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Nooo...maybe he said that about A.M. also! hah, I wouldn't be surprised...but I'm almost positive he said the same thing about Summerteeth. No matter, I still feel the same about that album.

 

might have ben one of those solo shows in august, but i'm pretty sure he said it about AM as well

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ST is a wonderful record and is definitely one of my favorites. That being said, I have been listening to YHF a lot lately and think it is a total masterpiece. ST has a few weaknesses e.g. arrangement, a few "lame" songs that I don't care for. I think YHF flows incredibly well from beginning (IATTBYH) to end (Reservations) and is mixed with tremendous detail. It is, however, very cool to hear different peoples' opinions about everything Wilco.

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I love ST, it's certainly got a special place in my heart as it's the first Wilco album I bought and the stage of their career when I first came into contact with them (seeing them perform on Later With Jools Holland).

 

YHF is the album I listen to most and is my favourite Wilco album, but Summerteeth has a special overall position on my collection.

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Summerteeth would be exactly 1 million percent better if Tweedy sang "Via" instead of "Veea" in the song Via Chicago. I know that's how the Americas say it, but I find myself forever correcting him or emphasizing the e's even more, Alan Partridge style - it really ruins the song for me.

 

Although this might sound like a joke - trust me, it comes from a very real place.

 

Oh, and I don't like the production, but I think it's the best sounding over produced album I can think of. Most of the songs are so good I can still happily listen to it without the production becoming too much of an issue.

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I feel like Summerteeth's effect is choked by the overproduction. Like the synth in I'm Always In Love? Not necessary (see: 2003.06.28 Penn's Landing for best I'm Always In Love EVER). Some are done well, but some are just overloaded with "crap," so to speak, and that brings the album down quite a bit to my ears.

 

Summerteeth acoustic, however, is mindblowingly awesome.

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I guess I'm one of the few folks on this board willing to say that I love "Summerteeth" as is, and not in spite of the production but partially because of it. I love the mix of dark lyrics with the sugar-coated production. I like that it's every bit as over the top as "YHF" is restrained (though let's be honest -- there's a great deal of production on that album, too -- just not multi-tracked choirs and 48 vintage keyboards on every song). I like that it's somehow both a logical sequel to "Being There" and also entirely foreign to the sound of that album. I wouldn't change a thing.

 

That being said, I agree that underneath the lush production and multi-tracking, the songs are fantastic and no doubt stand on their own no matter how they are presented.

 

Oh, and without "Summerteeth," I can't see Wilco making the step from "Being There" to "YHF."

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I also am one who thinks that the production is a little too much at times, but that only comes with certain moods. Most of the time I, too, love the complete contradiction the music is to the lyrics. But, I'm still completely torn on the subject because I really love the solo versions as well...

 

What's a guy to do?

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I feel like Summerteeth's effect is choked by the overproduction. Like the synth in I'm Always In Love? Not necessary (see: 2003.06.28 Penn's Landing for best I'm Always In Love EVER). Some are done well, but some are just overloaded with "crap," so to speak, and that brings the album down quite a bit to my ears.

 

Summerteeth acoustic, however, is mindblowingly awesome.

right on, brother

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If Greg Kot donated a dollar every time a kid who he has hoodwinked into thinking that Summerteeth is somehow flawed posts, this website would support itself.

 

Cassius

 

I've never read anything by Greg Kot about Wilco, but maybe you're refering to actual kids.

 

While I think that Summerteeth would have sounded better with a more natural instrumentation like Being There, maybe throwing in the kitchen sink better prepared them for YHF. Bennett was surely getting more sophisticated with his 'sonic weight', even if O'Rourke scaled it back in the end. Perhaps Summerteeth was the less-than-smooth transition between the BT and YHF. (Continuing to ramble) I don't know though, I feel like YHF is somewhat of a return to BT, especially the opening songs of "misunderstood" and "sunken treasure". So maybe BT and ST were two extremes of style, and YHF resolved their differences and added shortwave radio sounds.

 

I don't know, this is why it's better to just listen to them.

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I feel like Summerteeth's effect is choked by the overproduction. Like the synth in I'm Always In Love? Not necessary (see: 2003.06.28 Penn's Landing for best I'm Always In Love EVER). Some are done well, but some are just overloaded with "crap," so to speak, and that brings the album down quite a bit to my ears.

 

Summerteeth acoustic, however, is mindblowingly awesome.

 

Zackly!!! I obviously couldn't have said it any better myself.

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For those of us that bought A.M., thought "wow, this is damn cool"...waited for Being There, fell in love... waited for Summerteeth, thought "where are they going with this?"... waited for YHF (wondering all along if it would ever be released) and then waited for AGiB ...Summerteeth makes perfect sense - I wish all Wilco fans (the majority of which probably heard Summerteeth and A.M. sometime after YHF came out) had the opportunity to go back and relive the evolution of the greatest band in the world.

 

I couldn't have said it better myself, though for me you'd have to add "AM: kinda boring, next" and "okay, on 3rd listen, I love Being There". There was once a time I debating driving to Pittsburgh to see them in 1999 after reading a review of a Cleveland show where they opened with Via Chicago, and people were talking and yelling and Jeff got pissed, and fans were speculating "what if this caused them to stop touring"

 

Little did I know in 2006 we'd be talking about Jeff Tweedy hauling off and clocking a drunken stage crasher. Just a little vindication!

 

And for the record, go get some tequila, turn the lights off, and listen to this record flat on your back. Christmas lights optional.

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