Ghost of Electricity

Apologies, but "this."

Or her boyfriend's

Very tempted here too.

i figured but i couldn't resist.

This.

i never knew about shepard scales. cool.

Not so sure about that. Someone has said that this new record, similar to the last one, is a "sample platter" of Wilco, and I guess I would tend to agree. I do think it much better executed, but their ability to defy expectation and not conform to stereotypes in the past was largely due to their restless explorations of new forms. It seems that has, for the most part, stopped, and they have found "a sound" to work with and are content developing that sound. Granted, "the sound" is quite varied.

A little video I made up a while back:

To a certain degree yes. Note that over the last two records "I" has often stopped referring to "Jeff Tweedy" and started referring to "the guy who just killed his girlfriend" or "the dying soldier" or "Jane Smiley's boyfriend." This is something that didn't happen (or if it did only rarely) on earlier records. It's a new direction in his songwriting, and on this record did it better than on the last one, which would imply that he's learning more about how to do that. Which actually portends well for us Wilco fans, as he won't be limited to writing about one middle-aged balding guy with an

I think part of the excitement around here is a collective sigh of relief that the downward trend from YHF>AGIB>SBS>W(TA) has been broken. I think many people feared they were "done."

I bet pitchfork will love the first track and meh the rest.

wait, what?

you're absolutely right which is why i said "may" and not "will" or "i can assure you that in 100 years this will be studies in music history classes."

So you like it then?

I assuming you say this because AM is so high or ST is so low. Well, AM was my first, and at the time it was all about that record, Anodyne, Trace, and Hollywood Town Hall. It was a magical period for "alt-country" and an equally magical period in my personal life, so I decided to answer with my heart. Other records (even ST) appeal to my brain more, but that doesn't change the fact that I love what I love. Conversely, I missed ST by a few years, only getting to it after YHF, so it was more an exercise in filling in the gaps. It may be a "greater accomplishment" than AM (whatever tf tha

I must admit I'm not (yet?) fully convinced by the other two slow, accoustic numbers on the record (Black Moon and Rising Red Lung) but this one has it all- story line, melody, hooky riff, sonic detail, and after 12 minutes you're perfectly happy going back and playing it again. This may be one of the strongest things Wilco has ever done.

or maybe from those 60 outtakes wilco will surprise us with another record in 6 months...wouldn't that be great!

Someone mentioned on another thread that Wilco recorded 60 songs for TWL, which leaves several albums worth of material that I can't help but believe will see the light of day someday. It might be 20 years though. Kind of like Neil Young had a bunch of live albums recorded back in his heyday then sat on them for 30 years before releasing them. Incidentally, didn't they (Wilco) once as a musical exercise record an album (or more than one) of improvised music in real time? That would be interesting to hear.

Damn, if the editor is there send me his email and i'll write him a nasty letter. Dancing about architecture is a great name for a music column. He should still be there, because he doesn't deserve to graduate from journalism school.

So I've had several listens and the thing is starting to settle (just a bit). I don't love this album but I am definitely infatuated with it. Whether the infatuation will lead to love only time will tell. One observation (concern?) is that every Wilco record until W(TA) broke new ground. Sometimes in an absolute sense (most notably YHF) but always in an internal sense as in braking new ground for Wilco. W(TA) fell short for several reasons, and this is one of them. TWL largely (though not wholly) falls into this category as well. The exception is AoA, which moves them into electronica

It's morning here so I'm on day two of this record- and still really liking it. I had a lump-in-throat moment on first listen with "dawned on me" and those impressions are hard to overturn, so i think this has already earned its place in wherever it is that good records earn their place. Art of Almost- the wilco everyone seems to want. perhaps a bit incongrous with the rest as the electronica goes away after this song and doesn't really come back. but a great track nevertheless. Yes, of course there's Nels' freak out, but let's not forget Glenn's drumming- that rhythm is sick. I might-

It's way too early to do this, but: 1.BT 2.YHF 3.AM 4.AGIB 5.TWL 6.ST 7.SBS 8.the other one

Glenn's drum beat on AoA is sick. It's so good there's no way it can be legal.