#4 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Beyoncé

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

Cowboy Carter by Beyoncé

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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#19 on the 2022 Bacon Top 31 — Phosphorescent

January 13, 2023 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

The Full Moon Project by Phosphorescent

The only artist to have ever taken the #1 slot tw ice (and #20 in 2010) in Bacon Review history slots in way back at #19 in the 2022 Top 31. Matthew Houck, the driving force behind Phosphorescent, did something a little different with his 2022 release. Called The Full Moon Project, Houck recorded and released a new single for every full moon through out the year, resulting in more of a “slow-building playlist” rather than a formally-released, purchasable album.

Each song on the project is a cover. Randy Newman, Nick Lowe, Nina Simone, Lucinda Williams, Fleetwood Mac, and Bob Dylan (x2) songs all make the cut. It’s not Houck’s first foray into an album full of covers – see his 2008 album To Willie, an homage to the great Willie Nelson. And he’s done a handful of covers in the interim, the hands down best being “Ya Hey,” which he did live at KCRW back in 2013. You wouldn’t know it by listening to the Vampire Weekend original, from their album Modern Vampires of the City (#3 in 2013), but Houck proves those fantastic Ezra Koenig lyrics weren’t meant to be in a Phosphorescent song.

Houck has an unmistakable drawl, a purposeful laziness in his delivery that forces you to slow your pace, close your eyes and lean in. He conveys the warmth of burning embers in your headphones. On The Full Moon Project, he makes each song his own. Sometimes, like the lovely “Like A Rolling Stone” shown above, it’s not too much of a stretch from the original (I never considered how much Houck could sound like the elder Dylan until now). But other times, such as in his cover of “To Love Somebody,” the Nina Simone song from her 1969 album of the same name, his take on the song makes it seem as if the original never existed.

It’s not clear whether the project is now complete, or just on hiatus. He didn’t release a song on the January 2023 full moon (which occurred back on January 6). But the post with his last Full Moon song, Dylan’s “Tryin’ To Get To Heaven,” released on December 7, 2022, Houck said “I may have to put [the project] on hold for next year, as I gotta make the next proper Phossy record, and man this stuff takes a lotta time! But maybe not too. We'll see what happens come next full moon…” I’ll be sure to update this post if he does record some more Full Moon songs. In the mean time, this current collection of songs and his nine unbelievably great albums that led up to it will tide me over until we get “the next proper Phossy record.”

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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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#8 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Matt Berninger

January 24, 2021 by Royal Stuart

Serpentine Prison by Matt Berninger

Matt Berninger may very well be my favorite performer, ever. If you’ve been following The Bacon Review for the last 11+ years, then there’s a good chance you’d know this already, given how much prominence the lead singer of The National has been allotted over the years. Including his main band’s appearances on the Top 31 (four times: #6 2019, #4 in 2017, #3 in 2013, and #1 in 2010), his side project, El Vy (#10 in 2015), and Berninger’s appearances in other performers’ albums (such as Chvrches and CYHSY), the man has been mentioned nearly every year that the countdown has existed.

I mention this history because it plays a big part in how I listen to and quantify the new stuff he puts out. It’s not just “how does this music compare to everything else this year?” but also “where within all the music of his that I love does this rate?” Never an easy question, and it inevitably changes over time. For instance, while The National’s High Violet ranked #1 in 2010, I don’t consider it the best amongst the four albums the band has on the countdown. (That honor currently goes to 2013’s Trouble Will Find Me. Ask me again tomorrow and I’ll give you a different answer.)

Serpentine Prison, Berninger’s first true “solo album,” is a great effort. No, it’s not a National album, but it’s damn close. And I’m sure it will stick with me a lot longer than the El Vy album has. Sonically, the album sounds similar to what a National album might be if they left the bombast that comes with a lot of their songs on the shelf. Prison is soft-spoken, and because of that it doesn’t immediately hook you. It’s more of a slow burn.

This is the kind of album that feels like good background music at first, but by the middle of the album you find yourself leaning in, listening intently, and picking out the hints of the album’s collaborators. The album has a good, down to earth feel that sounds full and polished, thanks to producer Booker T. Jones. (He of Booker T. & the MG’s and a ton of collaborations from the 60s on (including Otis Redding, Willie Nelson, Rita Coolidge, Bill Withers, and Neil Young, just to name a few.) Jones plays on a few songs as well, and helped bring together a slew of other big names to participate in the making of the record, including Andrew Bird, Gail Ann Dorsey (who featured prominently on The National’s 2019 album I Am Easy to Find), Brent Knopf (Berninger’s partner in crime in El Vy), and The National’s Scott Devendorf. The song above, “Distant Axis,” is probably my favorite of the album. The video is quite fun as well.

Berninger has been keeping himself busy since the last National album in 2019. In addition to creating this solo album, he’s released a couple of new songs worth listening to that don’t appear on the album. His fantastic duet with Phoebe Bridgers, called “Walking on a String,” is from Zach Galifianakis’s feature length “Between Two Ferns,” in which Berninger and Bridgers appear in the movie Phoebe Bridgers and The Spiders from Bars, along with two members of The Walkmen. He also released a cover of Mercury Rev’s “Holes” as part of a benefit series called “7-inches for Planned Parenthood.”

Perhaps after reading all this, you agree that Berninger is worthy of the praise I heap upon him. I can understand if his baritone and delivery aren’t your cup of tea, but I don’t think it’s possible to deny his greatness. Serpentine Prison is a worthy solo debut, and I highly recommend that you pick it up as soon as possible.

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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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