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lost highway

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Posts posted by lost highway

    Wilco - Cousin - New Album

    in Just A Fan

    Posted

    30 minutes ago, BeneathTheOldSnow said:


     

    I like it when Wilco builds to their main idea. I actually think they did this really well on TWL: “I’ll always show you my whole love” is a super satisfying concluding thought to that album, made much more meaningful and interesting when followed immediately by One Sunday Morning. I think “Magnetized” is a fantastic closer, too. “I realize we’re magnetized” is a perfectly simple way to tie together so many of their songs about family and home.

     

    Oh yeah! WTF was I saying? Those are two of their all time best album closers, I'm ashamed my memory omitted them!

     

    So it's really just SBS, Schmilco, WTA, and OTJ with the closers that don't crush it for me (more power to anyone who feels the opposite). That puts them around 50-50 on satisfying closers for me with the current lineup. Not bad, in a baseball sense which is a dumb angle for me to take music from!

    Wilco - Cousin - New Album

    in Just A Fan

    Posted

    I think Soldier Child might be the mix tape song off this one for me. Not the boldest or most innovative of the set but the one that catches most immediately. It should have been the single.

     

    I also like how what felt just slightly tepid or retread about "Evicted" melts away on vinyl in the sequence. Like it's most interesting flourishes are magnified by context.

     

    It's interesting to watch the critics and fans search for the clearest precedent to this record in their catalog. I disagree with most of those connections. One thread I can find is the closing tracks of Shmilco, "Just Say Goodbye" and "We Aren't the World". Both of those songs struck me as being a new spot on their spectrum. Strummy acoustic but not pastoral-folk, sad but still somehow energized, kind of new wave pop. They both seemed really good and a hint of something potentially great. Neither stuck in the setlists. This album to me mines a similar mood but with greater expertise.

     

    Another precedent is Spencer and Jeff's Jandek cover. It's like a Phil Spector production that got unearthed by a 21st century Brian Eno who chopped and screwed a remix, kind of abused the tracks in a cool way. At her best I hear Le Bon doing that behind the curtain here in a more precise and (sorry) icy way.

     

    So as not to be Polly Anna I have a couple minor quibbles. Jeff should be forbidden from using the words "cry" and "die" in lyrics every again. They're very blunt instruments and seem to often come accompanied with some rhyming dictionary place holders that are far less iconic than other turns of phrase he can still tantalize with.

     

    Last, "Meant to Be" is fun and cool, but it seems so close to being a major closing track/ send off.... and it's a B+ where we want an A. Kind of an old fashioned album format critique but I feel like the band hasn't quite achieved a fully satisfying album closer since "Late Greats". They deftly avoided the issue by having "The Plains" as a whispered coda. Nonetheless the Abba gallop is joyful and if it were in the middle of the sequence I'd have no notes.

    • Like 3

    Wilco - Cousin - New Album

    in Just A Fan

    Posted

    22 hours ago, kidsmoke said:

    Mine has shipped, but the tracking tells me it won't be here until *gasp* Monday October 2nd! :no How the hell am I supposed to wait until then?

     

    I just found out the same for mine. Luckily the streaming will tide me over.

    • Like 1

    Wilco - Cousin - New Album

    in Just A Fan

    Posted

    This one is more interesting to me than Evicted. It starts and you wrestle with it, "What time signature is this? What kind of percussion am I hearing? How'd they squeeze that bass melody in there?". It's just difficult enough. Then the bridge opens up and sprinkles some sugar. Cool song. As always it will yield even more when it's part of a bigger sequence.

    • Like 2

    Best Wilco lyric ever!

    in Just A Fan

    Posted

    2 hours ago, 5hake1t0ff said:

    A lot great ones already mentioned, but here's a more recent one that I love:
     

    A country song, like a trout
    Dying sky and water
    Rainbow flickering out

     

    That song almost tears me up and I'm not even sure why.

    • Like 1

    Wilco - Cousin - New Album

    in Just A Fan

    Posted

    While I never want to be the cult member who flames everyone who critiques the newest stuff, I find there's a hot take/edge lord contingent that's even more obnoxious. Tatlock, I don't find your feelings on the discography to be obnoxious at all. 

     

    I think the biggest difference is nuance and if someone is trying to be flippant and explain to the diehards how wrong they are. The reverse side is feeling super protective of a favorite band to the point that any negative criticism feels like an attack on you.

     

    I can see where people take the say nothing approach the way you would avoid discussing politics at Thanksgiving. I just find a deep, critical discussion about art to be so interesting. That's one thing this place will always be better for than a Facebook group is.

    • Like 6

    Wilco - Cousin - New Album

    in Just A Fan

    Posted

    Okay, round two:

     

    If you ever (I did) wondered how it would have turned out if Jeff had the Wilcos around to add just a pinch of fuss to his unfussy, peppier solo tunes (thinking 'Some Birds', 'I Know What It's Like') here it is. Much like with 'Tired of Taking It Out on You' I can hear how they've grown to add texture and flourish to do breezy stronger than when the members backed up 'You and I' (a fine tune none the less).

     

    One can't help but think the first single is usually the most accessible. I think thornier sounds are ahead, but this is a nice little tune. The little flourishes and textures elevate it above what I thought we were getting in the first verse.

    • Like 5

    Wilco - Cousin - New Album

    in Just A Fan

    Posted

    5 hours ago, Ghost Of Bob Cumming said:

    Nick Offerman has some sort of copy of this new album as his interview with Stuart Maconie for BBC 6music's Radcliffe & Maconie radio show - for their 'First, Last and Everything' feature - has just gone out in the UK, and he wanted to choose a track from it as his 'Last' (latest) choice.

     

    Stuart explained that they were unable to play it though 'because it's so new, it's not out', so we got a Cruel Country track instead.

     

    I take this as confirmation that the album is done. At this point we're just waiting for whatever manufacturing and marketing route they've chosen (wait for vinyl, or drop it digital with vinyl preorders). The real question is if Nick is quietly a forum member and if he's prepared to share some of his impressions of the album with us!

    • Like 1

    Wilco - Cousin - New Album

    in Just A Fan

    Posted

    7 hours ago, u2roolz said:
      Reveal hidden contents

    Paraphrasing a Reddit user: oh, I know someone who knows someone that worked on this project, so trust me. 🤷🏻‍♂️
     

    It would be pretty sweet, if it comes true. That’s really the only tidbit on that thread. 

     

    That would be an oddly specific and Wilco relevant collaboration to mistakenly invent. There's likely some truth to it, but I'd only be wary of the specific role, i.e. 'Album produced by x', vs 'Tracks 2, 4, and 7 produced by x', or even 'Track 3 co-produced by x, additional vocals and guitar by x'.

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