Sky Blue Sky - The Grower Thread

[rwilson580]

Every time I listen to this album, I marvel at how organic it all seems. The first half, in particular -- every note is just exactly what it ought to be. Like there was no creative process involved...just taking dictation from some higher power. It's a marvelously structured album, IMO. Not a lot of other albums seem that effortlessly great to me. Rust Never Sleeps, for one. It's got to take a hell of a lot of work to make music SEEM this easy, or this inevitable.

[Maggie]

I did a run through of the entire catalog a couple weeks ago, and I can now officially say that I love SBS. There are a couple songs I'm not crazy about, but the overall experience is beautiful. I now consider it a vital part of the Wilco experience. It's been a gradual process, but I'm glad I gave the album time to grow on me since it's release. This time last year I probably would have labeled it as good - now it's fantastic (or something like that).

 

On the other hand, I think I like Wilco (the album) a little less every time I listen to it.

[choo-choo-charlie]

I am an avid supporter of SBS. Loved it the first time I heard it, and have grown more fond of it over time. Love it on vinyl, love it in the car, love it outdoors. Not the best, but I have no issue with it.

[lamradio]

I loved SBS the day I heard it, and that hasn't changed. I can't say the same for Wilco (the album)

 

Same here. SBS is a brilliant record. It's one of those records that just has that certain flow to it. I think it has to do with the production quality, the flow of the songs, and the overall mood. It just feels like an "album" instead of a collection of songs, if that makes any sense.... WTA feels like a collection of songs, most of them not so good...

[mountain bed]

I'm still not sure about SBS. I'll hunker down and get back to you in around March 2013.

[jakobnicholas]

I like a lot of SBS.

 

It's quite a bit better than Wilco (The Album) for me, but quite a bit behind all else they've done.

 

In my humble, meaningless opinion, SBS would be on the level of Wilco's great records (Being There, Summerteeth, YHF, AGIB), with this set list:

 

1. Either Way

2. You Are My Face

3. Impossible Germany

4. Sky Blue Sky

5. Side with the Seeds

6. One True Vine (this song is simple and beautiful. An absolute crime it didn't make the cut.)

7. Let's Fight (never released...but love the live versions pre-SBS. Beautiful start, then rocks out.)

8. Please Be Patient with Me

9. Leave Me (Like You Found Me)

10. What Light (this song gets unfairly trashed. It's Tweedy's 'Walk Unafraid')

11. On and On and On

 

 

It seems Jeff's basic intent was to make an organic, beautiful-sounding record. For me, Shake if Off and Walken are awkward and jarring songs....especially when mixed in with the beauty that is all around SBS. And Hate if Here combines musical awkwardness with lameness.

 

 

ALSO, I like Leave Me (Like You Found Me) a lot.

[Guest Runaway Jim]

It just feels like an "album" instead of a collection of songs, if that makes any sense....

 

That makes perfect sense, only I disagree with you. Wilco's previous albums, from AM thru AGIB felt like "albums" to me. Especially BT, ST & YHF. Those 3 are perfectly constructed to me. SBS just seems like a collection of songs, most of them not very good songs. I don't like the flow of the album. The transitions from song to song don't work well to me. I don't get the "feel" you fans seem to have. At all.

 

I can't even tell if W(ta) seems like an album or just a collection of songs because most of the songs just aren't good. When I throw W(ta) on now, I listen to Wilco (the song), then skip to One Wing, and turn it off.

[choo-choo-charlie]

I like a lot of SBS.

 

It's quite a bit better than Wilco (The Album) for me, but quite a bit behind all else they've done.

 

In my humble, meaningless opinion, SBS would be on the level of Wilco's great records (Being There, Summerteeth, YHF, AGIB), with this set list:

 

1. Either Way

2. You Are My Face

3. Impossible Germany

4. Sky Blue Sky

5. Side with the Seeds

6. One True Vine (this song is simple and beautiful. An absolute crime it didn't make the cut.)

7. Let's Fight (never released...but love the live versions pre-SBS. Beautiful start, then rocks out.)

8. Please Be Patient with Me

9. Leave Me (Like You Found Me)

10. What Light (this song gets unfairly trashed. It's Tweedy's 'Walk Unafraid')

11. On and On and On

 

 

It seems Jeff's basic intent was to make an organic, beautiful-sounding record. For me, Shake if Off and Walken are awkward and jarring songs....especially when mixed in with the beauty that is all around SBS. And Hate if Here combines musical awkwardness with lameness.

 

 

ALSO, I like Leave Me (Like You Found Me) a lot.

 

*I would make the album swell up and add "The Thanks I Get," "Let's Not Get Carried Away" and "Glad It's Over" from the Heroes soundtrack, which I believe has the same overall production vibe and soulful feel of SBS.

[Guest Speed Racer]

There are few b-sides I don't love, and "One True Vine" is one of them. It never goes anywhere for me, and has practically no melody. Just never gets off the ground for me.

[rhino4evr]

I like a lot of SBS.

 

It's quite a bit better than Wilco (The Album) for me, but quite a bit behind all else they've done.

 

In my humble, meaningless opinion, SBS would be on the level of Wilco's great records (Being There, Summerteeth, YHF, AGIB), with this set list:

 

1. Either Way

2. You Are My Face

3. Impossible Germany

4. Sky Blue Sky

5. Side with the Seeds

6. One True Vine (this song is simple and beautiful. An absolute crime it didn't make the cut.)

7. Let's Fight (never released...but love the live versions pre-SBS. Beautiful start, then rocks out.)

8. Please Be Patient with Me

9. Leave Me (Like You Found Me)

10. What Light (this song gets unfairly trashed. It's Tweedy's 'Walk Unafraid')

11. On and On and On

 

 

It seems Jeff's basic intent was to make an organic, beautiful-sounding record. For me, Shake if Off and Walken are awkward and jarring songs....especially when mixed in with the beauty that is all around SBS. And Hate if Here combines musical awkwardness with lameness.

 

 

ALSO, I like Leave Me (Like You Found Me) a lot.

 

This is so right on. I agree completely...SBS is probably my second favorite album..its also some of Jeff's most emotional lyrics to date. I wish Wilco the album had as much sincerity.

[dave41]

I just became a fan two years ago. Listened to random songs/albums from the website. I bought Being There, got hooked, then bought Sky Blue Sky. You know the rest of the story....... b sides, demos etc.

 

Fell in love immediately with Impossible Germany and What Light. It is one of the few Wilco albums that I skip some tracks.

 

Hate it Here is a pretty fun song for me.

[Sonny]

It took until a few months ago for me to like SBS. Nothing really grabbed me when it came out and I was probably too impatient with it. But after they "redeemed" themselves (to me) with The Album, I gave it more time. It's still probably my least favorite but I can now appreciate it, especially YAMF, Walken, On & On.

[uncool2pillow]

To each their own, but I don't understand how anyone can like W(TA) better than SBS. There are some great songs on W(TA), but SBS just sounds more like a complete album.

[choo-choo-charlie]

I know what you're talking about, and I sometimes wonder if it's the music being made now or just the fact that no music can ever sound as good as it does when you're a kid, and the good music seems so, well, important. Perhaps as we get older and jaded it's just impossible for music to ever sound that good again -- or to be that important. Wow, that's a depressing thought.

 

Anyway, as an example, when I was 19, and "Being There" came out, it felt so vital and important to me in a way that I wonder if that exact same album if released today could have that same impact on me now over ten years later. I honestly couldn't tell you if 19-year-old me would have felt that same way about "Sky Blue Sky." Perhaps. 29-year-old me, though, really enjoys it, but not with that same fervor of which only a younger man is capable.

 

I align myself with this statement 100%

[Sonny]

To each their own, but I don't understand how anyone can like W(TA) better than SBS. There are some great songs on W(TA), but SBS just sounds more like a complete album.

My criterion is which has more songs that I like. Either way, there's no need for you to understand anything except the first part of your comment.

[Ghost of Electricity]

I align myself with this statement 100%

me too.

[lost highway]

It's interesting to see people put SBS up against W(TA) if only because they both come out of the recent Wilco era where for some reason amongst fans it's hipper to dislike the newer records (I don't fully get that). I like to think of what part of the albums I find essential as opposed to just good (or occasionally a weak one).

 

For me SBS= Either Way, YAMF, Impossible Germany, Side With the Seeds

 

W(TA)= Deeper Down, One Wing, Bull Black Nova, You and I, Solitaire, I'll Fight

 

What's exciting is that this is a band that has stayed interesting. I don't think I'll ever have my soul struck by them the way AGIB did, but that's what makes special albums special. In the mean time I'll take Sonny Feeling over My Darlin, Shake it Off over Say You Miss Me, and Everlasting Everything over just about anything on AM. And those are all songs that didn't completely amaze me.

 

Somehow Jeff Tweedy's band seems cooler (if not plain better) in his forty's then when the dude was in his thirty's. This defies all rock and roll logic, and if you're not with me watch a video from the AM tour, you might like it, but you'd be hard pressed to call the band then cooler than it is now.

[caliber66]

It's interesting to see people put SBS up against W(TA) if only because they both come out of the recent Wilco era where for some reason amongst fans it's hipper to dislike the newer records (I don't fully get that). I like to think of what part of the albums I find essential as opposed to just good (or occasionally a weak one).

 

I don't fully get why there has to be a reason why some fans don't like the newer albums other than that they don't like the albums.

[SarahC]

What the hell does it mean to be cool anyway, I mean seriously? At the end of the day who really gives a crap about cool?

For me Wilco's records are about how they make me feel inside emotionally not how they make my status rise or fall against pop culture's current list of likes and dislikes. Do people really listen to music made by people who are cool? I don't get that... at all.

All of Wilco's records are great to me.

[Guest Runaway Jim]

I sometimes wonder... the fact that no music can ever sound as good as it does when you're a kid, and the good music seems so, well, important. Perhaps as we get older and jaded it's just impossible for music to ever sound that good again -- or to be that important.

 

for some reason amongst fans it's hipper to dislike the newer records

 

That is certainly true at times, however not true for me with Wilco. I simply don't like the newer records (SBS, Wta) as much as the old. However, I think Big Wheeled Wagon may have hit the nail on the head with his comment. Like Choo-Choo Charlie and Ghost of Electricity, I align myself with his comments. I was 18 when YHF came out and I ate it up. It was the perfect record for that point in my life, which just so happened to be the point in my life when I needed something to be important. I'll probably never have such a profound reaction to a record again as I did to YHF, just simply because I now have things far more important to me than a record. Which is why I'll probably always name YHF as my favorite record of all time.

 

I'd also say, that I've always been a Wilco fan more for Tweedy's lyrics, than the music. Not that I haven't liked the music, don't get me wrong. But as I've gotten older, I've come to concern myself less and less with lyrics, and simply just dig the music. I still love Tweedy and Dylan, but I'm much more into a band like Phish these days, who often sing nonsensical lyrics over some fucking bad ass music.

[lost highway]

What the hell does it mean to be cool anyway, I mean seriously? At the end of the day who really gives a crap about cool?

For me Wilco's records are about how they make me feel inside emotionally not how they make my status rise or fall against pop culture's current list of likes and dislikes. Do people really listen to music made by people who are cool? I don't get that... at all.

All of Wilco's records are great to me.

 

Being cool has been a basic component of rock and roll since it started. It's part of what makes pop music tick. This is because you can't really just absorb someones song in a vacuum, something about their voice, presentation, and theme create a picture. This is true of Elvis, Johnny Cash, Lou Reed, the Beatles, the Talking Heads and so on (this is also why laying on the floor while the record is playing and just staring at the LP jacket is mesmerizing). Popular Culture's consensus is not quite the same thing, cool is an element whether the economy is measuring it or not.

 

I mean.... I can make an argument how from a purely musical standpoint Impossible Germany is a better piece of music than Box Full of Letters, but that would probably make people more annoyed than just stating the subjective and instinctual perception that it is infinitely cooler. When it comes down to it this is all ridiculous, and hopefully shouldn't bother anyone. I just happen to find it fascinating.

[lost highway]

I'll probably never have such a profound reaction to a record again as I did to YHF, just simply because I now have things far more important to me than a record. Which is why I'll probably always name YHF as my favorite record of all time.

 

This is really interesting, and a little scary. I've heard this story from a lot of people who've passed their mid-twenties. I often wonder if it has already happened to me. I am still interested in new music and get great enjoyment out of new albums coming out from a lot of people. Somehow I don't have it in me to get as obsessed with things. It's kind of sad.

 

I've heard friends say that this is proof that music is declining in quality, but I would argue that it's just the listener. What happens there, I'm still not sure.

[kidsmoke]

I'm 54, and can still be completely bowled off my feet by some albums. So I guess I'm proof that that doesn't necessarily ever go away.

[Golden Smoghead]

I'm 54, and can still be completely bowled off my feet by some albums. So I guess I'm proof that that doesn't necessarily ever go away.

 

While not as well-cured as the right honorable gentleman Kidsmoke, I can attest that at age 31 -- married 11 years and with 3 kids, no less -- some albums still rock my socks. For example last year I finally took advice I'd been getting for awhile and checked out Drive-By Truckers. First time I heard their cover of Warren Zevon's "Play it All Night Long," my balls basically fell out the bottom of my pants.

 

Everyone's different, but I have noticed I'm more drawn to relatively extreme/"pure" music, compared to my younger days. The one thing I have less patience for in music is mellowness, and it's part of why the last Wilco album I really really like is AGIB. I do relate to the previous poster though, YHF was just the perfect album for me at that moment of my life... Early 20s, young family, losing touch with my parents and siblings and entering the work force for the first time... Something about that album just hit the correct reflective note for me at that time. Yet nowadays, I can tell that probably 1/3 of the songs I am only into for nostalgia reasons.

 

So to me, I still get off on the rockier Wilco, or else the early alt-country stuff. But when I'm in a mood where I'm looking for quieter music relative to this band, I find the stripped-down sincerity of Jeff's solo work fits better for me than the chiller full-band songs that have been so prevalent on the last two albums.

[lost highway]

I'm 54, and can still be completely bowled off my feet by some albums. So I guess I'm proof that that doesn't necessarily ever go away.

 

 

While not as well-cured as the right honorable gentleman Kidsmoke, I can attest that at age 31 -- married 11 years and with 3 kids, no less -- some albums still rock my socks. For example last year I finally took advice I'd been getting for awhile and checked out Drive-By Truckers. First time I heard their cover of Warren Zevon's "Play it All Night Long," my balls basically fell out the bottom of my pants.

 

 

 

 

Awesome guys. The enthusiasm is refreshing. I'm 27 right now, and I definitely could stand to have my balls rocked off when I'm 54, or 64 like the McCartney song.