#8 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Cheekface

January 24, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

It’s Sorted by Cheekface

I like humor in music. In the Top 31 so far this year we’ve got Father John Misty (over the top crooner), King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (good ol’ boys), Vulfmon (downright silly), and even yesterday’s artist, MJ Lenderman, is humorous in his own ironic, lyrical way. The band here at #8, LA’s Cheekface, excels at dry, matter-of-fact humor – the exact kind of humor living in today’s uber-politicized world requires.¹ To whit:

I just want to be popular to watch
In the movie you put on from the camera on your porch
Your across-the-street neighbor walks his dog on TV
The future is now, unfortunately
And if I’m never, ever gonna be alone
Here in my community neighborhood home
Then I wanna be popular to watch
In the movie you put on from the camera on your porch

That, dear friends, is the chorus for “Popular 2,” my favorite song from Cheekface’s 4th rockin’ album, It’s Sorted. I can’t describe what a sense of accomplishment I felt when I was able to finally sing that verse word-for-word by memory. It’s so good! Is this musically challenging, ground breaking music? No! Does it make me smile, repeatedly, on every listen? Yes! Do I regularly put exclamation points in my reviews? No! Does Cheekface make me want to use exclamation points? Yes!

I don’t know about you, but I can’t handle a lot of what’s going on in the world right now. Music has the magical power to take you in all kinds of directions: sadness, elation, anger, happiness, emotional, gleeful. Which direction is not necessarily the point, as long as that direction is away from the right now. Cheekface’s magic is that they keep you mostly grounded in the right now, with blunt reality tinged by dry, direct delivery, while still managing to pull you away to some new reality where the absurdity of life is humorous.

The song “Don’t Stop Believing,” very similar to “Indian Summer” by Beat Happening, features the lines “Everyone cool will die. Everyone weird will also die. What lives on is the destruction caused my market economics. Being unique does not fit neatly into the grid of corporate needs. Still, I work like a dog doing a dog day’s work, and who could blame me? I live in a society.” There is nothing funny about those lives. They’re bleak and sad. But lead singer Greg Katz’s baritone delivery is comical. He stumbles over himself trying to cram in the line about working like a dog. It doesn’t fit the beat, but he successfully pulls it off.

The chorus for “Plastic” goes like this: “Everything is gray now, do you like it? You know I only want it if you want it. Whatever you need now, we can make it out of plastic.” These are not song lyrics, this is a letter from a pen pal who’s on the verge of a mental breakdown. The bridge of the same song is a call-and-response with “Is there recycling?” followed by “It’s sorted.” It doesn’t have to make sense, it just has to make me smile.

I first covered Cheekface for their great third album, Too Much to Ask at #22 in 2022. Here we are two years later and that album still sees regular airplay in my home, along with It’s Sorted. “Life in a Bag” (featured in the video above) is one of many highlights across the album. Each song I listen to as I write this review compels me to put the lyrics here in writing – they’re all just so nonsensical but somehow make all the sense in the world. But I’ll stop – just go listen to the damn thing yourself and watch the lyrics as you do.

You can meet the entire band (Greg Katz on lead vocals and guitar, Mandy Tannen on backing vocals and bass, and Mark “Echo” Edwards on drums) by watching the It’s Sorted Album Commentary the band put out in support of the record. One of the more amazing and endearing things about the band is they self-release and self-promote everything they do. The band is very active on social media, their albums come out on Katz’s own New Professor Music record label, and they have toured extensively for the short few years that I’ve known of them.

I saw Cheekface in 2022, missed them last year, but am excited to get to see them again, at Neumos on May 23. Based on the number of “5th album” talk happening in their social posts and on the band’s hosted Discord, I’m confident their next album will be out by then. At the show, there will be lots of singing along, shouting at key moments, likely Katz leading us in some guided dancing, like we are the puppets and he holds the strings. Cheekface shows are very interactive. And the best part? I am very confident that my cheeks will hurt from smiling by the end of the show. Maybe that’s why they call themselves Cheekface.

^{1. Wikipedia take all the fun out of describing the fun that is Cheekface: “The group's songs, characterized by [lead singer Greg] Katz’s talk-singing, are typically short and lyrics-driven with a dry sense of humor and tend to share a thematic interest in anxiety and sociopolitical unease.” ↩}

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#24 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Father John Misty

January 08, 2025 by Royal Stuart in 2024, Top 31

Mahashmashana by Father John Misty

I’m ready to accept the reality of my situation: I am an unbelieving, reluctant Father John Misty fan. At 12+ years into my fandom, I’m confident this outlook will never change. I have a pattern for each of his releases. Step 1 is surprise: “Oh, I guess FJM is still producing music.” Step 2 is reluctance: “OK, I’ll give it a listen, but this won’t be as good as his past work.” Step 3 is acceptance: “Yep, it sounds like an FJM album, but I’m not really feeling it. Good background music I guess.” Step 4 is back to surprise: “Wow, ok, the FJM record from this year is a great record.” Mahashmashana, Josh Tillman’s sixth Father John Misty record, is no different – it is, unbelievably, another great record.

I don’t think my reluctance to expect greatness from FJM is solely my fault. Everything about Tillman’s alter ego is an intentional joke, taking the piss of the entire indie rock star genre. From his name (seriously, “Father John Misty,” really?), to his sultry, make-ladies-throw-their-panties-on-stage crooner stage presence, Tillman is clearly having a ton of fun. These aren’t laugh-out-loud jokes – they’re knowing winks that are easy to pick up if you’re paying even the mildest amount of attention. And I’m — gulp — very much here for it.

All six of Tillman’s Father John Misty albums have been on the Top 31:

Fear Fun: #14 in 2012
I Love You, Honeybear: #6 in 2015
Pure Comedy: #15 in 2017
God's Favorite Customer: #26 in 2018
Chloë and the Next 20th Century: #9 in 2022

I won’t be able to give you a ranking of the albums – put any one of them on, and you’ll have the same, pleasant experience. It takes about five complete listens of any FJM album to start really appreciating the individual songs. “Screamland,” featured above, is a unique video of a great song. The video is formatted for vertical phone viewing, like a 6+ minute Tik Tok movie. Tillman has a couple other videos out, for songs “She Cleans Up” and “Josh Tillman and the Accidental Dose,” and watching all three videos back-to-back will give you a good sense of the depth of this album, and really what Father John Misty is capable of across the board.

One other video I’d like to direct your attention to is “Real Love Baby,” which only came out this year, despite the non-album single having been released back in 2016. The song was originally written by Tillman for Lady Gaga, but according to Wikipedia he became enamored with it so much he ended up keeping it for himself. The groundbreaking video takes the happy song to an over-the-top explosion of joy, making this my nominee for top feel-good song of 2024. Watch the video – featuring a collection of Tik Tok dancers who were not originally dancing to FJM’s song, but happened to be hitting the right beat, so are repurposed to appear as though people from all walks of life are all enjoying the same FJM song.

According to Pitchfork, Mahashmashana is an anglicization of mahāśmaśāna, the Sanskrit word for “cremation ground”: the burning wasteland before the next life. While it feels to me like Father John Misty hasn’t really changed (or needed to change) much over the last 12 years, that title makes me feel like Tillman believes he’s changed. He did become a father between the creation of this album and the previous album, Chlöe, and while this album doesn’t gush about fatherhood, maybe that is the change Tillman is speaking to. Only time will tell, and likely another album that I reluctantly listen to, begin to enjoy, and eventually love, to determine whether he’s made any noticeable change. For now, we have six albums that are each great in their own right. There is no denying, Tillman is one of the best, and Mahashmashana fits right in.

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#31 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Alan Sparhawk

January 01, 2025 by Royal Stuart in Top 31, 2024

Welcome to the 16th annual Bacon Top 31. I love sharing new music that I enjoy with others, and that’s what the Top 31 is all about. It’s where I share my top 31 albums of the previous year, in descending order, one a day throughout the month of January. For each album, I write a little bit about the history of the artist, their presence (if any) on past Top 31s, and why this particular album was special to me in 2024.

In addition to being a judgmental sharer of the music I love, I’m a visual person. As part of my reviews, I share at least one music video from each album, if there are any of available to share. My music blogging started back even before the invention of YouTube in 2005: I had a strong desire to share the cool music videos that I’d come across on the still-young internet. I love how a music video can bring music to life in a whole new way.

The Bacon Top 31, as well as my taste in music, has been through a lot these past 16 years. Sure, I’ve settled into the half-century mark squarely in the “sad dad” scene, but my musical loves have grown out in strange and interesting ways, influenced by my wife and kids, but also by my own pointed efforts in broadening my horizons. A few years back I did a survey of female voices over the past Top 31s, and was appalled to find out that there was very little representation of women in my tastes. These last few years, that has changed drastically.

I plan to do some further cross-year examination into genres where I feel like I’ve grown considerably, but that will have to wait so as not to spoil the fun of revealing who I’ve been listening to and loving these past 12 months. For now, I’m glad that you’re here – and if this is your first year reading, or if you’ve been with me since 2009, I hope you enjoy these next 31 days of reviews. Let the Top 31 begin!

White Roses, My God by Alan Sparhawk

Mimi Parker, longtime wife of Alan Sparhawk, who together formed the core duo of the band Duluth, Minnesota band Low, lost her battle against ovarian cancer at the age of 55 on November 6, 2022.

Low only appeared on the Top 31 one time, for their final album Hey What, at #10 in 2021. I was a fan of Low off-and-on for most of their 30-year history, and while I didn’t love every one of their 13 albums, and never once saw them live, their Christmas EP has been played religiously (ha ha) in my house since I first heard it over two decades ago. Low was iconic, despite never having had a hit single, and the music Sparhawk and Parker made together will continue to live on atop an indie rock pedestal of high regard.

Friends, it’s hard to put the universe into language and into a short message, but

She passed away last night, surrounded by family and love, including yours. Keep her name close and sacred. Share this moment with someone who needs you. Love is indeed the most important thing.
— LOW (@lowtheband) November 6, 2022

White Roses, My God is Sparhawk’s first foray into what comes next, his first attempts at creating something when half of his creative soul has been torn away. The album is rudimentary in its execution, very much unlike anything Low created, but it’s also somehow very much Sparhawk. The electronic sounds, the mutated vocals singing seemingly stream-of-consciousness lyrics, the album is not an easy listen. I can’t imagine what it would be like to listen to the album without knowing its provenance. But in the context of Sparhawk’s life, it makes perfect sense.

The second song on the album, “I Made This Beat,” appears childlike, with Sparhawk singing the title over and over again throughout. It is simple, droning, and on its own: fairly unlistenable. But with the context of understanding that Mimi Parker, the main person who played the drums in Low, the one responsible for the beat of all Low songs, is no longer able to make the beats for Sparhawk. He isn’t just searching for something to sing to carry over the top of the beat he’s made — he’s wallowing in the fact that it was he who had to make the beat, because he has lost his previous source for such creation.

Since Parker’s passing, Sparhawk has thrown himself into music-making, in a creativity-as-mourning shift. In addition to recording and releasing White Roses, he’s:

formed a funk band called Damien, with he and Parker’s son
joined another funk band called Derecho Rhythm Section, which features both of their children
created a Neil Young covers act called Tired Eyes, and
formed a noise-rock band called Feast of Lanterns

According to Pitchfork, next year he’s releasing a collaborative album with Duluth bluegrass group Trampled by Turtles. And he even plays on the Father John Misty record that came out in November (more to come on that).

Low, and Mimi Parker, will be deeply missed. But their music will live on. Thankfully for us, Sparhawk himself has no plans of receding into the background. He is carrying on, and we are all the better for it.

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#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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#9 on the 2022 Bacon Top 31 — Father John Misty

January 23, 2023 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Chloë and the Next 20th Century by Father John Misty

Josh Tillman is back on track. I suppose it’s hard to say he was ever off track, as all four of his Father John Misty albums have appeared on the Top 31 (#14 in 2012, #6 in 2015, #15 in 2017, and #26 in 2019). But as you can see in that string of great albums, the quality of his output and his placement in the Top 31 had been declining since his high point, I Love You, Honeybear, in 2015. I’m happy to report that Chloë and the Next 20th Century, Tillman’s fifth album as Father John Misty, is as good if not better than Honeybear.

This album has Tillman’s FJM crooner firing on all cylinders. Backed by full orchestration, including horns and strings, he takes us to an era that predates indie rock, and really any kind of rock, back to the 50s, Chet Baker bid band era. This is exactly where Father John Misty should have been all along.

I had the immense pleasure of seeing FJM at THING, the annual Pacific Northwest music festival held at Fort Worden in Port Townsend, WA. There were a lot of high points at the festival, but FJM was the highest. He played on the medium-sized stage on the first night. Unlike most festival acts, he had risers and props that made his stage presence match the lounge-act songs he was going to perform. He must have had ten or so guys on stage with him, horns and keyboards and a stand-up bass. And he moved eloquently about the stage between and around the other players, playfully eyeing the crowd and engaging in humorous banter.

Up to that point, I hadn’t loved Chloë. I can safely say because of that performance, my opinion of the album changed for the positive. My wife claims this album to be boring and sleepy, to which I retort “You didn’t see him live at Thing.” The influence a live performance can have on the listener’s opinions – both positive and negative – is a real phenomenon, and my love of FJM is testament to that experience.

Per usual, Tillman loves the visual side of music. Take a look at the above video, for the more upbeat song “Goodbye Mr. Blue.” Other Chloë songs that have been made into videos include:

“Kiss Me (I Loved You)”
“Buddy’s Rendezvous,” along with a non-album version of the same song sung by Lana Del Ray
“Q4” as the credits to a fictional movie from the 50s of the same name
“Funny Girl”

If you’ve liked FJM in the past, now is not the time to pull away. Tillman has brought us back into the fold with Chloë, and I hope he finds a way to keep us there long term.

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10. Big Time by Angel Olsen
11. Ants From Up There by Black Country, New Road
12. Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To the Sky by Porridge Radio
13. I Walked with You a Ways by Plains
14. The Last Goodbye by Odesza
15. A Light for Attracting Attention by The Smile
16. Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers by Kendrick Lamar
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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#10 on the 2022 Bacon Top 31 — Angel Olsen

January 22, 2023 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Big Time by Angel Olsen

When you have the voice of an angel, it can’t hurt to be given the literal name “Angelina” when you are born. Angel Olsen, born in St. Louis and now residing in Asheville, North Carolina, released her angelic sixth record, Big Time, on June 3, 2022. Except for a couple mid-tempo spots, it is a slow-burning, belly-warming album full of twang. On the sliding scale of “rock” to “country”, this album is just a hair to the right of early 90s band Mazzy Star’s She Hangs Brightly, and is every bit as good as that seminal 120 Minutes hit.

Olsen jumpstarted her career in the early 10s by touring with her friend Will Oldham, aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy, (#30 in 2009¹) as a backup vocalist and occasional duettist². Oldham has worked with nearly anyone who’s anyone, and there are a billion worse ways to get your start than to be his #2. Since then, the five albums prior to Big Time have floated around the periphery of my musical world, but haven’t hit me in the same way that this one has.

Adopted at three, Olsen’s retired parents fostered her and her seven siblings while she grew up. 31 years later, Olsen came out as queer via Instagram to her fans and directly to her parents, and introduced her new partner, days before her dad passed away. Her mother died just a few weeks later. It is this short passage of time in April and May 2021 that fueled what became Big Time. “I felt a little bit more at ease with talking about love and how I fell in love,” she told The Guardian as the album was being released. “I think after losing my parents, that brought everything to the forefront. Who cares about these other troubles in my life? It made me feel quiet. I’m older, too. I’m 35. I’m getting used to the fact that things get more complicated as we get older. You can either feel sorry for yourself or learn how to laugh deeper.” This candor is broadcast throughout the album.

She co-produced Big Time herself with producer and Laurel Canyon celebrity Johnathon Wilson, who has worked on many Bacon Top 31 albums (most notably all the Father John Misty albums that have been featured over the years). The song featured above, “All the Good Times,” is great, and as the first song on the album, it gets a little more in your face once it hits its stride. The title song has been released twice, first as the cut from the album, and then as a non-album duet with indie country star Sturgill Simpson.The second to last track on the album, a slow burner called “Through the Fires,” is gorgeous.

Olsen also released a between-albums single, “Like I Used To,” a duet with Bacon Review favorite Sharon Van Etten (#13 in 2012, #4 in 2014, #5 in 2019). It’s only now, in writing this review, I realize what a confluence of events taking place in Olsen’s life at the time this song was released. Lyrics like “change address and draw a line, show my friends the silver lines, call my family just to know they’re there” take on all new meaning.

Big Time is a wonderful, Neko Case, kd lang-esque album, and love and loss and all things worthy of singing about. Angel Olsen may have been making music for a long while, but she’s only now hitting her stride. I can’t wait to hear what comes next.

^{1. Here’s a bit of quaintness for you: in my 2009 review of his album, Beware, I call attention to how unusual it is for Oldham to have a wikipedia page dedicated solely to his discography. My how times have changed.↩}
^{2. Wow this session blew me away. And here’s a tour video of them as well. listen to her take the lead on that clip of her performing on the Bonnie “Prince” Billy tune “You Want That Picture” from 2011. I just melt when she hits that subtle yodel at 0:42.↩}

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11. Ants From Up There by Black Country, New Road
12. Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To the Sky by Porridge Radio
13. I Walked with You a Ways by Plains
14. The Last Goodbye by Odesza
15. A Light for Attracting Attention by The Smile
16. Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers by Kendrick Lamar
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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#23 on the 2022 Bacon Top 31 — Goose

January 09, 2023 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Dripfield by Goose

Jam bands aren’t my thing. They’re a lot of other people’s thing, but not mine. I understand, intellectually, why people like jam bands, start to obsess about their favorite one, and eventually become Deadheads, Phish Phans, or Gizzard Wizards (these names may be entirely fabricated), finding themselves following their favorite jam band around the world to continually worship at the feet of their chosen god. But unlike the guilt I feel when not listening to Big Thief, I feel no guilt for not having fallen in with the jam band scene.

Goose, from Norwalk, Connecticut, are proving to be the catalyst for a shift in my thinking. Not only is Dripfield, really, really good, but I also got to experience them in their true form this past summer: live, in person, at Thing festival just outside Port Townsend, Washington. Both the album and the experience have left me changed, softer on my stance regarding jam bands, and open and ready to explore more. My jam-band-aficionado friends — you know who you are — are not-so-silently rejoicing.

I’ve not listened to Goose’s first two albums: 2016’s Moon Cabin and Shenanigans Nite Club from 2019. But from what I’ve read, those albums were mere stop-gaps to getting the band back out on the road. In true jam-band fashion, they slowly built a following based on consistently good live shows, almost in spite of their recorded work. Part of that following involved Ezra Koenig, lead singer/songwriter of long-time Bacon Review favorites Vampire Weekend. Koenig likes the band so much, he asked them to create a 20 minute, 21 second-long remix/cover of Vampire Weekend song “2021” from Father of the Bride (#3 in 2019) for their 2021 EP, 40:42.

All that performing work over a five year span allowed Goose to hone a near-perfect 60-minute set to record for in studio for their 2022 release, Dripfield. The band’s third full-length album is, even by the band’s own admission, their first real album. It has a number of gems, including ”Hungersite,” shown in the video above. A personal favorite is the first track on the album, “Borne,” and the title song is pretty great as well. All three of these songs have the band at their best (despite the visual side of the videos being a touch on the boring side): lead singer Rick Mitarotonda’s smooth vocals and solid, guitar-driven hooks along with multi-instrumentalist Peter Anspach’s keyboards rounding out the top end while the rhythm section (Ben Atkind on drums, Jeff Arevalo on percussion, and bassist Trevor Weeks) drive the songs deftly forward.

Hearing these songs as recorded in the studio is nice, but hearing them performed live is otherworldly. The band’s day one headliner slot at Thing festival this past August couldn’t have been better: their set time followed a pair of perfect openers in Sparks and Father John Misty (another Bacon Review favorite), clear skies with a stiff breeze coming in from Puget Sound, and a crowd of thousands enjoying their much-needed freedom after a couple years of pandemic-forced introversion. Goose played eight songs in their 90-minute set, each clocking in at well over 10 minutes long. It was a thing of beauty.

I walked off the festival grounds that night a changed man. I had been shown the light of the jam band experience, and I was left wanting more. That’s the Goose way. Join me in my newfound excitement! Check out their wonderful album Dripfield, and then book tickets to see them when they come to Seattle in April. Maybe I’ll see you there.

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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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#25 on the 2022 Bacon Top 31 — Weyes Blood

January 07, 2023 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow by Weyes Blood

Natalie Mering has been writing and performing under the nom de plume Weyes Blood since 2011. And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow is her fifth album in that span, but only the first one to make it onto the Top 31. Based on the way this album has landed squarely in my regular rotation, the absence of her previous four albums is 100% my fault.

Mering grew up in a deeply religious Pentecostal Christian family of the “born again” variety. (This is now the 2nd time religion has come up as a big part of the upbringing of the featured artist. I wonder how many more times we’ll see it.) Born in Santa Monica, her family moved around a few times before landing in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She left the nest and headed west to Portland for college and started playing in bands regularly. In 2011 she released her debut album as Weyes Blood, The Outside Room. She released a couple more albums in 2014 and 2016 and started to garner some critical acclaim. But it wasn’t until her fourth, 2019’s Titanic Rising, that that acclaim started to catch up to her.

She defines And In The Darkness as part two of a trilogy that began on Titanic. As mentioned in Pitchfork, part one “was a foretelling of catastrophe, and its follow-up is a dispatch from the center of it.” I’ve not yet been able to hear Titanic, but I aim to soon.

Mering’s voice hits in the same register as Aimee Mann, and a lot of the production throughout the album could be mistaken for Mann’s work — a high compliment in my book. Heavy orchestration and strong lyrical storytelling are found throughout. She’s lands at the intersection between Mann and Father John Misty (I would fear the power of that love child).

Her videos have a FJM-like tongue-in-cheek quality to them as well. In addition to “Grapevine” above, which features surreal and dark animated figures behind the performing Mering, she’s released another dark, surreal, and animated video for “It’s not me, it’s everybody”. I’m not sure if the style of these videos is indicative of all Weyes Blood videos, but they both feature blood so I’m inclined to think that’s an overarching theme.

Give this album its due – it sinks in deep and grabs your guts in a way that only a few albums can.

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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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All albums in their entirety.

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A single song selection pulled from each album.

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#19 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Pearly Gate Music

January 13, 2022 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Mainly Gestalt Pornography by Pearly Gate Music

Zach Tillman is playing the long game. His debut album, titled with his chosen nom de plume, Pearly Gate Music, came out in 2010 on my favorite record label, Barsuk Records. The years that followed were filled with anxiety and substance abuse, restricting his ability to produce a follow up that met the standards he’d set for himself. It can’t help being overshadowed by his wildly successful musical older brother Josh, otherwise known as Father John Misty, whose last four albums have all appeared on the Bacon Top 31.

And yet, all the pressure Zach put on himself has paid off, because Mainly Gestalt Pornography, his 11-years-in-the-making sophomore record, is fantastic. Don’t expect it to sound like FJM; Pearly Gate Music is 100% his own. His voice is low, his music slow. He lags slightly behind the beat, like a male Courtney Barnett. The music on Pornography is filled with psychedelic moments, unexpected sounds emanating from feedback loops and Tillman’s voice run through multiple filters.

I’m so glad to have found a new love on Barsuk. Time was, it felt like half the albums I listened to were represented by the storied Seattle label. The Long Winters. Death Cab. Menomena. Mates of State. Jesse Sykes. John Vanderslice. They have a fantastic history for an indie label. And it continues, here, with the 2nd album from Pearly Gate Music.

Enjoy the great song shown in the video above, for his song “The Moon.” There’s a 2nd video available from the album as well, for his song “I Was A Wand’rer.” That should be enough of a toe in the water to get you to pull the trigger. This is a great album, and I can only hope that Tillman takes half or even a quarter as long to create his third album. I’ll be waiting.

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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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Full Album
All albums in their entirety.

Radio Station
A single song selection pulled from each album.

View all previous Bacon Top 31s

#25 on the 2019 Bacon Top 31 — Strand of Oaks

January 07, 2020 by Royal Stuart

Eraserland by Strand of Oaks

The last time we heard from Timothy Showalter’s Strand of Oaks on the Bacon Top 31 was not for his last album, but the one before that – his groundbreaking fourth album Heal, which hit #15 back in 2014. The album that followed, Hard Love, was rather forgettable (literally: I‘d forgotten all about it until I sat down to write this review). It’s hard for an artist to recover from releasing an amazing album like Heal and then follow it up by a lackluster one, and it sounds like Showalter had a particularly tough go of it in the aftermath of that 2017 album.

Battling with depression and exhaustion, he sequestered himself on the Jersey Shore. He used that negative energy to fuel his songwriting, and channeled it into this new, amazing 2019 record Eraserland. Showalter was not shy about his depression, and wrote about it on Instagram when commenting on the suicide of other greats, such as Dave Berman of the Silver Jews and Mark Hollis of Talk Talk (although Hollis’s death has not been confirmed a suicide). Of Hollis’s death, Showalter went so far as to claim the Talk Talk album Spirit of Eden changed his life and the tone of this new album:

Spirit of Eden is a prayer and a discussion with existence and it was the singular gateway for me to do that with my own life. Eraserland’s DNA is interwoven with Mark Hollis and the gifts he gave through music … I urge any of you who haven’t heard it to dig in, perhaps before you hear Eraserland to understand and perhaps find that communication with your own existence. Music saves it truly does. Thank you Mark your work will continue for the rest of time.

Sage advice, for sure. For now it sounds like Showalter is doing better, thankfully. If you’re a current fan of the Fleet Foxes, Father John Misty, Kurt Vile, or an older fan of My Morning Jacket (just to name a few), you’ll love Strand of Oaks and this new album. It’s powerful and moving, in the best way that a wailing guitar, heavy drums, and reverbed voice can be.

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26. Dogrel by Fontaines DC
27. You’re the Man by Marvin Gaye
28. Big Wows by Stealing Sheep
29. 1000 gecs by 100 gecs
30. In the Morse Code of Brake Lights by The New Pornographers
31. Radiant Dawn by Operators

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2009-2018 Top 31s

#26 on the 2018 Bacon Top 31 — Father John Misty

January 06, 2019 by Royal Stuart

God's Favorite Customer by Father John Misty

As the Bacon Top 31 is now in its tenth year, nearly every artist featured in the list has been discussed in previous years. Josh Tillman, aka Father John Misty, has been talked about directly (#14 in 2012, #6 in 2015, and #15 last year) and indirectly (Fleet Foxes at #9 in 2011, on whose album he was the drummer) for nearly the entire run of the Top 31. Throughout that time, Tillman, 37, has built up an ironic and iconic persona for himself that allows him a certain freewheeling stature in music, not unlike Dylan. But whereas Dylan had a straightforward-to-a-fault attack on the industry he was thriving in, Tillman’s Misty character is continually self- and industry-reflective, turning his hatred of the world inward and beating himself up for us all to see.

I really enjoyed what Tillman was doing with the Misty character on I Love You, Honeybear three years ago. With last year’s Pure Comedy things started to point downward, with Tillman’s difficult, story-driven narratives proving more and more obtuse. Now here we are with God’s Favorite Customer, and Tillman is at his worst (but still not bad, or else it wouldn’t appear here at all). Where Tillman’s previous Misty albums brought with them a level of humor and irony that made them stand out, God’s Favorite Customer lacks humor, and reveals more of (and drowns us in) Tillman’s neuroses.

Be that as it may, the music is still great, and well worth listening to if you’ve been a fan in the past. Where things continue to shine for Tillman is the visual representation of the music. The above video, for the song “Mr. Tillman” is dark in its self-exploration, and fascinatingly so. This song is the highlight of the album for me, and I’m glad the video works so well. Part of that is due to the team from the collective Little Ugly who created the video. Co-directed by Jeff Desom (co-creator of this insanely disturbing video for the band Health’s “Tears”) and Carlos Lopez Estrada (who created the equally disturbing video for Billie Eilish’s “When the Party’s Over”), these two directors are picking up the reigns dropped by video-auteur Chris Cunningham (creator of the most disturbing video of all time).

In addition to “Mr. Tillman,” four other videos have been made for the release of God’s Favorite Customer:

Beyond that, it’s also (surprisingly?) worth checking out the merch for sale on the Father John Misty site. The apparel, and the models wearing them, all tap into that particular humor / self-reflective irony that Tillman is so good at.

God’s Favorite Customer feels kinda “final” for me, in its apparent lack of humor. Maybe Tillman is growing tired of the persona, or bored. I can see the bones, but the skin he’s now living in just doesn’t have the staying power of his previous endeavors. Here’s to hoping the next one gets him (and us) back on track.

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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

#15 on the 2017 Bacon Top 31

January 17, 2018 by Royal Stuart

Pure Comedy by Father John Misty

I’ve written quite a bit about Josh Tillman’s alter ego Father John Misty a few times over the years (his debut album, Fear Fun, was #14 in 2012 and his second album I Love You, Honeybear was #6 in 2015). But it’s only on recent runs through his fantastic third album Pure Comedy that I’ve come to this opinion: Father John Misty is the millennial Elton John.

Bear with me here. Think about it: Tillman’s stage presence is wild and ironically humorous, much like Elton John but without the costumes. Tillman’s voice is quite similar to John’s, and they both use them to great effect. The music of Pure Comedy is very orchestral, similar to much of John’s work from the 80s and 90s. Are you seeing it yet?

Where Tillman differs from John is his use of thick sarcasm to paint a bleak picture of humanity. This album is mostly quiet and good for having on in the background until you start paying attention to the words. Then you realize Tillman’s world is depressing and lonely. I’m not put off by sad, depressing music — I did come of age in the 90s, after all — so this album is right up my alley.

Tillman has always had a good grasp of the visual, but he’s taken it to new heights with this album. His website takes Ed Steed’s fabulous illustrations from the album cover and animates them. The video shown above, “Total Entertainment Forever,” features Macaulay Culkin dressed up like Kurt Cobain in a demented “virtual” world. And there are a number of other videos from the album:

“Pure Comedy”
“Leaving LA”
“Things It Would Have Been Helpful To Know Before The Revolution”

There’s even a 25-minute short film called “Pure Comedy” directed by Tillman and Grant James that dismantles the Father John Misty songwriting process into a series of in-studio and LA-based imagery, a lot of which shows LA covered in raging fire — perhaps a little too prescient given the most recent spate of forest fires in the area. You can read a lot more about this album and Tillman’s process in the feature from the NY Times back when the album came out.

The song “Leaving LA” nearly killed the entire album for me. The song is over 13 minutes long, and the lilting way Tillman sings throughout the entirety of the song somehow expanded in my mind to fill the entire album, thinking he was stuck in a groove that had infected all 74 of its musical minutes. I thankfully got past it, and so can you. Give this album a listen if you haven’t already. And listen to its sad, broken stories. They paint a bleak picture that perfectly captures what 2017 felt like politically.

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16. Shake the Shudder by !!!
17. La La Land (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by La La Land
18. The Underside of Power by Algiers
19. What Now by Sylvan Esso
20. 50 Song Memoir by The Magnetic Fields
21. Plunge by Fever Ray
22. DAMN. by Kendrick Lamar
23. Capacity by Big Thief
24. The Tourist by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
25. CCFX EP by CCFX
26. Woodstock by Portugal. The Man
27. MASSEDUCTION by St. Vincent
28. On the Spot by Hot 8 Brass Band
29. A Deeper Understanding by The War on Drugs
30. Planetarium by Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, & James McAlister
31. A Moment Apart by Odesza

Subscribe to the 2017 Top 31 Apple Music playlist
2009-2016 Top 31s

#6 on the 2015 Bacon Top 31

December 26, 2015 by Royal Stuart

I Love You, Honeybear by Father John Misty

It took me a long time to claim I was a Father John Misty fan with a straight face. Don’t get me wrong, his music has always been great (his debut album was #14 on the 2012 Top 31). But he is clearly taking the piss of the entire indie rock music business with every move he makes. He makes me want to make excuses for everything I listen to.

Start with the name. Father John Misty is the stage name for Josh Tillman, formerly of the Fleet Foxes and many other projects, and it is clearly a put-on. Nobody picks that name and means it.

Secondly, his performance style is best described as “extreme crooner.” He prances around on stage, making love to his mic stand, throwing his head and his hips around, pointing at the audience — it’s all brilliantly funny, and makes his shows an absolute delight, but you can’t take it seriously.

Lastly, some of his lyrics are so ego-driven, so over-the-top, that it’s hard to get behind him. (Read my review of “The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apartment” from earlier this year for further explanation.)

But behind him I’ve now gotten, fully. He’s proven he’s not a flash in the pan, now with two phenomenal albums under his belt. Don’t let the song or video above sway you one way or the other. I suggest giving the album a full time through once or twice before passing judgment. It takes a little while to seep in, but once it does, you won’t want to let go.

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7. Sound & Color by Alabama Shakes
8. Another Eternity by Purity Ring
9. Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance by Belle and Sebastian
10. Return to the Moon by El Vy
11. Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording) by Lin-Manuel Miranda
12. Art Angels by Grimes
13. The Horse Comanche by Chadwick Stokes
14. Grace Love & the True Loves by Grace Love & the True Loves
15. Shake Shook Shaken by The dø
16. La Di Da Di by Battles
17. Sky City by Amason
18. What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World by The Decemberists
19. Untethered Moon by Built to Spill
20. Viet Cong by Viet Cong
21. The Magic Whip by Blur
22. Savage Hills Ballroom by Youth Lagoon
23. Not Real by Stealing Sheep
24. Beat the Champ by The Mountain Goats
25. Gliss Riffer by Dan Deacon
26. Dark Bird is Home by The Tallest Man on Earth
27. Gunnera by Pfarmers
28. Swimmer to a Liquid Armchair by Ricked Wickey
29. To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar
30. Live in Seattle by Moufang / Czamanski
31. High by Royal Headache

What is the Bacon Top 31?
Past years’ Top 31s

Father John Misty — The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apartment

September 23, 2015 by Royal Stuart

Nobody does tongue-in-cheek snark quite like Josh Tillman. It starts with his stage name, Father John Misty, which everyone can agree is so ridiculous it’s funny. His live show is 100% camp, strutting around the stage like an over-acted lounge singer, full of swoon-inducing goading and exaggerated emotion. And then there’s his songs. Musically, they’re fairly straightforward indie-folk-rock standards. But once you start hearing the lyrics, the snark comes out. He has a general hatred for anything and everything around him. He doesn’t pull any punches, and that’s a lot of the reason why I like him so much.

For instance, yesterday, with Ryan Adams’s attention-grabbing release of his cover of Taylor Swift’s 1989, Tillman took Adams to task, releasing a couple of covers of Taylor Swift himself, billed as covers of Ryan Adams’s covers, but resembling nothing of the Ryan Adams versions, and everything of what it would sound like if Lou Reed had covered Taylor Swift. Confused yet? You can listen here, even though Tillman himself has removed his covers from where he originally posted them.

Now that you‘ve got the back story, listen to the song above, “The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apartment,” from Tillman’s February 2015 album I Love You, Honeybear. The album is pretty great all around, as good as 2012’s Fear Fun. The lyrices of this song are particularly snarky, and my favorite line on the entire album comes 30 seconds into the song, when Tillman sings

She says, like literally, music is the air she breathes
And the malaprops make me want to fucking scream
I wonder if she even knows what that word means
Well, it's literally not that

The of the song is full of gems just like that. Give it a listen, then buy the album. You won’t regret it.

#0 on the 2014 Bacon Top 31 (Whoops!)

January 02, 2015 by Royal Stuart

Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son by Damien Jurado

Sometimes my systems fail me. I rely heavily on technology to keep me on top of my ever-expanding music collection. I utilize a smart playlist in iTunes that automatically collects only albums from the current year, and I tend to listen to things only found in that playlist as the year goes on. I do go back and listen to older things, quite often in fact, but when I’m looking for something quickly, it’s to the “2014” playlist I go. Soon it will be the 2015 playlist.

This is problematic for two reasons:

I believe an album should be given a fair shake before determining whether it’s worthy of the Top 31 for that year. Therefore, the timeline for the Top 31 actually runs from November 1 of the previous year through October 31 of the current year. Anything released on November 1 or after of the current year is then considered for the next year’s Top 31. But the smart playlist I use in iTunes is strictly based on the calendar year, so any albums that are released in November or December of the previous year are kept out of the playlist, and off my radar for the most part.
Some albums get into my iTunes and don’t have the ID3 tag for the year they were released assigned at all, essentially relegating them to the musical abyss, as the iTunes playlist doesn’t see any songs that don’t have a year assigned to them.

I clearly need a better system, as an album that I thoroughly enjoyed listening to in the first couple months of the year (and was released on January 21, 2014) disappeared from my view as the year progressed, and didn’t make it into the Top 31 due to a technical glitch (it was mislabeled as a 2013 album in my iTunes). I only discovered it was missing because I found the album mentioned in a friend’s Top 10 for 2014. That album is Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son by Seattle’s own Damien Jurado, and it is fantastic. Leaving it off the Top 31 is a huge oversight, and I am frustrated by my own technological downfall.

You’ll remember Jurado from his 2012 album, Maraqopa, which was my #5 album that year. In that review, I wrote:

I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of Jurado — he’s been making music in Seattle for [now 19] years, but his following over that time has not remained consistent, and he’s generally played venues smaller than the 1,100-person Showbox Market every time he’s played. Up until Maraqopa, I would have defined him as your typical indie folk singer/songwriter. Most if not all of his albums are quite enjoyable, but they’re fleeting. The music doesn’t hook you.

Maraqopa is different. Maraqopa intrigues right from the first note. It’s hard for me to put my finger on why this album is so much better than all his previous albums. It’s definitely more psychedelic, with off-kilter sounds, distant echoes and frayed edges. But there are also blended harmonies, intimate pauses, put together in this intricately layered tapestry of sound. Jurado’s voice remains as it always has, evoking thoughts of early Neil Young, but this time, along with the beautiful orchestration, there are hints of Nick Drake, as if he were haunting the recording studio when the album was being put to tape.

Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son is a companion album to Maraqopa, in both tone and story. “[Maraqopa] was based on a dream I had about a guy who disappears,” Jurado said in the trailer he created for the new album back in 2013. “He leaves the house with no form of identification or anything and he decides he just wants to disappear. This new record is sort of a sequel to Maraqopa… it is about a guy who disappears on a search, if you will, for himself and never goes home.”

J Tillman (aka Father John Misty) wrote an essay about the new album for Spin Magazine that’s also worth reading. It starts with “Damien is out of his goddamn mind” and gets better from there.

This album is every bit as good as Maraqopa, and I probably would have ranked it in the Top 10 if I’d continued listening to it throughout the year. Technology. Ugh. For all the efficiencies it allows, it introduces new hurdles and gaps that leave me wanting. Perhaps it’s time for a reduction in reliance on technology. Even so, happy new year, and enjoy this album. It’s worth getting both this and Maraqopa if you haven’t yet. Do it now.

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1. Mended With Gold by The Rural Alberta Advantage
2. The Take Off and Landing of Everything by Elbow
3. They Want My Soul by Spoon
4. Are We There by Sharon Van Etten
5. And The War Came by Shakey Graves
6. Nicky Nack by tUnE-yArDs
7. Not Art by Big Scary
8. The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett by Eels
9. Owl John by Owl John
10. LP1 by FKA Twigs
11. Black Hours by Hamilton Leithauser
12. Give the People What They Want by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
13. Lost in the Dream by The War On Drugs
14. Warpaint by Warpaint
15. Heal by Strand of Oaks
16. Stay Gold by First Aid Kit
17. This is All Yours by ∆
18. Brill Bruisers by The New Pornographers
19. Only Run by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
20. Augustines by Augustines
21. El Pintor by Interpol
22. I Never Learn by Lykke Li
23. Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes by Thom Yorke
24. The Voyager by Jenny Lewis
25. Voices by Phantogram
26. Morning Phase by Beck
27. Hungry Ghosts by OK Go
28. Run the Jewels 2 by Run the Jewels
29. Cosmos by Yellow Ostrich
30. Teeth Dreams by The Hold Steady
31. With Light & With Love by Woods

2009-2013 Top 31s

September 19, 2013 by Royal Stuart

Josh Tillman is squeezing everything he can out of last year’s Father John Misty album, Fear Fun. “I’m Writing A Novel” is a nice little country-rock tune, but this video doesn’t have the same great qualities all previous FJM videos have had. This is more of a tour journal-like video, but that’s just fine. I can watch Josh prance around jokingly over and over again with the best of them.

June 08, 2013 by Royal Stuart

Here’s Seattle’s J. Tillman, otherwise known as Father John Misty, with another video from last year’s Fear Fun. “Funtimes In Babylon”

I would really like to know what all the props in this video are from. They couldn’t possibly have been set up just for this video.

December 18, 2012 by Royal Stuart

#14 on the 2012 Musical Bacon Calendar

Fear Fun by Father John Misty

Sometimes not starting out on center stage is a good thing. Dave Grohl, Jonny Greenwood, Phil Collins (sorta) — all of these guys started out as second fiddle, only to reach great acclaim as a solo artist by coming out from behind the shadow of their lead singers.

Josh Tillman, known as “J. Tillman” in fave-of-the-Bacon-Review Fleet Foxes, is working on his own claim to fame. After coming out with a couple of solo albums before his stint in the Foxes, to little notice, Tillman has rebranded himself Father John Misty. And as silly as that name is, it’s turning out to be a brilliant move.

Having seen the Foxes a few times, I’ve gotten to see Tillman’s sense of humor via the between-song banter. The guy is damn funny. So I have to assume that the new moniker is intentionally ridiculous. I will not try to defend it. But the music Tillman has produced under the new moniker is worlds above anything prior.

About the only thing Tillman brings over from the Foxes (with whom he wrote very little) is reverb. You won’t find any 5-man harmonies here. What you get is a traditional folk-rock album with a little southern twang thrown in, making the whole thing feel as if it belongs in a different era.

But then you listen to it a few times, you start to learn the lyrics and are struck by how dark the album is. Tillman must be haunted by some pretty evil demons. Watch the above video, for “Nancy From Now On.” There’s a dominatrix, some uncomfortableness, and even a physical manifestation of Tillman leaving the past behind, in the form of his locks being sheared off.

And if the video above doesn’t make you cringe enough, you can check out the other two videos from Fear Fun, each of which presents the dark lyrics from Tillman’s songs in a visually arresting manner. There’s the lovely Aubrey Plaza, acting our her aggressions, only to be thrown into the back of a “child molester” van by a barefoot Tillman for the song “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings.” Or the hyper-violent video for “This Is Sally Hatchet,” in which Josh, his finger gushing blood from an apparent shotgun wound, cuts that finger off with a pizza cutter. Good times.

Overall, this album feels like only a beginning. Tillman is going to be making music for a long time, and he’s just getting started. Get in on the ground floor.

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15. Love This Giant by David Byrne and St. Vincent
16. To The Treetops! by Team Me
17. The Master: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Jonny Greenwood
18. There’s No Leaving Now by The Tallest Man On Earth
19. Transcendental Youth by The Mountain Goats
20. A Church That Fits Our Needs by Lost In The Trees
21. Hospitality by Hospitality
22. Free Dimensional by Diamond Rings 23. History Speaks by Deep Sea Diver
24. A Different Ship by Here We Go Magic
25. Negotiations by the Helio Sequence
26. Moms by Menomena
27. The Sound of the Life of the Mind by Ben Folds Five
28. Shields by Grizzly Bear
29. Every Child A Daughter, Every Moon A Sun by The Wooden Sky
30. Fragrant World by Yeasayer
31. Reign of Terror by Sleigh Bells

What is the Bacon Calendar?

2011 Musical Bacon Calendar
2010 Musical Bacon Calendar
2009 Musical Bacon Calendar

July 03, 2012 by Royal Stuart

Here’s a very earnest cover of the Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize??” sung by J. Tillman, otherwise known as Father John Misty.

In 3D.