#21 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Caroline Rose

January 11, 2021 by Royal Stuart

From Loner to Superstar — I’m not sure either title is quite accurate, but it paints a good picture of the dual aspirations of Caroline Rose, whose fourth full-length earns the 21st spot on our countdown. She brings great indie rock with fantastic pop hooks worthy of superstardom, coupled with the strong ironic lonerism of a millennial that makes you want to stay just outside of arms reach, lest you get hurt. It’s a balance not many could pull off.

Her last album, Loner, thoroughly wowed me and consequently appeared at #12 two years ago. Superstar, her fourth, is a continuation of everything I loved about her previous album, and it’s a testament to the wealth of good music released this year that it appears only in the bottom half of the countdown.

“Feel the Way I Want To,” shown in the fun video above, is the biggest hook, featuring Rose’s signature keyboard work, constantly driving beat, and impossibly catchy chorus. The rest of the album doesn’t disappoint, carrying forward what I loved so much about Loner. If you didn’t pick up that 2018 album, I recommend starting there. By the end of it, you’ll find yourself compelled to keep the party going right into Superstar.

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1. Saint Cloud by Waxahatchee
2. Fetch The Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple
3. Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers
4. folklore + evermore by Taylor Swift
5. Untitled (Black Is) + Untitled (Rise) by Sault
6. RTJ4 by Run The Jewels
7. Shore by Fleet Foxes
8. Serpentine Prison by Matt Berninger
9. The Ascension by Sufjan Stevens
10. Making a Door Less Open by Car Seat Headrest
11. Dreamland by Glass Animals
12. A Hero’s Death by Fontaines D.C.
13. Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez by Gorillaz
14. Mordechai + Texas Sun EP by Khruangbin
15. Introduction, Presence by Nation of Language
16. Free Love by Sylvan Esso
17. Miss Anthropocene by Grimes
18. 3.15.20 by Childish Gambino
19. Women In Music Pt. III by HAIM
20. The Third Mind by The Third Mind
21. Superstar by Caroline Rose
22. Impossible Weight by Deep Sea Diver
23. We Will Always Love You by The Avalanches
24. Ultra Mono by IDLES
25. Visions of Bodies Being Burned by clipping.
26. Thin Mind by Wolf Parade
27. The Loves of Your Life by Hamilton Leithauser
28. Palo Alto (Live) by Thelonious Monk
29. color theory by Soccer Mommy
30. Fall to Pieces by Tricky
31. Quarantine Casanova by Chromeo

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#22 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Deep Sea Diver

January 10, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Impossible Weight by Deep Sea Diver

How is it that Deep Sea Diver, Seattle’s little engine that could, is seemingly everywhere in my area, but barely talked about outside of the Pacific Northwest? Impossible Weight, the band’s third full-length album in their 16+ year history, is utterly fantastic, but if you’re not my neighbor, you’ve probably never even heard of them. The album was #1 on KEXP listener’s Top 90.3 albums of 2020, yet Pitchfork doesn’t have a single article about them. It’s as if we’re watching two parallel universes battle it out right in front of us.

Be that as it may, please now consider yourself part of the inner circle. Now you know. And if you’re a long-time follower, you might have already known, as the band’s debut album appeared on the Top 31 at #23 back in 2012. On top of that, Sharon van Etten (no stranger to the Bacon Top 31), makes an appearance on Impossible Weight’s title song, creating a duet with Deep Sea Diver’s Jessica Dobson that’s entirely overloaded with singing talent. Makes me wonder if Pitchfork, in their lack of recognition of Deep Sea Diver, has a beef to pick with someone related to the band and is being spiteful.

I guess Deep Sea Diver isn’t for everybody, but if you’re a fan of female-led indie rock, you’ll love them. Someday Dobson’s name will be as well known as van Etten, or Barnett, or Phair. Until then, all we can do is enjoy them with additional fervor and shout their name from the rooftops. The rest of the world will catch up eventually.

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#23 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — The Avalanches

January 09, 2021 by Royal Stuart

We Will Always Love You by The Avalanches

“Well-known vocalists singing atop dreamy electronic music” has always been a favorite genre of mine, yet somehow The Avalanches have eluded me until now. Granted, they’ve only released three albums in their 23 years as a band, but all three are phenomenal, and I’m ashamed to have missed out on them until now. It’s ok, go ahead and laugh, I deserve it. But if you, too, haven’t heard of them before, have I got an album for you!

We Will Always Love You, at 71 minutes long, might actually be better bylined “The Avalanches and a mind-boggling number of collaborators.” A cake of fantastic original instrumentation blended with hundreds of samples, with the icing of roughly twenty “with…” names scattered across the 25 songs on the album. To whit (along with links to the videos):

“The Divine Chord” with MGMT and Johnny Marr, shown above
“Running Red Lights” with Rivers Cuomo and Pink Siifu
“Interstellar Love” with Leon Bridges
“Take Care In Your Dreaming” with Denzel Curry, Tricky & Sampa The Great
“Wherever You Go” with Jamie xx, Neneh Cherry and CLYPSO
“Reflecting Light” with Sananda Maitreya and Vashti Bunyan
“We Will Always Love You” with Blood Orange
And other song collaborations without videos featuring Orono, Perry Ferrell, Cola Boyy, Mick Jones, Kurt Vile, Karen O, Cornelius and Kelly Moran

Additionally, there’s another video medley of songs from the album, blended together as a film of experimental choreography created using 3D volumetric capture techniques in collaboration with TEM Studios and Rambert Dance London.

Whew! Impressive, to say the least. If you like Washed Out or Odesza, you’re going to absolutely love this record. Jump on it ASAP.

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#24 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — IDLES

January 08, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Ultra Mono by IDLES

If ever there was a year for loud, positive-change-oriented punk rock, 2020 was it. IDLES, the five-piece band of rockers from Bristol, are very much in the right place and the right time. The first time IDLES appeared on the Top 31 was for their 2018 album Fear as an Act of Resistance (#16 that year), and I was a reluctant convert. It took me a bit to warm up to the band that year.

Sure, there was plenty to be angry about in 2018, but nothing like the insanity of 2020. Ultra Mono, the band’s third album, instantly grabbed me. When the heavy bass and drums kick in on the opening song “War,” you’re jolted out of your seat and immediately flooded with adrenaline. 43 minutes later you emerge exhausted and drenched in sweat, having experienced every emotion in the most cathartic therapy session ever.

Lead singer Joe Talbot’s lyrics circle around easy breezy topics such as the modern sociopolitical climate, class struggle, mental health and toxic masculinity. He barks at you in the angry, violent tone typically reserved for army sergeants at boot camp. And the two guitars, bass and drums carry his voice along a war-torn, muddy path running along no-man’s zone. It’s not quiet, at all, ever.

But it’s perfect for 2020.

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#25 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — clipping.

January 07, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Visions of Bodies Being Burned by clipping.

“Horrorcore rap” was not a genre I listened to, let alone enjoyed, prior to 2020. I use the term “enjoyed” very loosely in regards to the genre, since the band at #25, clipping., is the only band I can name in said genre. But here we are, having thoroughly enjoyed some horrorcore rap and living to tell you about it.

clipping. is more than the silly full stop at the end of their name that makes it difficult to write about them. They’re a trio of late-thirties men who met in various grade-school/college settings: two producers (William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes) and a lead rapper Daveed Diggs. Yes, that Daveed Diggs. In fact, when I first heard clipping., it was on KEXP, and I was stunned to hear Diggs’ vocals singing not about guns and ships and what he’d missed, but instead about gore and blood and horror movie-related nastiness.

I wasn‘t super excited about what I was hearing, but I was a big enough Hamilton fan to look deeper. This was when the band’s previous album, There Existed an Addiction to Blood, was making the rounds a couple years ago, and when I listened I was totally put off and never went back to it. It didn’t make an appearance on the 2019 Top 31.

This new album, Visions of Bodies Being Burned, is actually an extension of that previous work, so you’d think I’d continue to have that bad taste in my mouth, and I did upon first listen. But over time I found myself going back to it a few times. It was the band’s KEXP at home session that pushed them over into the “Top 31 worthy” category for me. Watching the trio put these complicated songs together separately from each of their homes, and then hearing their interview with Larry Mizelle, Jr. afterwards, I found them quite endearing.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you dislike this music. It’s not easy to get into, for sure. But watch that KEXP session linked above, and I think you might have a change of heart.

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#26 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Wolf Parade

January 06, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Thin Mind by Wolf Parade

Starting up this review, the first thought I had was “it wouldn’t be a Top 31 if a Spencer Krug or Dan Boeckner band wasn’t on it.” While that’s not entirely true, with the latest Wolf Parade album here at #26, these two men have now appeared on 66% of my Top 31s: three times combined as Wolf Parade (#17 in 2010, #14 in 2017, and now Thin Mind in 2020; Krug thrice as Moonface (#27 in 2011, #23 in 2013, #31 in 2018); and Boeckner twice (with The Divine Fits at #11 in 2012 and The Operators at #31 just last year). The men are prolific at making great rock music.

Thin Mind is Wolf Parade’s fifth LP, and they continue to build upon the same formula that brought them to mass stardom with Apologies to Queen Mary back in 2005. There isn’t much “new” about this new album — it’s still unmistakably them, thanks to the unique vocals from Krug and Boeckner. According to the album description by their label, the always-great Seattle-based Sub Pop Records, the subject matter of this collection of songs is all about how “…the way that being around too much tech has made our focus thin” according to Krug, but I would never know it. My love of Wolf Parade is purely about the music and the voices-as-instruments of the two lead singers. The same guitar-driven hooks dominate, the bouncy Modest Mouse-like choruses get you banging your head in just the right way.

Wolf Parade was prominently on my brain in 2020 not just because of this great new album. They were also one of the last bands I saw live (February 11, 2020) before our ability to gather anywhere in public dried up thanks to Covid-19 lockdowns. The band always puts on a stellar live show, and while I was sadly missing watching live performances throughout the remainder of the year, the memory of that show, on The Showbox stage, has helped carry me through the drought. Putting the album on in my house takes me back there, every time.

Even though you weren’t there with me, maybe the album can do the same for you. Put it on, close your eyes, and imagine you’re standing on the upper level of The Showbox, ear-plugged, just to the left of the sound board, with a great view over the heads of the crowd on the floor. Now lean back and enjoy the experience. Soon we’ll get to go back there in person.

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#27 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Hamilton Leithauser

January 05, 2021 by Royal Stuart

The Loves of Your Life by Hamilton Leithauser

I love a musician who is consistently good — someone you can recommend to anyone at any time, knowing that whatever album they choose to listen to will be well received. Hamilton Leithauser, former lead singer of the Walkmen, is one of those artists. This is now the fifth time he’s been featured in my Top 31 (with the The Walkmen at #26 in 2010 and #9 in 2012, and without at #11 in 2014, and #19 in 2016), and if I’d started the Top 31 prior to 2009, The Walkmen’s prior albums would no doubt have appeared as well.

He’s damn good.

Leithauser is a crooner, but one who’s taken 24-grade sandpaper to his vocal cords. He pushes his 42-year-old voice to the brink, sacrificing his throat’s well-being with an intensity that not many would dare try. The roughness of his voice is in direct contrast to the pristine, perfectly engineered instrumentation of his music. Blended together, he creates a sound matched by no other.

As he says at the start of the promo video above, the songs on The Loves of Your Life are all about specific people Leithauser knows personally. His circle of friends and acquaintances proves to be ample clay from which to mold, as the album’s 11 songs each form a unique, beautiful piece of storytelling. The album is a fitting continuation of his 20+-year career, and one I’m proud to recommend to you now.

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#28 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Thelonious Monk

January 04, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Palo Alto (Live) by Thelonious Monk

I’ll be the first person to tell you that I know next to nothing about jazz. I always enjoy it when I hear it playing, but the most jazzy my house ever tends to get is the one month of every year that we listen to the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Thankfully, that changed in 2020. As a fan of new music, and good graphic design, I was drawn to the Palo Alto (Live) album cover, so I downloaded and listened. Of course I already knew the name Thelonious Monk, but I couldn’t tell you the name of any of his albums, or particular performances of his that were good. Upon listening to Palo Alto (Live), a previously unreleased recording of his from 1968, I was immediately taken back in time. The quiet, almost polite sounds of the audience clapping, the smooth sounds of the drums, sax, bass and Monk’s piano, all capture an era very much removed from today.

Monk died at age 64 back in 1982, so he personally had nothing to do with the release of this music for us to all enjoy. The story of how a 15-year old kid pulled this Palo Alto High School concert together (captured in the documentary above), the recording by the school’s janitor, and the tapes being stored away and “lost” for 50+ years, all adds to the music’s mystique.

Being completely uneducated about jazz, I can’t give you good reference points for what to expect here. But what I can tell you is that if you love the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas like I do, then you should love this recording by Monk and his band.

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#29 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Soccer Mommy

January 03, 2021 by Royal Stuart

color theory by Soccer Mommy

Sophie Allison, otherwise known as Soccer Mommy, has a talent for layering dark, grim lyrics on top of bright, catchy pop hooks. Whereas Tricky’s darkness stemmed from a lifetime of external difficulty and suffering, Allison’s pain comes mostly from within. If the stories contained on the Nashville-based singer/songwriter’s fantastic second album, color theory, are to be believed, she suffers from imposter syndrome and plenty of inner turmoil. Part of this singular focus on herself is likely due to her age – at roughly 23 years old, she’s not lived enough life to really know how much the world could hurt her. Additionally, it’s quite difficult to make a living as an indie-rocker, and that’s only going to fuel that inner fire.

Allison’s first album, Clean, unfortunately evaded my radar long enough to be overlooked for the 2018 Top 31 — not the first time I’ve made a mistake in my 12 years of chronicling the years’ best albums. (Incidentally, it occurs to me that I’ve been writing about my favorite albums each year since Allison was about 11 years old. Yeesh.) But since discovering her in the early months of 2019, Soccer Mommy has taken hold of my playlist and continues to add to and build up my love for her music.

The growth that Allison has shown in her music from Clean (an excellent album on its own) to color theory is subtle at first listen. Upon repeated plays, the songs on the second album demonstrate a greater intelligence. The same ties to the bluntness of Liz Phair or use of rhyming couplets like Taylor Swift are still there, but color theory shows Allison bringing a depth to the music that is all her own. And this is only her second album! I can’t wait to see what lies ahead for Soccer Mommy.

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#30 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Tricky

January 02, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Fall to Pieces by Tricky

Whereas the album at #31 was bubbly, dancey and fun, the album at #30 is the polar opposite: dark and moody — and if you dig a little deeper on it, depressing.

Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws, aka Tricky, has been around a long time, and he’s had his share of tough times. His stellar 1995 debut album Maxinquaye was rooted in feelings about his mother, who had died when he was only four years old. Just a month after the release of that album, his daughter Mina Mazy was born. Tricky’s musical career has shadowed his daughter’s life ever since, each progressing through ups and downs over the 24+ years from her birth.

Sadly, Mazy took her own life in May 2019, and it hit Tricky as it would any parent who’s child has died. He receded from the public eye, pulled into himself, and didn’t write anything for a long while. He eventually turned back to music, just as the global pandemic was warming up. The 13 albums he’d released up until her death were the end of a 24-year chapter in his life. (Check out his album False Idols at #30 back on the Top 31 of 2013.) Fall to Pieces, released in September 2020, is the result of all that pain and suffering, and the beginning of the next chapter.

On the surface, the album feels very Tricky. He is the master of trip hop, after all, and he doesn’t let his longtime fans down here. But the lyrics and stories the album builds over its scant 28 minutes leave you with a sense of foreboding and loneliness that hit exactly the right target for me over the last year. I sometimes seek out music that expands upon my inner darkness — it helps to spill it out into the world, get it out of my head and into my surrounding space (even if it is just in my headphones).

Yesterday I watched this great KEXP at home performance and interview with Tricky. After a handful of remote video songs, Tricky and DJ Larry Mizelle, Jr talk about his career and what went into making this album. Tricky is quite humble, and forthcoming about his journey after the death of his daughter. He’s in therapy for the first time (at 52!), and he’s nowhere near the end of recovering from the loss.

“I’m getting stronger. The secret now is finding what the point is of being here. I’m getting there, gradually.”

He also talks about the new material he’s started working on with the legendary Lee “Scratch” Perry, for a future album he’s already named Lonely Guess which will hopefully come out this year. While we anxiously await that new material, check out the moving Fall to Pieces. It’s short, and worth every minute.

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#31 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Chromeo

January 01, 2021 by Royal Stuart

What a year this has been. Covid-19. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and the Black Lives Matter movement. Months of devastating fires along the west coast and Australia. An anxiety-inducing election cycle ending in the winding down of the worst presidency America has ever seen. Things are dire, and we find ourselves improperly equipped to deal with it all.

I am one of the lucky ones; I have my family to support me — my loving wife, Anna, and our two wonderful children. I know a lot of people don’t have that built-in parachute. I don’t know how I would have fared on my own, without having people I love stuck inside with me. But I do know we all can share in the healing power of music.

You are not alone.

This became my mantra throughout 2020, thanks in large part to KEXP (Seattle’s wonderful public radio station, found at kexp.org or 90.3 FM), who constantly repeated those four words, and furthermore, proved it every day through the music they played and the collective healing they instigated. Despite the chaos of the year, KEXP was always there, playing exactly what I needed to hear.

More often than any other year, I reached for music as a form of therapy. A lot of what I sought out were old standards — albums I knew that could predictably lift me up out of, or to help expand upon the feelings of melancholy and sorrow I was drowning in. In addition to that, thankfully, the industry continued to kick out amazing new music for me to latch onto, despite them being unable to spread that music through live performance for most of the year.

While reeling in the years I still listened to plenty of new music. As per usual, I had a tough time narrowing down to just 31 new albums that I felt sum up the year best for me. There are some Top 31 regulars on countdown this year, and also a lot of new artists. Some albums that will make you sad, and others the will put a smile on your face. And hopefully some surprises along the way. This first one will make you laugh for sure.

Quarantine Casanova by Chromeo

This almost feels like cheating. Quarantine Casanova, by Canadian electro-funk duo Chromeo, is intended to be a joke, and it is so painfully current. Musicians David "Dave 1" Macklovitch and Patrick "P-Thugg" Gemayel put together five stellar songs about the current global pandemic, and then extended that concept by tacking on the instrumental versions of those five songs, making for a funky dance “album” that is just over 30 minutes long.

They sing about our collective social distance standard on “Six Feet Away.” They name drop Dr. Fauci on “’Roni Got Me Stressed Out.” And in the video above, they sing about being someone’s “Clorox Wipe”. These words didn’t mean anything a year ago, but now they’re burned onto our brains and will forever more bring back specific memories to everyone who has lived through this pandemic.

Chromeo clearly has fun with their music. Over the years I’ve danced through their live set at least once or twice, a huge grin on my face. Quarantine Casanova is their sixth release, and their entire catalog is full of danceable fun. I’m 99% sure I’ve not included a joke album like this on the Top 31 in the past, and I likely won’t again in the future. This album is for right now, and right now only. It got my family up and dancing about while giggling a few times throughout the year. And if you haven’t heard it, I recommend firing it up right now – as Chromeo sing, “I gotta take care of my mental health.”

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