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Favorite and least favorite Wilco songs by album


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AM: favorite: Pick Up The Change Least favorite: Nothing on this record really sticks out like a sore thumb, they're all not quite as good as what would come later, but I don't have a least favorite on this record.

Being There: favorite: Sunken Treasure Least favorite: Sesame street version of Outtamind

MA: Favorite: One By One least favorite: Christ For President

Summerteeth: favorite: She's A Jar least favorite: My Darling (Sorry Jay)

MAII: Favorites: Mountain Bed/Someday Some Morning Sometime, least favorite Blood of The Lamb

YHF: Favorites: I think it's a tie between tracks 1-11, least favorite: rubbish there isn't one on this record.

AGIB: Favorites: Muzzle of Bees, Wishful Thinking, At Least That's What You Said. Least Favorite: I'm A Wheel.

 

 

Updated for the new albums.

 

SBS: Favorite: On and On and On. Least Favorite: Shake It Off or What Light

WTA: Favorite: Bull Black Nova. Least Favorite: You and I or Everlasting.

 

--Mike

 

I don't view albums like this. I view albums the way I hope the artist does: as a part of a singular message.

 

Since bands stopped producing singles and albums became the medium of expression, it seems like there will be ebbs and flows. I simply hope that the artist has a vision.

 

While I may not like "That's not the issue" or "Kingpin", I can't imagine the records working as well as they do without them being presented as the artist intended. I fell into that trap with Springsteen and the various outtakes of The River.

 

Not to say I don't enjoy reading what other people think, I simply find it to be a slipprey slope to second guess the intent of an artist.

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Album: best, worst

 

A.M.: Passenger Side, That's Not the Issue

Being There: Misunderstood, Was I in Your Dreams?

MA: Another Man's Done Gone, Christ For President

Summerteeth: She's a Jar, We're Just Friends(there are no bad songs on Summerteeth, but this is the one that's the least amazing to me.)

MAII: Remember the Mountain Bed, Joe Dimaggio

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: Jesus, Etc., I'm The Man Who Loves You

A Ghost is Born: Spiders (Kidsmoke), The Late Greats

Sky Blue Sky: Impossible Germany, Shake it Off

Wilco (The Album): Country Disappeared, Sunny Feeling

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This is going to be very very very hard, since I too am an album guy. I think it's all one theme, one sonic expression. But if I have to nitpick, here it is.

 

I Must Be High/That's Not The Issue

Kingpin/What's The World Got In Store

Pieholden Suite (Jesus Christ, that middle section)/My Darling

Kamera/Ashes Of American Flags(only studio, though... I adore it live)

At Least That's What You Said/ Muzzle of Bees (By far the hardest one to pick)

On and On and On/Shake It Off

You and I/Solitaire

 

That sucked, haha. Pretty accurate for me though.

 

I love seeing the same songs on some folks favorites, and some people's least favorites...and at about equal percentages, even! Proves how amazing Wilco really is. Something different for everyone.

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I view this as a game, and thus will not take it too serious. Faves and least faves of the moment(they are always changing)...

 

AM-Dash 7/ I Must Be High

BT-Misunderstood/Someday Soon

MMA-One by One/ Another Mans Done Gone

ST-Candyfloss/We're Just Friends

MMA2-Mountain Bed/ Blood of the Lamb

YHF-Pot Kettle Black/Reservations

AGIB-ALTWYS/Hell is Crome

SBS-Impossible Germany/Please Be Patient With Me

WTA-One Wing/Everlasting(my least favorite Wilco song of all time)

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I hate doing this, but there's nothing better to do at this time in the night... :pirate

 

AM: Should've Been In Love / I Thought I Held You

BT: Say You Miss Me / Kingpin

ST: Pieholden Suite / We're Just Friends (no real bad tracks, though, it's way too hard to pick)

YHF: Reservations / I'm the Man Who Loves You

AGIB: Hummingbird / I'm A Wheel

SBS: Impossible Germany / Either Way

W(ta): One Wing / You Never Know (to me I run into the ST problem, though, so this is just the slightly not as good track)

 

An album is an album to me, you distinguish it by its whole, not its tracks.

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AM: Passenger Side / It's Just That Simple

BT: Misunderstood / Hotel Arizona*

ST: I'm Always in Love / We're Just Friends*

YHF: Poor Places# / Radio Cure

AGIB: Theologians / Wishful Thinking*

SBS: You Are My Face / Shake It Off*

W(ta): Bull Black Nova / Sonny Feeling

 

*Some of my least favorite songs of all-time, by anyone. Nails on a chalkboard.

#Greatest song ever written

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AM: Passenger Side / It's Just That Simple

BT: Misunderstood / Hotel Arizona*

ST: I'm Always in Love / We're Just Friends*

YHF: Poor Places# / Radio Cure

AGIB: Theologians / Wishful Thinking*

SBS: You Are My Face / Shake It Off*

W(ta): Bull Black Nova / Sonny Feeling

 

*Some of my least favorite songs of all-time, by anyone. Nails on a chalkboard.

#Greatest song ever written

 

 

How is Wishful Thinking bad? That's one of the best songs on Ghost. :blink

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Guest Speed Racer

*Some of my least favorite songs of all-time, by anyone. Nails on a chalkboard.

 

Oh, wow. Three of my favorite songs by Wilco, though they certainly took several years to grow on me.

 

"We're Just Friends" finally clicked with me only when I was in the same position as the speaker, more or less, and kind of dragged the song around like a blanket for a few sorry days. :lol

 

"Hotel" didn't click until I saw live versions from the 1999-2000 Wilco era from The DVD Project - that live version projected a whole different aesthetic on the song for me, especially being able to watch it. There's a lot of BT that I dislike the studio versions of, and this was one of them. But I just love the line, "I feel some connection between you and me/ I guess there's some direction/ maybe you can't see".

 

"Wishful Thinking" and I got off on the wrong foot because it was sandwiched between a song I loved and a song that intrigued me. That, and my most melodramatic friend embraced it and took to quoting it far too extensively on Facebook and AIM statuses and Live Journal and squiggly messages in notebooks late at night. Just wore on me. Then, I was listening to AGIB in the car one day and the break right before the final chorus finally struck me - that part where it's just the acoustic guitar chords - and the rest of the song finally enveloped me.

 

I'm certainly not trying to convince you they're good songs, I just think it's interesting that three of my hard sells are your least favorites, too.

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Wow. Didn't expect quite this response. At least I like the Beatles.

 

As for Hotel Arizona, the problem for me is that it's way too literal and straightforward. The really great Wilco songs seem to be more metaphorical (Hell is Chrome), paint a great mental picture (Sky Blue Sky), or leave you guessing and/or let you fill in the gaps with your imagination (Poor Places, Misunderstood).

 

There is also, for me at least, a fine line between atmospheric and dull. Wishful Thinking and Radio Cure are both on the wrong side of that line for me.

 

 

:blink mr. kinsley! are your kids driving yet?

 

Hey! What's up! No, they aren't driving. But we do let them ride the mile and a half to pre-school on their Big Wheels by themselves.*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Yes, I'm kidding. No, don't call Child Protective Services.

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I think if these lists were somehow suggesting which songs were best and worst (from each album) it would be a silly idea. But I see nothing wrong with people wanting to discuss which songs are their favorites/least favorite. And nothing anyone says in this thread will change how i think of certain songs so I see no harm in it.

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I think if these lists were somehow suggesting which songs were best and worst (from each album) it would be a silly idea. But I see nothing wrong with people wanting to discuss which songs are their favorites/least favorite.

What's the difference?

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Guest Speed Racer

What's the difference?

 

I think I'll Fight is a great song, I can see why other people like it, but I don't really like it. Same with One Wing. They're not bad songs, but I don't like them.

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I think I'll Fight is a great song, I can see why other people like it, but I don't really like it. Same with One Wing. They're not bad songs, but I don't like them.

I don't get that, but ok.

 

If you say a certain song is the best on a particular album, aren't you also saying it's your favorite?

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Guest Speed Racer

I don't get that, but ok.

 

The Decembrists are a great band, but I cannot, cannot listen to them. I'll go so far as to say I want to say that about Arcade Fire, but that's about as far as I can get with them. That doesn't make them bad, though. Both grate on me.

 

If you say a certain song is the best on a particular album, aren't you also saying it's your favorite?

 

Probably. Well, I like Sonny Feeling a lot, might say it's my favorite, but I think there are better-written/crafted songs on W(TA).

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I'm sorry if this doesn't make sense to you but it's just how I feel.

 

People enjoy things for different reasons. Someone could have a favorite song/album (not necessarily Wilco) that is rather silly but recognize a different song/album to be a stronger piece of music or more important artistic statement (whatever that may mean -- again to each their own ;) ). A song may be their favorite because of a certain memory it conjures up or in their ability to share that piece of music with loved ones.

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AM-Too Far Apart/ I Thought I Held You

BT-Sunken Treasure/Someday Soon

MMA-Hesitating Beauty/ Another Mans Done Gone

ST-She's a Jar/My Darling

MMA2-Remember The Mountain Bed/ Blood of the Lamb

YHF-Reservations (or Poor Places)/I'm The Man That Loves You

AGIB-At Least That's What You Said (or Wishful Thinking)/Hell Is Chrome

SBS-On and On and One/What Light

WTA-Bull Black Nova/Sonny Feeling

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