random painted highway

Well, technically, Pat would be Jonny Greenwood considering the amazing string sections he's writing.

Loving "Capitol City"!; they pulled a "Beth/Rest" in that they took something that on surface level was critical-mass cheese factor and made it absolutely awesome.

Sort of disappointed in "Open Mind"; loved the solo version that's been floating around. Was hoping for some sort of "Patient With Me" treatment or something; I shouldn't be making expectations, but considering the amazing acoustic arrangements on songs like "Black Moon", "Rising Red Lung", and "One Sunday Morning", I'm surprised they went with the sort of SBS/W(TA) autopilot arrangement for this song.

A minor complaint though. Everything else is just gold.

Ok, I was about to write a big-ass rant defending Wilco (The Album), but "The Whole Love" is pretty much negating whatever points I was going to make. Carry on.

As a big "In Rainbows" fan, I naturally hated this album at first, because it kind of is the antithesis. I guess I'm simply going to have to go with the whole "I listened to it a couple dozen times before it set in" thing. Which, can be a bit demanding and excessive for an album. But I think an album that can reward patience, and potentially transform my idea of music will always be a better value than one that does a great job of adhering to my expectations and wears itself out. A lot of the album is enjoyable to me in the same way Kraftwerk, 'Ege Bamyasi'-era Can, or songs like Kidsmoke and Bull Black Nova are enjoyable. Aside from that, I thought the last three songs could easily match up with some of the more gorgeous moments on "In Rainbows".

Also, there was an interview where Ed O'Brien described making this album as liberating, so can we stop trying to qualify things based on his body language in some "From The Basement" performances?

"Bull Black Nova". Although I guess that would qualify as a great Television solo. Which is why it's such a good solo!

And "You Are My Face". The best Jeff Tweedy solo not actually done by Jeff Tweedy!

Still thought the LP outro was pretty good. Nels' solo was amazing. I just think of Bull Black Nova being the rock-tastic coda.

I also concur that this review was spot-on.

The AGiB review's central thesis was "This isn't YHF!" and SBS's was "This is Dad Rock, and Dad Rock is very bad."

They played "Veckatimest" by Grizzly Bear in Borders. And for some reason, hearing it in public made the album a lot more enjoyable for me.

For some reason, I love "I can't calm down, I can't think," both in Tweedy's expression, and the point of tension in the music at that point in time. Also, the Television-esque breakdown around 1:40ish - 2:10ish is so delicious in every way imaginable.

The similarities would have to be "One Wing", "Everlasting", and "My Country Has Disappeared", but even those have a lot of distance from their SBS counterparts.

1) Wilco The Song: I loved Nels' lead. It's somewhat random, but it seems to seamlessly fit in. Loved the harmonies in bells in the bridge! I don't know why they had to dial it down so much on the album compared with the Colbert Report version.

2) Deeper Down: Kind of like "Faust Arp" on "In Rainbows". An intriguing deviation. I won't call it my favorite song, but it's one of the more rewarding listens. I love Nels' baroque breakdown!

3) One Wing: For some reason, I find the songwriting very weak. Makes me appreciate "Impossible Germany" a lot more. Preferred the live version; they had a nice Interpol vibe that got a little watered down; I guess it's not a bad thing for a band to show a sense of economy by cutting the occasional wanky solo once in awhile, but the breakdown at the end was pretty cool.

4) Bull Black Nova: One of the highlights. Very Television-esque guitars, and not in a blantant-ripoff-way like in "Impossible Germany". I also think there's a universal consensus that the breakdown around 2:20ish is freakin' awesome. The ending was a little disappointing though. Surely the band that has mastered dynamics on "Kidsmoke" live could come up with something more subtle and effective than a minute of squall to indicate tension.

5) You And I: Tweedy's songwriting is amazing. Did they have to go with the most MOR arrangement imaginable though? Loved Nels' backwards outro.

6) You Never Know: Somewhat forgettable. Constant refrains of "I don't care anymore" become self-fulfilling prophecies for the listener. This actually makes a great cool-down song during a work out.

7) An example of amazing songwriting, and terrible production. If this had more of an O'Rourke production, it would have been absolutely amazing. But instead they went with "Either Way 2.0". Songwriting is the foundation of a good song and all, but imagine if "Jesus Etc" or "Ashes" was arranged like this? They'd definitely go down a peg.

8) Solitaire: One of the stand-outs of the album. When people compared it to Nick Drake, at first I thought it was a shallow comparison, but upon numerous listens, the song definitely synthesizes bits and pieces of "Northern Sky", "Pink Moon" and "Places To Be" in a gorgeous way. Nels' guitar playing and especially Pat's organ fills are heavenly.

9) I'll Fight: A very agreeable song, but nothing that grabs me.

10) Sonny Feeling: Another stand-out. One of the catchiest things they've ever written.

11) Everlasting: Amazing Nels flute outro FTW!

I guess I have contradictory opinions on this album. I think it's got some of the best songwriting Wilco has ever done, but some of the production and arrangements just seem to sap the life out of the songs. I guess I'm more of a person who values both hi-fi and production. "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" was what floored me, and got me into Wilco.

I think if there's one thing that really distinguishes this album is probably Nels' role. Wilco blended a lot better with Nels' style, and Nels' style has blended a lot more with Wilco. It's just magical to hear what he does on "Deeper Down", "Solitaire", and the outros of "You and I", and "Everlasting".

I think, as someone may have already said, this album will quiet a little bit of the "Nels contributes nothing but guitar wanking" shouts. There really aren't that many outright "solos" in the Impossible Germany/Side With The Seeds vein on this album. I think Nels still contributed a lot to this record, adding comparatively minor guitar bits here and there that really help the songs grow. It's one of the things that struck me as strange at first, but grew on me in a big way.

Thirded. The small things like the feedback in W(TS), the backwards outro in You & I, and the outro for Everlasting made a helluva lot of difference.

More than deep, but not quite the deepest... but definitely low... kinda down.. ish.

This post nailed it. Lock the thread, Mods.

I still yearn and pine for a Jim O'Rourke album. This album feels like something Phil Spector produced, and then thirty years later, they went back and tried to remove Spector's touch.

That being said, as a whole, I think it's got some of Tweedy's best songwriting, and I think this puts to rest the debate about Jay being needed to bring in the melody.

Great guitar work by Henneman.

It's funny. After watching Jeff play "ALTWYS" on Ashes of American Flags, and after watching Ashes of American Flags, I realized I'd hit my Nels Cline saturation point.

That being said, I thought he did a pretty good mind-meld with the material on Wilco (The Album)

As album, I remember "Chutes" more than I do "Wincing"

As songs, I remember "Sleeping Lessons" and "Phantom Limb" more than I do the best songs on Chutes.

Ok, now that I have it on iTunes...

1) "I'll Fight" has been changed to "Conscript"

2) "My Country Has Disappeared" has been changed to "Crush The Cities!"

3) "Everlasting" has been changed to "Dark Neon".

And all is well now with W(TA)!

those of you that are still asking around, perhaps if you searched for Wilco on Twitter, you would find people tweeting links. I won't say that I know for sure, but it's probably happening. Minus probably.

This post FTW!

How does stand the album version of One Wing compared to the Lollapalooza version? I thing it was a powerful song full of interesting dynamics..

The live version was pretty much Impossible Germany.

The studio version is sort of "Roscoe" by Midlake.

And they greatly trimmed down the Nels noodling. Which can be both a great thing, and a bad thing.

1st listen... Sunny Feeling is definitely the winner for me. It's like, the greatest pop song they've ever written, ever.

I have the foresight to realize that this album will definately be a grower...

But I still think the production is terrible. This ain't exactly a headphones album like YHF. Which is fine, but there was all this hype about using the studio as an instrument and so forth, but it pretty much resembles SBS in terms of production.

Art is a very subjective thing, a unique bond between the music and what each listener and their own life experiences bring to shape something truly beautiful.

Therefore, anyone who disagrees with the below is wrong on pretty much every objective level:

AM

BT

ST

YHF

AGIB

SBS

W(TA)

Attention moderators!

 

Can we squeeze "Houses of the Holy" somewhere in there?

Well, everyone knows that H.O.T.H. clearly has the same ranking as AGiB.