Jesusetc84

Nice first post

 

This made my day.

Thank you, sir.

I always thought they'd have an interesting take on Electric Warrior. I know Jeff is (or at least was at one point) a T. Rex fan.

My first impression of Wilco (The Album) was reactionary to Sky Blue Sky, I think; the fact that I found SBS to be something of a one song album (Impossible Germany still blows my mind in a relaxing way) made Wilco (The Album) shine a little too brightly at first, and it consumed my musical life for a good 2 months. I mean, what wasn't to like? it was Wilco making highly engaging melodic music, like they'd made on Summerteeth.

Then I started to realize that it wasn't quite the return to form that I thought it was. The album is great, but it definitely has a bit of a "on the shoulders of giants feel". The songs are great, but every single onej is indebted to a past Wilco tune in some way; "Wilco (The Album)" plays the "Can't Stand It" card of vibrant pop opener, "Bull Black Nova" fits in the "Via Chicago"/ "She's a Jar" of marital disfunction (though it goes all the way), and "Country Disappeared" plays the role of "Ashes of American Flags", albiet with an entirely less interesting arrangement.

It almost feels like they compiled a best of Wilco's first 6 albums and then rewrote each of those songs. It's not the worst Wilco album (it far exceeds SBS and A.M. in my humble opinion.) it can't go toe to toe with any Jay Bennett era Wilco album.

I wasn't alive 27 years ago :-(

I got my first exposure to The Violent Femmes at sleep away camp in middle school; the counselors had a band and they always played "Blister in the Sun."

I want to say I finally bought the album in college. Great record. Will probably spin it later. Thanks for bring it up.

About time.

Wilco and consensus generally don't go together. With the exception of Foxtrot (which it's safe to say, almost everyone loves) every album they've released over the past 10 years has people who hate and love it within the fanbase.

Never cared for Hell is Chrome. Not huge on Muzzle of Bees either; great song, but #5!??! I don't even know if it's my number 5 on AGIB. Spiders and Wishful Thinking are two choices I prefer to those songs.

And of course, A Shot in The Arm is a classic.

Basically, Wilco (The Album) is like R.E.M.'s Accelerate; It's not a full return to form, but it's a vast improvement over their previous record.

Wilco (The Boxed Set)

Wilco vs. R.E.M. for me:

01. R.E.M.- Automatic For The People

02. Wilco- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

03. R.E.M.- Murmur

04. Wilco- Summerteeth

05. R.E.M.- Reckoning

06. R.E.M.- Document

07. R.E.M.- Life's Rich Pageant

08. Wilco- A Ghost is Born

09. Wilco- Being There

10. R.E.M.- Green

11. Wilco- Wilco (The Album)

12. R.E.M.- New Adventures in Hi-Fi

13. R.E.M.- Fables of Reconstruction

14. R.E.M.- Accelerate

15. R.E.M.- Out of Time

16. R.E.M.- Up

17. Wilco- Sky Blue Sky

18. R.E.M.- Monster

19. R.E.M.- Reveal

20. Wilco- A.M.

21. R.E.M.- Around The Sun

Nick Cave is probably in my top 5 favorite active songwriters. The man is amazing. Abbatoir Blues/ The Lyre of Orpheus is a masterpiece, and The Boatman's Call is a dark horse for my favorite album period.

Am I the only person who doesn't see the purpose of this tour? It'd be one thing if Doolittle was a double album, but shelling out dough to see them perform a 39 minute album is pretty silly to me. I'd rather just see them do a normal set.

Hell, last time I saw them, they played about 80% of Doolittle anyway.

Live Through This is the best album "written" by someone who's never actually written a song.

01. Jesus Etc

02. IATTBYH

03. Via Chicago

04. Poor Places

05. She's a Jar

06. Misunderstood

07. Spiders (Kidsmoke)

08. Sunken Treasure

09. Remember the Mountain Bed

10. Laminated Cat

11. A Shot in The Arm

12. Wishful Thinking

13. Ashes of American Flags

14. Reservations

15. Can't Stand It

16. I'm Always in Love

17. Impossible Germany

18. Bull Black Nova

19. New Madrid

20. A Magazine Called Sunset

My Personal top 20:

01. Jesus, Etc

02. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

03. Via Chicago

04. Poor Places

05. She's a Jar

06. Misunderstood

07. Remember The Mountain Bed

08. Spiders (Kidsmoke)

09. Sunken Treasure

10. A Shot in The Arm

11. Laminated Cat

12. Wishful Thinking

13. Ashes of American Flags

14. Reservations

15. Can't Stand It

16. I'm Always in Love

17. Impossible Germany

18. Bull Black Nova

19. New Madrid

20. A Magazine Called Sunset

But I don't think YAMF is a whispery ballad...I don't think that the second half would be as lyrically effective without the tempo/style change. There's a mood shift that occurs halfway through that I think the music shuffles in, in a way only an instrumental break/shift (which neither WT nor SAJ really have in that same way) can facilitate.

 

 

 

It's natural to compare a new record to its predecessor. Search the archives for when SBS came out, and you'll find lots of talk about Ghost, and Ghost re: YHF. The unscientific poll will tell you that roughly 70% of us prefer WTA, so its natural for us to post about the new album favorably and SBS less favorably when discussing the two.

 

We still get lots of Nels v. Jay threads, but the board hasn't become just another ranting fan site. Or it has, and those who are bothered by that left, which anyone is welcome to do at any time.

To me personally, the instrumental shift was kind of a cop out. I'm not fond of that part of the song at all. I've never been a huge fan of Wilco roots-rawkin it, as I think they have much more interesting tools in their repetoire than that.

On the second point, I agree with you whole heartedly. The point of a message board is to disect and discuss the music of an artist thoroughly; not just to rank the albums in order of release and post pictures of your toddlers in Wilco t-shirts.

If someone thinks it's lame to discuss the merits of Wilco's various albums, they probably shouldn't post here. At the very least, they should avoid threads where strong opinions are discussed.

Just a thought here: The more people on this board try to convince others that SBS is the worst album ever released, the relevance of this board will become just another obsessive/impossible to please/ranting fan site that no one cares to visit because it is all negativity.

 

I don't think it's a starship album; I just think it's a very slight album among some of the best albums of the past 20 years.

IMHO it stands up alot stronger than other Wilco albums in retrospect.

I don't see this at all. I feel like every Wilco album from 1996-2004, including the MAs, are head and shoulders above it.

Aside from the George influence on "You Never Know", I haven't read much talk (complaining or otherwise) about "influences" on this album; rather, the talk which I think you are referring to is focused on the "familiar" sound this album has. To me, it's the first Wilco album that sounds like a Wilco album. And that's not good to me. And all this talk (in the press) about how the band seems "confident being Wilco" on this record I think is a bunch of whogivesashit. When have I ever listened to an album and thought "Boy, this sounds like they really are comfortable in their skin. This band has a good perspective of itself. What a good record." Pfft.

Disclaimer: not that I feel Wilco owes me anything. Sharing negative thoughts about a work of art can be wrongly interpreted as wishing something was different. I don't. The album is what it is. That's fine.

The album to me is a great set of melodies, and an enjoyable album. Sky Blue Sky was neither of these, chosing instead to pepper half formed songs with wanky guitar.

Contextually, yeah it's something they've done before, but that doesn't make the material any less strong.

sky blue sky was one long, really elegant boring track

With the exception of "Impossible Germany", every song on SBS had something I didn't like about it. For example "You are My Face" starts out beautiful before degenerating into a "RAWK" stomp. It goes from this beautiful whispery ballad to an awful Phish jam. Prior to SBS, Wilco always had interesting ways to accentuate a whispery ballad, and interesting ways to change them up. Songs like "Wishful Thinking" and "She's a Jar" were handled with much more grace.

I'm not getting why people aren't liking certain tracks. Country Disappeared especially, feels like a long lost classic from the early 70s. I could totally hear The Band or Gram Parsons singing that. Solitaire is pure Simon and Garfunkel, and Everlasting I haven't quite been able to pinpoint, but it's down right majestic.

While I'll admit that it's not the most original album, W(TA) wears great influences on it's sleeve; and let's be honest, that's been a part of Wilco since Being There. There have always been songs that were conscious nods to the classics that inspired Tweedy. I don't see why it offends you so here.

The only track I'm not all about is "Sunny Feeling" which is too boogie rock for my tastes. The bridge is the only part of the song that really impresses me.

Still so much better than SBS.

I think there's alot of truth to this.

 

And it baffles me completely when people say "Sky Blue Sky" is "too light" (earlier in the thread). I think we're having different definitions of "light" and the word is being thrown about carelessly. I think there is no doubt the sentiments expressed in SBS is far heavier than those on WTA. And by heavy, I'm not talking about "a faster tempo", or "more distorted guitars" or "more screaming". I'm talking about more gut-wretching emotions and themes that weigh your heart down.

 

There's a different theme being explored on WTA, but it's definitely in a lighter note: I think the band clearly expresses this with the camel, the colour-coded costumes and even a theme song for the band as if they were a super-hero troupe. To me, it's exploring the idea of what the band means to people. What their roles are in other people's lives. And it's an exaggerated, larger than life, outline of what they really are.

 

But if you think "light" music is anything with a slower tempo, mellow sonics or softer vocals, then yeah, you'd probably think SBS was a light record.

Well, Wilco has never really been a rock the fuck out band to me anyway. I've always felt their strongest suit was their slower tunes. But I felt like SBS was kind of Doobie Brothers where as previous Wilco ballads ressembled Big Star, 1967 Beatles, 1969 Velvet Underground, or After The Gold Rush era Neil Young.

Summerteeth was my first Wilco album, and will always be on some level my favorite tied with YHF. Those were the first two Wilco albums I heard, and nothing else they did before or did after has hit me quite as hard as those two.

My favorite song of all time is Strawberry Fields Forever, so I guess it's natural that I'd favor Summerteeth over other Wilco albums.

I'll give them ratings out of 5. Usually any two albums with the same rating flip flop.

Studio Albums:

01. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot- ***** (Probably the best album of the 21st Century. Just brilliant)

02. Summerteeth- ***** (The definition of a perfect pop album; amazing lyrics, amazing melodies, great arrangements.)

03. A Ghost is Born- **** 1/2 (Not perfect imo, but still, few Wilco albums capture a mood as well as AGIB.)

04. Being There- **** 1/2 (has a few clunkers, but rarely has an album been made that better summed up american rock n' roll.)

05. Wilco (The Album)- **** (if this was their first album, it'd be #1 or 2. Unfortunately, it feels like a rehash. Still a fantastic pop album.)

06. Sky Blue Sky- *** 1/2 (There are things on every song I both like and dislike; Impossible Germany bumps this album a 1/2 star)

07. A.M.- *** (Only Jeff Tweedy could make an album this mild and harmless, and have it not completely suck. Gets by basically on melodies and some good licks.)

Misc:

Mermaid Avenue- ***** (Both Wilco and Billy Bragg bring a great set of songs to this album. Fantastic.)

Mermaid Avenue- *** (Wilco's songs are great, Billy's are awful.)

Kicking Television- **** 1/2 (I'd give it a 5 if it was more representative of Wilco as a whole, and less of an AGIB tour artifact.