#20 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Kings of Convenience

January 12, 2022 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

We’ve made it to the Top 20!

Just as the world was starting to open up, and Spring was turning to Summer, a welcome surprise landed in my ears: brand new music from Norewegian band Kings of Convenience. It had been over 20 years since the band released their lovely debut album, Quiet is the New Loud. They‘d followed that up with a decent sophomore effort, 2004’s Riot on an Empty Street, and I don’t recall ever listening to their third album, Declaration of Dependence, which came out in 2009. I’d assumed they’d split long ago.

But here we were, hopeful and excited about the Covid vaccinations rolling out for everyone 12 and older, summer vacations, and even a couple weeks where we actually went shopping without a mask on our faces. Peace or Love fell nicely into place amidst it all. Then, as the Delta variant and eventually the Omicron variant drove us back into hiding and despair, the tone of Peace or Love shifted with the times. No longer was it the soundtrack for drinking beers next to a pool, it became the soundtrack that helped us remember drinking beers next to a pool.

Kings of Convenience are a duo from Norway. Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe met in gradeschool, and became friends because they both have “ø” in their names – color me jealøus. (Just kidding – I have no idea why they became friends in grade school.) Their music is completely unassuming – quiet, folk-driven harmonies with tales of love and laughter. It is sure not to piss a single person off.

If you’re unfamiliar with Kings of Convenience, this album is a fine place to start. Put it on, don’t turn it up loud, lie down, and drift off into bliss. Be sure to leave it on repeat so you can wake occasionally and then pleasantly fall back to sleep.

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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 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Jimbo Mathus & Andrew Bird

January 11, 2022 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

These 13 by Jimbo Mathus & Andrew Bird

Andrew Bird is well-loved by The Bacon Top 31. He’s had three albums on the Top 31 (#17 in 2019, #5 in 2016, #22 in 2009). With his song on I’ll Be Your Mirror (with Lucius) back at #24, this is his second appearance on the 2021 countdown.

Jimbo Mathus, on the other hand, is a new discovery for me. “New” isn’t quite right, though — he’s been around for decades, most notably as the cofounding multi-instrumentalist of the platinum-album selling Squirrel Nut Zippers. I can’t say I’ve been a fan – but I just listened to their 1996 hit “Hell” and joyfully sang along.

In researching their fantastic country-esque collaboration, These 13, I learned that Bird has a history with Mathus and the Zippers: he was a member of the Zippers and recorded and toured with them from 1996-1998. Since that time, the two of them have maintained a friendship, and worked together occasionally. These 13 is the longest, most sustained work the two of them have done together.

Bird’s typically fantastic violin playing and strumming, his powerful voice, and his magical whistling are all prominent here. It’s Mathus’s deep-south Mississippi roots that bring a new side to the types of songs Bird performs. This album is what country music should sound like. Bird’s whistling reminds me of one of my favorite country music legends, Dwight Yoakam and his glorious yodel.

Give these songs a whirl. There’s a lot to unpack here, but the history that these two share between them and the road that led them here is long. That history plays out beautifully across these 13 songs.

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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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#22 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Nathan Johnson

January 10, 2022 by Royal Stuart

Mr. Corman: Season 1 by Nathan Johnson

Now we’re near the end of Act I, and our story is taking a major turn. ”Mr. Corman,” the Apple TV+ series, is an amazing piece of television. The single-season show (it’s been confirmed that it is not coming back for another season) was created, produced, directed, written, and starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt and a host of unexpected guests.

It is most certainly not for everyone — in fact, it may be just for me and no-one else. At the end of the roughly five hours of watching, I felt elated. The arc of the season into the finale was oddly compelling despite it feeling sluggish at times. But it’s stuck with me, it was so worth it, and I enjoy how the Soundtrack evokes key beats of the season for me.

Music features prominently throughout the season. Good songs you’ll recognize play throughout, but the original music, written by longtime Gordon-Levitt collaborator Nathan Johnson (cousin of director Rian Johnson), found on the Soundtrack is fantastic. Over the course of its ten episodes, what starts out normal takes many many unexpected audio (and visual) twists and turns: a musical number (shown above, featuring Debra Winger, who plays Gordon-Levitt’s character Mr. Corman’s mother); retired, grammy-nominated rapper Logic showing up for his on-screen debut as a social media influencer, along with a new song he came out of retirement to write just for the Soundtrack; and Juno Temple (Ted Lasso’s Keeley Jones) appearing as the main character’s ex-girlfriend, joining Gordon-Levitt as co-lead-singer. Everything combined to create the analog-but-digital musical conscious of Mr. Corman.

My love of the show is definitely coloring my opinion of the music. Mr. Corman’s struggles throughout the season are punctuated by myriad digital artifacts that evoke the computer-generated side of Sufjan Stevens or Son Lux. The Soundtrack floats through many musical genres due to the story of the show. And Mr. Corman makes literal music in each episode, a coping mechanism for being an anxiety-ridden 5th grade teacher.

Watch it, and stick with it. And listen. Perhaps like me you’ll find harmony in the world that Gordon-Levitt and his Composer Johnson have created. I hope that you do.

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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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#23 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Lucy Dacus

January 09, 2022 by Royal Stuart

Home Video by Lucy Dacus

Lucy Dacus has a gorgeous voice, soft and warm like a fresh-from-the-dryer flannel. She’s been on my radar since her debut album, No Burden, came out about five years ago. Natively from Virginia, the Philadelphia-based singer/songwriter has been slowly sinking her songs into my mind ever since. That pace quickened with her involvement in boygenius, the supergroup she formed with Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers back in 2018 (still waiting for a full-length from the trio…).

Home Video, Dacus’s third full-length, finally packed enough punch to push herself to the front of the queue and land her on the Bacon Top 31. Over the past few years, she’s managed to hit a level of intimacy and directness with her songwriting that is in direct contrast to the smooth beauty of her voice. The influences of Baker and Bridgers are clear (they each appear on the album on a handful of songs). But I also hear less likely influences, like Neko Case, St. Vincent, and Sharon van Etten. If any of those names are favorites of yours, you need to add Lucy Dacus to your list.

As part of the promotion for Home Video, Dacus appeared on the Song Exploder podcast. If you’re not familiar, Song Exploder, created and hosted by Hrishikesh Hirway, is great: artists come on and go into deep detail around a song of theirs – how it came into being, how it was performed and recorded in the studio, what it means to them, etc. The particular brilliance of the podcast is that Hirway mostly edits himself asking the artist questions out of the podcast. This leaves us, the listener, with the artist having a direct, seemingly 1-on-1 conversation with us, describing their songs in intimate detail.

For her episode, Dacus talked about “Thumbs,” my absolute favorite song on the album. This song is a gut punch. Hearing how it came together and how personal it is to Dacus is amazing. Even if the album on the whole isn’t your bag, I don’t see how you can’t love this song, and I recommend listening to the podcast just to hear it.

Pfffft. There’s no way this whole album isn’t your bag.

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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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#24 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Various Artists

January 08, 2022 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute to The Velvet Underground & Nico by Various Artists

Here at #24 we’re crossing off a couple of unexpected scorigami-like firsts here at the Bacon Top 31. I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute to The Velvet Underground & Nico, the lovely full-album cover of the seminal debut album Velvet Underground & Nico, is not only the first time I‘ve featured not one but two full-remake cover albums on the Bacon Top 31 in the same year, but, somewhat unbelievably, it’s also the second time a full cover of this particular 1967 album is appearing on the countdown.

Way back in 2009 (the inaugural Bacon Top 31), Beck’s Record Club version of The Velvet Underground & Nico was #7 on the countdown that year. The 2021 cover version, put out by the band’s original 1967 label, Verve records, is aiming to cash in on the recently released Todd Haynes documentary about the band that was in theaters earlier this year.

(It’s mildly interesting that Verve has put this together, given that one of the reasons the 1967 original suffered poor sales at first — according to Wikipedia — was because of Verve, “who failed to promote or distribute the album with anything but modest attention.”)

But they’ve put together a masterpiece. The album’s roster is like the Bacon Top 31 all-stars: Andrew Bird, Kurt Vile, St. Vincent, Thurston Moore, King Princess, Fontaines D.C., and even Iggy Pop.

Like any compilations of covers, there are some highs and lows. The Matt Berninger cover of ”I’m Waiting for the Man,” shown in the video above is one of the lows. Berninger tries to channel his inner Lou Reed, but he’s too polished and controlled to pull it off. “Sunday Morning” by Michael Stipe and Bill Frissell is gorgeous from the very first note. Sharon van Ettan’s cover of “Femme Fatale” with Angel Olsen is slowwed waaay dowwwwn, a beautifully frustrating listen. And Courtney Barnett brings her usual off-beat and -key production to the title song “I’ll Be Your Mirror,” proving her music is a direct descendant of what The Velvet Underground & Nico accomplished 54 years ago.

If you like any of the artists mentioned above, definitely check out this album. They’re essentially performing the songs of their grandparents – without them, these artists would not exist. If you don’t know the artists, but like the original album, give this one a listen. You’ll find some kindred spirits you can explore to widen your tastes.

late addition: check out this live rendiition of Andrew Bird and Lucius’ cover of “Venus in Furs”. Watching Bird put the sonic landscape together all at once is a sight and sound to behold.

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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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#25 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Fruit Bats

January 07, 2022 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Siamese Dream by Fruit Bats

I’ve liked the Fruit Bats for a long time. The band is essentially one person, Eric D. Johnson, and he’s been performing as Fruit Bats on and off for over two decades. Fruit Bats have released ten full-length albums in that time. Not one has been on the Bacon Top 31, despite my ongoing enjoyment of hearing his songs on the radio and almost buying tickets to see him perform numerous times. I have no good reason for this, but that’s ok because I’m rectifying the situation right here and now.

Siamese Dream is a Smashing Pumpkins album that rarely left my CD player in the fall and winter of 1993. Nearly third years old, I still play the album once every couple years, and I sing – loudly – if one of its songs comes on the radio while I’m driving around. So you can imagine my sheer joy when I learned that Fruit Bats had produced a cover of the entire album in 2020.

With instrumentation that leans towards the quieter folk rock side of the indie spectrum, Johnson’s voice lands somewhere between Billy Corgan and James Mercer – in the higher registers. (Johnson even played with The Shins from 2006-2011). Thankfully, his voice is not as mumbly as Mercer’s or as nasal-y as Corgan’s. Nor is his cover of Siamese Dream a note-for-note remake. But the same chord progressions are there, as well as the same Gen X angst. This is a mostly faithful rendition, and if the original has a special place in your heart, then this album will slot in right next to it.

Fruit Bats recorded the album in 2020 as a collaboration with Turntable Kitchen. “Turntable Kitchen is a place to come home to, travel with and turn up the volume on” says their website. They have three different vinyl subscriptions you can join; Sounds Delicious is the one dedicated solely to full-album covers. Subscribers got to hear Siamese Dream last year (and is sold out now). It only hit the streaming services this year. I’m keeping an eye on the site for future stellar covers, and I’ll be sure to mention them on the Top 31 when they do appear!

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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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#26 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Sault

January 06, 2022 by Royal Stuart

NINE by Sault

I’ve talked at length about the prolific output of the secretive British R&B collective known as Sault. Nine, their fifth album in just over two years, and fifth effort to appear on The Bacon Top 31 (_5_ and _7_ were at #7 in 2019, and Untitled (Black Is) and Untitled (Rise) were at #5 in last year’s Top 31).

Go back and read those previous posts to learn more (or least as much as you can) about the band. NINE fits in very nicely with their previous works. The one twist with this album is that when it was released on June 25, the band announced that it would only be available for purchase, stream, or download for 99 days. On Oct 3, 2021, true to their word, the album disappeared. Hence the fan-made video shown above – there’s no longer any official way to listen to this album. If you don’t have it, well, you’ll just have to track it down illegally I guess.

Like the Sufjan and the Jurado albums that appeared earlier in the Top 31, this is the lowest point the band has appeared on the Top 31. I’m beginning to wonder if it’s a trend of some kind – me not liking previously much-loved artists as much as I used to. It’s a thought that hadn’t occurred to me until just now, but I’ll keep thinking on it and see how the rest of the Top 31 plays out here in the bottom third before making any sweeping judgments of my changing musical tastes.

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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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#27 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Aeon Station

January 05, 2022 by Royal Stuart

Observatory by Aeon Station

You may recognize the sound of the band whose debut album, Observatory, sits at #27. Calling it a “debut” is a bit of a misnomer, as its lead songwriter is Kevin Whelan, who in a former life was half of the writing duo for The Wrens. The Wrens’ third and final album, 2003’s Meadowlands, is beloved by many. Irreconcilable differences between Whelan and the band’s leader Charles Bissell meant that the band broke up rather than create what might have been a phenomenal followup album.

The band’s departure from the scene opened the door for other similar acts, like Top 31 faves Arcade Fire, but it also meant Whelan and the songs he’d written for the next Wrens album were left drifting in the surf. 18 years have passed since Meadowlands, and we are all very lucky that Whelan finally gave up on putting the pieces of his former band together.

Observatory, may not fully be a Wrens album, but it still feels of that era, in the best way possible. Great hooks, terrific builds, crashing choruses – it’s all here. If you listened to indie rock in the 00s, then Aeon Station will evoke all those same feelings you felt back then. This is an album that will last. I hope Whelan is energized enough to keep going, to see what else he can produce under the new moniker, finally and fully removed from what was, embracing the now.

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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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#28 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Damien Jurado

January 04, 2022 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania by Damien Jurado

Damien Jurado, a formerly Seattle-based singer/songwriter with the voice of an angel and the poetic genius of Donne, is becoming an official card-carrying member of the Bacon Top 31 Five Timer’s Club. His four previous appearances on the Top 31 have all fallen in the top 5 (#5 in 2018, #2 in 2016, and #5 in 2012) or would have if I hadn’t accidentally excluded him from the running in 2014.

You might look at the placement of this, his twentieth (yes 20th!) solo album, all the way back at #28 as some sort of downfall, and you’d be flat out wrong. Sometimes Jurado’s albums feature prominently in my year, and sometimes they don’t. This just happened to be a year that I wanted to listen to more raucous music, I guess (the same can probably be said for the SUFJAN STEVENS placement at #29 yesterday). Jurado did feature prominently in my year, but not in a recorded way – he performed at a lightly-populated, socially-distanced auditorium early in the year, and I was one of the lucky ones to get to see him. It was my and my wife’s first live show since Covid began, over a year prior. In the end, we only saw two shows all year, so choosing Jurado as one of those shows tells you how important he is to me.

Go back and read my previous entries on Jurado, and you’ll see love letter after love letter to him and his work. He is a joy to listen to, and we’re all very lucky to have him performing for us.

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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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#29 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine

January 03, 2022 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

A Beginner’s Mind by Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine

Another year, another Sufjan Stevens album on the Bacon Top 31. The man is prolific. He‘s had four albums on the Top 31 (#9 last year, #30 in 2017, #4 in 2015, and famously #3 in 2010), and would have more if I’d been charting when his earlier 00’s albums were released.

As such, it’s hard to listen to any of his new music with unbiased ears. He’s settled into two basic musical modes: soft and delicate (similar to Elliott Smith) or electronic and noisy (think Reznor-era David Bowie), and I enjoy both greatly for different reasons. A Beginner’s Mind falls squarely in the quiet, dreamlike mode, almost like a downy blanket laid gently over your torso. It didn’t hit me as deeply as Carrie & Lowell, his tribute to his parents that hit #4 in 2015, but it’s loveliness clearly couldn’t keep it off the Top 31 entirely.

Each of Stevens’ albums have an overarching conceptual narrative hook, be it a US state (Michigan, Illinois) or mental health (The Age of Adz, Carrie & Lowell). A Beginner’s Mind is no different: each track from the album is inspired by a different movie of the 20th and 21st century. There are songs dedicated to films as varied as All About Eve, Hellraiser III, Bring It On Again, and Point Break. The beautiful “Cimmerian Shade” is sung from the perspective of Buffalo Bill, the serial killer in The Silence of the Lambs.

Stevens partnered with longtime friend and collaborator Angelo De Augustine, an LA-based singer/songwriter whose last two solo albums were released on Stevens’ record label Asthmatic Kitty. De Augustine’s solo work pairs nicely with Sufjan’s softer side – A Beginner’s Mind makes sense in either artist’s catalog.

If you like quieter, lightly strung instruments and near-whispered vocals, this album is definitely for you. By now you should know whether you like Sufjan or not. But if you‘re new to his music, don’t start here. Check out Illinois, from 2005. So much has come from that seminal work – I’m excited simply by the thought of someone opening the door and letter Sufjan in for the first time. You’re in for a musical visit unlike any other.

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30. Where the End Begins by Knathan Ryan
31. Private Space by Durand Jones & The Indications

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#30 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Knathan Ryan

January 02, 2022 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Where the End Begins by Knathan Ryan

Nobody needs to be reminded that 2020 was an extremely dark year. I talked a lot about that darkness in my 2020 Bacon Top 31 posts, using the music of the year to carry larger diatribes about Covid lock-downs, Black Lives Matter protests, and facist dictatorships. At the end of the 2020 Bacon Top 31, in my review of the #1 album, Waxahatchee’s Saint Cloud, I landed on a hopeful, positive note about the year ahead:

“Now, a month into 2021, I have a newly-lit hope that the perspective wrought by the [2020] will ultimately drive positive, lasting, unbreakable change. I once was blind, but now I see. Let’s work together to do great things with our new eyes.”

How naive I sounded, but such was the general feeling of early 2021! It was supposed to be the year where everything turned around, where the darkness subsided. But it just didn’t happen. Covid is still very much prevalent in our world, causing yet another years’ festivities to be dialed back or canceled altogether. The specter of the year-old end of the Trump presidency continues to generate mass amounts of anxiety about the future of our country. And while those responsible for the deaths of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery were found guilty of murder, the recognition and punishment of racist acts on the whole continues to be carried out uncomfortably inconsistently.

If anything, the mass depression and general malaise of the world has taken on a new insidiousness. We’re pushing down those feelings, no longer wearing them on our sleeves. We’re burying them just below the surface, where they color our actions and the view of the world. We’ve replaced the concern of “this sucks right now but is temporary” with “it’s going to suck like this for a much longer time than originally expected, so we might as well get used to it.”

There are many ways I work to fight back the darkness and cope with the malaise. One big part of my defense remains listening to and discovering new music. It’s also a large part of my motivation in creating the Bacon Top 31 – to share in my discovery, in the hopes that it can help you, too. In the same turn, it’s helpful to me to hear of others’ struggles and difficulties, to hear how they’re coping (or not), and I hear a lot of those struggles in music is you know where to look. The man at #30 fits this description perfectly.

Knathan Ryan is a West Seattle-based singer/songwriter who doesn’t hold back. Speaking from personal experience (he’s one of my oldest friends in Seattle), he is nothing if not genuine, truly listening to you when you need to share, and sharing honestly and deeply when you want to listen. From his debut solo album (2003’s Vincible, minus the “K” in his name), the follow up 03 to TEN (#30 in 2010), to turns with his bands The Bruised Hearts Revue and The Silent Ks, Ryan has been producing heartfelt, thoughtful music for a very long time. Where the End Begins is his most personal, most “bare it all” album, and it’s also his best yet.

Ryan puts into song things we’re all feeling. Where the End Begins is full of difficulty – in carrying on, in maintaining relationships, in faith. “Anxiety”, in the middle of the album, hits particularly close to home in these covid-fueled times. And you can hear the struggle in songs like “Ain’t My Love?” (a version of which is featured in the video above) and “Sorry Just Don’t Cut it Anymore”, working hard to maintain relations during these trying, stuck-with-the-one-you’re-with times. But these songs aren’t sad, they’re upbeat and exciting and glorious. Ryan has a knack for taking a difficulty and twisting into a beautiful melody.

With songs firmly rooted in old-time country as well as indie rock, he keeps things close to the mic and approachable. The warble in his voice, not quite a yodel, is unmistakably his. The highlight for me is “Hey, Rooster!”, near the end of the album. That’s the song you’ll hear in the Radio Station playlist links below. When those horns kick in around 1:45, and then really take off at 2:07 – that is pure listening gold.

Yes, I’m biased in listening to these songs, as I’ve known the man behind these songs for over twenty years. But don’t let that stop you. Where the End Begins is a beautiful record, and you will enjoy it every bit as much as I do.

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31. Private Space by Durand Jones & The Indications

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#31 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Durand Jones & The Indications

January 01, 2022 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Welcome to another Bacon Top 31. I’d written a long diatribe about the general state of things here at the end of 2021, but I’ve decided to NOT start the year off on a down note. Let’s instead start the 2021 list off right: with the excitement I feel for the coming month of daily album reviews.

For those new here, a quick recap of what the Top 31 is. In the mid-00’s, a good friend of mine (hi Ryan!) created the Musical Advent Calendar, where he would count down his favorite 25 albums, with #1 being announced on Christmas Day. Despite remaining an active listener of new music, he decided to put down his quill in 2008.

I had liked his format of counting down an album a day, I was already personally charting what I was listening to each year up to that point, and I enjoyed learning about new music I’d heard because of his annual lists. So I decided to pick up where he left off — since 2009 (the Bacon Top 31 is officially a teenager this year!) I‘ve been counting down not my Top 25, but my Top 31 (as I did not want to tie my list to the Christian holiday).

This list is generated solely by your truly, and therefore reflects only my personal opinion. As you’ll see, I do enjoy listening to a wide range of music genres, but I definitely have my biases. This isn’t Pitchfork’s Top 50, or even Casey Kasem’s Top 40, but is instead all me, Royal Stuart, aka @royalbacon. Onto the show! The #31 album of 2021 is:

Private Space by Durand Jones & The Indications

2021 was another great year for music. Like 2020, spending a good portion of the year at home, with family all around, meant my listening habits were heavily influenced by their likes and dislikes. Not better or worse, just different from years past. With an active 3- (now 4-) year-old running around, a lot of fun, dancey music ended up in the rotation. And that’s why we’re starting this year’s Bacon Top 31 with the disco-influenced music of Durand Jones & the Indications.

The quintet met at university in Bloomington, Indiana. Led by lead vocalist Durand Jones, the band sounds as if they’ve been around since the early 70s, despite having only formed about 10 years ago. There’s no mistaking the grooviness of these songs. Your hips will instantly start shifting from side to side as soon as the bass line of the first song hits your ears. “Witchoo” – the 2nd song on the album and featured in the video above – is one of their most active songs. I especially love the crowd participation portion at the end.

Private Space is only the band’s third album, and I’ve not yet heard their earlier works. At 39 minutes, this album takes you on a ride from slow to bounce and back again, but never leaves the platform shoes and polyester suits behind. If disco is your jam, or even if you just simply like to cut a rug from time to time, you’ll definitely want to check out this album.

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Full Album
All albums in their entirety.

Radio Station
A single song selection pulled from each album.

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