Jesusetc84

It's interesting that people are citing the feel of SBS as a good thing. I'm much more a fan of Wilco's studio creations than their guitar jams. The two things that original attracted me to Wilco was the studio brilliance of Jay Bennett and the lyrical genius of Jeff Tweedy.

I wasn't a fan of A Ghost is Born for a while, but eventually took to it. Sky Blue Sky to me is the epitome of what I don't want from a Wilco album. "You Are My Face", for exampel, is sub-Cat Stevens soft rock that degenerates into a sub-Lynyrd Skynyrd boogie jam, devoid of any interesting instrumentation. It's pretty gray and bland to me.

Wilco The Album is full of interesting instrumental choices, and maybe it is too similar to past Wilco albums, but I think it's a much more intelligent album than Sky Blue Sky. It never degenerates into corny "Rawk" jams, which are a cheap stand in for actual composition. Wilco is at their best imo when they're writing great pop songs and subverting them with studio trickery. It's a long tradition that stretches back to The Beatles, and is a practice that does a lot more for me than mulleted Skynyrdesque jamming of "You Are My Face".

Neither album holds upto the best Wilco has to offer imo (Summerteeth, YHF), but of the two, Wilco (The Album) towers above Sky Blue Sky.

AM: Passenger Side / It's Just That Simple

BT: Misunderstood / Hotel Arizona*

ST: I'm Always in Love / We're Just Friends*

YHF: Poor Places# / Radio Cure

AGIB: Theologians / Wishful Thinking*

SBS: You Are My Face / Shake It Off*

W(ta): Bull Black Nova / Sonny Feeling

 

*Some of my least favorite songs of all-time, by anyone. Nails on a chalkboard.

#Greatest song ever written

How is Wishful Thinking bad? That's one of the best songs on Ghost.

Not even the best song on the album. You Are My Face is a top 5 all time wilco song. book it.

"You Are My Face" isn't in my top 50 Wilco songs, personally.

Impossible Germany is great. The rest not so much.

I always thought the chorus line was an ellusion to the whole YHF fiasco.

It took hearing those songs live for me to realize what a great album A Ghost is Born is. It was my least favorite at one point, but now it's probably my third favorite Wilco record.

Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Usually Summerteeth, but not enough so that I could consider either my definite favs.

My favs list is like:

Tied for first: YHF, Summerteeth

Tied for second: Being There, A Ghost is Born, Wilco (The Album)

Tied for last: Sky Blue Sky, A.M.

Album: best, worst

A.M.: Passenger Side, That's Not the Issue

Being There: Misunderstood, Was I in Your Dreams?

MA: Another Man's Done Gone, Christ For President

Summerteeth: She's a Jar, We're Just Friends(there are no bad songs on Summerteeth, but this is the one that's the least amazing to me.)

MAII: Remember the Mountain Bed, Joe Dimaggio

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: Jesus, Etc., I'm The Man Who Loves You

A Ghost is Born: Spiders (Kidsmoke), The Late Greats

Sky Blue Sky: Impossible Germany, Shake it Off

Wilco (The Album): Country Disappeared, Sunny Feeling

By whom? It certainly isn't in the circles I run in. Chutes is a good album, don't get me wrong, but "Oh, Inverted World" has much cooler production. They haven't done anything that strange and beautiful since.

I think Chutes has more mainstream acclaim but that the fanbase is 50/50, if not in the corner of Oh, Inverted World.

...or when bands don't know when to break up and start releasing albums that keep getting worse...

You mean The Billy Corgan method?

actually there's not a single song on Inverted that i dislike... i just like 2-3 songs on it MORE than anything on Chutes, is all i said. that and i'm not too big on Those To Come on Chutes... it is a consistent and more cohesive record, but i just prefer the more electric sound of Inverted too. both are great records, and i don't really bat an eye when people claim either one is better, but i do have to question anyone who says Chutes is VASTLY better is all.

 

sad that it seems like The Shins will dissolve very soon.

Didn't Mercer fire everyone?

Chutes got the better reviews and is more popular amongst casual fans, I don't really care what die-hards are thinking.

And thanks for confirming my suspicions, people who prefer inverted usually do that because of 2-3 songs while completely ignoring the many weaker ones. Chutes is the only Shins record that works front to back whitout a single weaker song, it's one of the most consistent albums of this decade (especially the second half is really good) and fully deserves the higher ranking on that list.

Whincing on the other hand was indeed a big let down.

I agree with this. Chutes is a front to back classic.

Oh I forgot:

Nick Cave- The Boatman's Call

Anyone notice any albums on there that Pitchfork originally gave not-great review scores? Only one I can think of is The National's Alligator, which got a 7.9 originally, but placed 40th for the decade. Then again, Pitchfork likes to call the band "grower-rock" because it "grew" on them...

Andrew W.K.

Originally a 0.6

ZERO POINT SIX!!!

Assuming they'd now give every album in the top 200 at least an 8.0, that's pretty good growth.

Well that just makes a lot more sense.

Also it keeps people like me from whining.

Quite a few of my favorite bands o' the decade didn't show up, but I don't blame Pitchfork, I blame the nonsense that is ranking albums like this, which Pitchfork makes its name by, so I do blame Pitchfork.

 

But seriously, no Grandaddy?

I sort of think if you're doing a best of decade list, it's best to list them chronologically, so that in theory you have an idea of how music changed over the course of the 10 year period, and how different albums and styles grew out of each other.

I listen to Funeral way less than I do YHF, Kid A and some of the other top albums on that list, so it's possible because of that every time I hear it I'm just a little blown away. I think we'll both agree though that The Glow part two really needs to be in credible top ten of the decade.

 

I would further opine that You And I would clearly be the Monica Lewinsky to WTA's Bill Clinton, and the Jeff Lynne production and You Never Know is Kenneth Starr. These things just come to me.

 

--Mike

Yeah. The Glow, Part 2 was criminally low.

Overall this whole list had a weird feel to it, it was like they were trying to straddle indie and mainstream, and a lot of albums I felt were more suited for the top 50 (Z, Abattoir Blues, The Glow Part 2, Dear Science) were overlooked for ones I didn't think were quite there (Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga).

Also, is M.I.A. THAT great that we need to rank a bootleg of her demo tape in the top 200 over SMiLE, Love & Theft, A Ghost is Born, and Van Lear Rose?

Eh, I like Foxtrot more, but saying Funeral is better than Foxtrot to me is like saying Sgt. Pepper is better than Revolver. Of the two there's one I prefer (Revolver, YHF), but there pretty close, I am not really bothered if someone ranks them the other way.

 

--Mike

Fair enough. To me it's more like ranking Help! or A Hard Day's Night over Revolver. I guess I can understand the rush of Funeral and the immediacy...I just don't feel it as much anymore, and haven't felt that rush from the album since probably 06.

You always have the best analogies btw. I still crack up over your Wilco (The Album)= Bill Clinton analogy.

Putting YHF in front of Funeral would have been terrible in my opinion. In the past half-year, I've listened to Funeral probably about 100-150 times, while I've maybe put on YHF twice. Funeral has a lot more staying power than YHF, at least for me. Funeral grips you and doesn't let go while YHF sort of lazily drifts in the background. Mind you, I would put Funeral as the best and YHF as second best, but I would put Funeral higher than YHF.

 

I'm ok with the top 20 or so, but after that it's all hogwash anyways. The real travesties are Loretta Lynn and Brian Wilson not even cracking it, let alone the top 20, let alone something like the top 10. But they're too old school for consideration, I guess.

I disagree completely. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is to me the album that encapsulates this decade best, with front to back great songs. There are probably 3 or 4 songs on Funeral I just don't care for, and the ones I do care for don't reach the levels of transcendence that YHF does.

The one thing we agree on is Loretta Lynn and Brian Wilson. I'd also add Bob Dylan to that list for Love & Theft and Modern Times.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was like 19th in their Top 50 albums of the first five years of this decade, so I guess some how in the five it got a lot better. Anyway, not too displeased with this list. Pretty solid, top Ten, and sorry Jesusetc, Funeral's fucking great, and it's aged as well as any album this decade, in my opinion. I wasn't as keen on Neon Bible, but Funeral is still pretty magical for me.

 

Better than Foxtrot though?

 

Funeral: I adore about half of it. And those few songs tend to get put on constant repeat. I think it belongs on the list.

 

"Wake Up" is probably in my top 10 songs of the 00s, and "Rebellion (Lies)" is in the top 20. "Tunnels" is also really good. After that it's sort of a mixed bag.

If you took the best parts of Neon Bible and Funeral, I think it'd be an album worthy of Funeral's hype.

Bon Iver- For Emma, Forever Ago

Jeff Buckley- Grace

The Microphones- The Glow, Part 2

Funeral over Yankee Hotel Foxtrot makes me want to strangle a kitten. I can't believe people are still making a fuss about that album.

I liked the other thread better, it was in mono.

Dirty Hipster!

I want "Carnival of Light".

Some of their later material might be described as a bit confectionary, but Bandwagonesque ?? I respectfully disagree.

 

The Arcade Fire simply rode the Pitchfork Bandwagon to some sort of success. Don't get it.

 

White Stripes, I can respect the asthetic, now I wish Jack White would just go away.

Fair enough on Teenage Fan Club.

Arcade Fire to me is like really great arrangements of really kind of average songs. "Rebellion (Lies)" and "Wake Up" are the only songs on Funeral that blow me away. If they didn't have all the swirling string arrangements, they'd be another one of many faceless 00s bands imo.

The White Stripes had a great gimmick, and about a half a dozen good songs; that does not a legendary band make.

The best record released in 1991 :

Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque

Ugh too syrupy for me.

I'm one of the few people on this board that seem to dig Nirvana, but I think the topic at hand was the list.

White Blood Cells is a pretty weak best of decade imo. Maybe like a #15 or so, but #1 is pushing it.

I'm happy to see at least one Wilco record over Funeral.