sfjenniches

If someone could oblige...sfjenniches@gmail.com

It's only happened a couple of times in my listening life, but through at least the first ten listenings, it went this way. During Either Way, it was my favorite. During You are my face, that was my favourite, During Impossible Germany, it was the one I loved, During Sky Blue Sky, I thought it was the best, During Side with the Seeds, I thought nothing could top that, Then came Shake it off, And so on, and so on. And it happened that way each time. Brilliant album. Now, after listening for three days almost constantly, SwtS, and HiH are the tops for me.

You latched on to the only song that is the exception for me. Though I would like to hear from this lineup.

I've been seeing Nels play live for almost twenty years. Over that time, I admit I've heard a lot of ridiculous noodling. But I've also seen him play with incredible emotion far more often. Is it Bennett's style that for you equals emotion? Is Nels unemotional simply because his technique is better? Maybe it's just taste. I get more emotion out of a single phrase from Nels in the Wilco context than I get from a whole song of Bennett. They are different, no doubt.

I frequently feel that the musicianship falls short of the lyricism in the first three albums. As does Jeff's voice. The lyrics are great. I often don't like the execution. It's as if Jeff hadn't figured out how he wanted things to sound fully. And because of that, to me some of the arrangements seem forced. With YHF, I feel that Jeff had finally figured out how he wanted his music to sound, and where he wanted to go. And then he set out to assemble the musicians capable of achieving that end. There isn't one song from ST, or BT that I can listen to without wishing I was hearing the c

That's fine. I find the early albums pretty tedious and lacking in effective depth from a musicianship point of view. There is an arbitrary feeling to many of the arrangements . And I've never been fond of Bennett. Oh well.

Thank god Jeff's opinion of Nels has no connection to what half of you think!!! This band has become far more relevant since Bennett left. And that isn't necessarily because of Nels. But it is because the current lineup doesn't restrict Jeff's expression, which Bennett did. And Nels could honestly play every note that Bennett ever did, and better. He can do anything with a guitar. I kind of feel YHF happened in spite of Bennett rather than thanks to him.