. Let me know if you find it. I’ll be over here listening to the album and trying to sort out what’s taken me so long to get to where the rest of you have been all along.

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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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#24 on the 2018 Bacon Top 31 — Noname

January 08, 2019 by Royal Stuart

Room 25 by Noname

I’ve spoken before about the distinct lack of gender parity within my musical tastes; I’ve never had more than ten woman-led acts on any Top 31. And gender is not the only place where the Bacon Review lacks diversity. Without doing a formal count, it looks like I’ve not had more than 20 non-white acts within the entire 10-year run of the Bacon Top 31. Not just in one year, but in all years, combined. The Venn diagram between those two minority representations within the Top 31 is consequently miniscule: I count six women of color across all past Top 31s — Sharon Jones (R.I.P.), Mitski, Grace Love, Beyoncé, FKA Twigs, and Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes.

For the last few years, I’ve been pushing my musical boundaries, embracing albums that might never have made it into my purview 10, 15, 20 years ago. Enter Chicago’s Fatimah Nyeema Warner, better known by her stage name Noname. Female, African-American, jazz and neo-soul fueled rap is nowhere near my comfort zone. And yet, here we are.

While Room 25 is Warner’s debut, the word “debut” is dubious here. She’s been on the scene since 2013, when she appeared on the second mixtape from Chance the Rapper (whose own 2016 mixtape, Coloring Book, would definitely have been on the Top 31 that year had I only heard it in time — when listening outside of my comfort zone, it can take a little bit longer for the music to reach my ears). Since then, Warner made guest appearances on many people’s own albums, and released her own mixtape in 2016 that I have yet to hear.

Regardless of your musical proclivities, there’s something for everyone on this album. If you’re reading this and you’re a friend of mine, then it’s probably not something you’d normally listen to. But give it a shot — I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

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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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#24 on the 2016 Bacon Top 31

December 08, 2016 by Royal Stuart

Puberty 2 by Mitski

The album at #24, by the singularly-named woman, Mitski, sounds familiar and unique all at once. In her voice you can hear traces of other powerful singers like St. Vincent, Liz Phair, or Sharon van Etten. Her music, well- but not overly-produced, is a fluid blend of electronic and analog instruments, quiet and then pushed at times to the edge of breaking. Puberty 2 is her fourth album, and this is the only one I’ve listened to, but I aim to hear the others.

I don’t tend to hear the lyrics I’m listening to, the voice tending to be more like another instrument, and Puberty 2 is no different. She could be singing about death and destruction, or happiness and joy, and I’d be none the wiser. But that’s, again, part of the beauty. She’s a half Japanese, half American female Jónsi, leading her own New York-based Sigur Ros.

There. I think I’ve thrown enough confusion at you to spark some interest. Now go listen, won’t you?

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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