choo-choo-charlie

It's nice, but not what I thought it was gonna be. I was hoping for more in-studio pictures, maybe some liner notes. There are lyrics, instrument/production credits, a few photos, some extra artwork, but nothing I'd say is essential. I am going to listen to my LP tonight...I'm sure it's gonna seem odd with the tracks jumbled up. Just the other week I realized that my vinyl version of My Morning Jacket's Z has a bonus track at the end after "Dondante." I've always been taking the record off the turntable right after that song and never let it play beyond that...and now the extra track kind

Rolling Stone's review can be added to the list of those that can't quite nail "Capitol City." In this case -- a waltz? Not quite. Are music writers not learning their stuff? *** By JON DOLAN SEPTEMBER 27, 2011 Wilco often specialize in uncomfortable comfort music: Seventies-style melodies submerged in dark, abstract sounds and cloudy emotions. But their eighth disc manages to be both upbeat and experimental – as casually chooglin' as 2007's Sky Blue Sky and as textured and expansive as Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. There are avant-guitar freakouts, roots-tuggin' jams and gold-spun pastorals

It's a message board -- it's not a "work." I love this album.

The iTunes version, if I recall when I looked it up a few weeks ago, actually has five bonus tracks: 1. Speak into the Rose 2. Message from Mid-Bar 3. I Love my Label 4. Black Moon (alternative version) 5. Sometimes it Happens That's the whole album + the four from the bonus disc + the one from the vinyl.

Either way -- critical reception to me at this point is just for reading pleasure (or displeasure). There's nothing that can be said by any critic that will alter my actual enjoyment of this record.

If you have "Bull Black Nova" on your copy of SBS, I'd hold onto it. That's some rarity you've got there.

I guess he means you just didn't want them bad enough?

I don't harbor as much disregard for W(TA) as some others here -- but to me The Whole Love is, um, a wholly better record than its predecessor. I don't see how it could be outranked by it.

You saw the length of the post, decided you didn't want to invest the time to read it -- yet you still dismiss it?

Geez just wait a few farkin' days and get the damn LP.

Perhaps, but scalpers would probably be willing to pay the nominal fee to gain first access to tickets that they can still turn around and sell at a ridiculously marked-up price. The will call option might eliminate more of those folks, but I'm not sure there's ever going to be a solution that puts 100% of tickets in the hands of fans.

No kidding! I inadvertently got attacked over there for saying Wilco's melodic pop songs are brilliant...there's still pissing and moaning about no more A.M., no more "unpretentious twang." Someone said "when I heard 'Less Than You Think,' I heard all I needed to hear to determine where Wilco was going." Sheesh.

Had to start somewhere.

It's funny -- the Phish that I enjoy the most fits that description. I used to enjoy the 20+ minute versions of songs and became very burnt out. Farmhouse might be my favorite record of theirs, which to many hardcore fans, I believe, is unthinkable.

Shipped just now!

Their review of AGIB is maybe one of the most far-off reviews they've ever done.

What, no "Runaway Train?" The lyric like a madman laughing at the rain... Tough crowd!

I remember when I first got into Wilco, one of my first purchases was Kicking Television. At the time, I also read a lot of Pitchfork reviews, including their review for KT, which said: "In its 10+ years of existence, Jeff Tweedy's post-Tupelo project has cycled through several lineups and styles: alt-country, Beach Boys-splashed Americana, Radioheaded abstraction. Then, after 2002 masterpiece Yankee Hotel Foxtrot came last year's confusingly lateral move to listener-unfriendly classic-rock, A Ghost Is Born; "I will turn on you," Tweedy sang in "I'm a Wheel". The tables turn again with Kicki

Scored six for Kansas City this morning! Whew.

Not really. they've got some extended guitar breaks, but they've also got a lot of melody, tight song structures and arrangements -- great songwriting all-around. They're not just playing two or three chords endlessly and jamming for 20+ minutes...

This reminds me of the time I saw Glenn Kotche on a street corner in Kansas City in 2006. It was clearly time to head over to the Uptown for soundcheck, and he appeared to be waiting for a cab. I contemplated stopping to offer him a ride, but didn't, thinking that he'd think I was some sort of nut. To this day I wish I would've at least tried...

What a concept -- playing a lot of tracks from an album they're touring in support of!

Neat!

"Idiot Wind."

No kidding! That made me laugh. Also -- in many of the reviews that have been posted here, "aggressively claustrophobic guitars" seems to be the hot phrase for describing A Ghost is Born. I suppose there are only so many words and phrases that can be cooked up to identify Wilco music.