Sky Blue Sky - The Grower Thread

[Atticus]

The problem is, you're always going to have people who like the Wilco album, because yes, there are those people who would buy an album that consisted of recordings of Jeff farting in an empty grain elevator while John and Glenn keep the rhythm on a rubber band and an old washing machine body. But there are also people who will recognize this album for what it is: an honest effort that's maybe not going to be everybody's cup of tea. For everyone who's disappointed (as I am, to an extent) that this is not a very "exciting" album, there will be someone who is totally in love with the pace and arrangement. Just because it's not what you were expecting doesn't mean it's not a good album. You may not ever like it, and that's okay. But it doesn't mean that people that do are deceiving themselves. They just enjoy something you don't.

 

mancrush

[BigWheeledWagon]

I'm a little surprised at the sentiment out there that those of us who like "Sky Blue Sky": 1) are just deluding ourselves or 2) only like it because we would like anything Jeff does, even if he were intentionally trying to make something that we wouldn't like (I wonder if these same folks enjoyed the "drone" on LTYT). I was underwhelmed with "AGIB," but I certainly never felt that the people who loved it were somehow wrong. I just thought that they had different tastes than I did -- the same way I feel about those that don't like "Sky Blue Sky." On a side note, it's funny how some of those that prefer the "YHF" era now lament the shift in direction. I remember when there were people lamenting the change in direction from the "alt-country" sound , and "YHF" (or "Summerteeth") supporters were on the opposite side of the argument from where they are now. Personally, I've enjoyed the various shifts in direction from the band (though, as I said, "AGIB" was not as strong for me).

 

I'm also a little surprised that people who loved previous Wilco albums but weren't interested in Via Chicago would now join the board just to post about how they dislike this album. Then again, at least it shows they still have an interest in Wilco despite their disappointment; otherwise, I would think they wouldn't bother at all. Hey, whatever brings folks to the table is good, I guess.

[EL the Famous]

Two words for you all...THREE DOG NIGHT.

[uncle wilco]

i think i've finally figured out what box to put SBS in. after thinking about my history as a wilco fan, i finally think i've finally put things in perspective, at least for me. here's my thoughts:

 

i loved AM when it came out [still do]. then BT came out and i was in heaven [wilco's first classic album]. then came YHF. although it scattered many of the alt-country faithful, it was such a great album [an all-time classic to me], it made many old fans stick around [including me] to see what they would do next. they follow that with AGIB and by then i think the bar had been set too high. AGIB had enough songs to keep the interest, but imo the slide was on in alot of people's minds [mine included]. the cracks were showing and many on this board and elsewhere were saying that the live versions of songs were better than what showed up on the album. KT comes out and everybody is again reminded what a kick ass live band wilco is...because they are. the new lineup is the best collection of talent wilco has ever seen and we are all imagining what an amazing album they will make. new songs eventually make their way into the set...and this is where i'm only going to speak for myself...

 

i had initially considered AGIB as a big disappointment. i expected it to take on more of the traits of YHF and expand on it. that's not what we got. it was the first album they made that i didn't immediately take to. it did grow on me quite a bit and their appearances on conan and letterman were great. the austin city limits performance was freakin' incredible..seeing them perform these songs sold me. i finally got it. then eventually new songs entered the setlist and then i started to feel sick to my stomach. my favorite band was playing new songs i didn't care for at all. WTF?! how dare they start playing stuff i didn't like. you have to understand that i've been so identified with this band for so long going all the way back to tupelo, i took it personal. i heard the SBS leak and immediately started getting pissed off because of my built up bias from the live songs i had heard. BEING THERE, my ass! this wasn't AM, ST or YHF! my initial reaction clouded my initial judgement and i stopped listening to it in disgust.

 

today, i started listening to it again with my head cleared and a fresh perspective. it's SBS, nothing more, nothing less. it shouldn't be compared to previous efforts. it's different, it's mellow, it's jazzy, it's very soulful and very 70's. if you take it on it's own merits and forget what came before, it's pretty damn good. i'm still forming my overall opinion of the album but what i'm coming to realize is it's not really a wilco record in the classic sense. it's the current album by the band called wilco, but it's different and not a continuation of their previous body of work. it's a new start and a new band imo. KT wrapped up phase one of the band and SBS is starting phase two. it's a looser, more singer-songwriter oriented band. they can throw in a little bit of this, a bit of that just because they can. they have torn down any expectations and are now playing whatever the hell they want...like it or not. they are the new wilco and if you don't like the record, see them live and they will hit you over the head with it until they win you over. at least, i hope that's what happens when i finally get to see them on this tour. it's the expectations that have jaded me. i'm trying to break free of that and so far, so good.

[blindgonzo]

i couldn't have said it better, so I won't!

[danelectro]

One thing is for sure, everybody has different ears and perceives what they hear in different ways. The fan reviews for SBS have been all over the map. Not all that surprising since each fan defines Wilco in a different way. It's not like I need to understand every musical move they make however it helps me that I still think of Wilco as the cool band I heard in 1995. Each successive album has been different from it's predecessor but it always sounds like Wilco. It shouldn't matter that it doesn't adhere to each individual fans vision of the direction they thought the band would take. Nobody should be let down that it didn't go according to their own personal plan. If it was predictable it wouldn't be as interesting. I'm glad Wilco doesn't make the same record over and over. Are they on the snide, fuck no, SBS is little pieces of their entire recorded works plus the kitchen sink. Am I crabby that included some jazzy guitar runs, hell no. It impresses the shit out of me that they are not only that bold but that they did it well. Personally I don't think they can top SBS but I'm sure they will. That's whats consistant about Wilco, they always have a trick up their sleeve.

[Moonblade]

i'm coming to realize is it's not really a wilco record in the classic sense. it's the current album by the band called wilco, but it's different and not a continuation of their previous body of work.

 

Personally I see it in the opposite way.... I see SBS as being the essence of Wilco that has always been there, finally fully exposed. As much as I love the layers, sounds, bloops and bleeps of YHF, which is arguably my favourite Wilco album, it's the Tweedy "comfort songs" that get me the most... Far far away, Bob Dylan's Beard, Jesus Etc, Roses Bloom Again, most of Mermaid's Ave, etc... by comfort songs I mean the ones you can imaging Tweedy playing for you with his acoustic guitar in your living room. BT and MA1&2 had many. ST, which I like, didn't have much in terms of this style of songs... YHF did but many of them were masked and disguised, to great effect.... AGIB (love/hate album for me) didn't have any comfort songs for me... but SBS is the pure essence of these Tweedy comfort songs (sorry to keep using that phrase, but it's the only way I can think to try to describe the type of song I'm talking about), with the addition of amazing guitar which doesn't get in the way but elevates them. There is some experimental craziness scattered throughout the album, fast switching between styles (e.g. shake it off), but mostly, to me, it is just Tweedy singing the type of songs that I have always loved from him, and classic ones at that... the song SBS is a perfect example, it's pure Tweedy, would fit alongside with anyting on Mermaid Ave, but at the same time it's one of the best songs he's ever written imo.

[caliber66]

Two words for you all...THREE DOG NIGHT.

That's five words.

[uncle wilco]

i cue'd up SBS for the morning drive today and it went right to What Light. i was digging it and was actually listening intently to the lyrics and these lines hit me.

 

"If you feel like singin' a song

And you want other people to sing along

Just sing what you feel

Don't let anyone tell you it's wrong

 

And if you're trying to paint a picture

But you're not sure what colors belong

Just paint what you feel

Don't let anyone tell you it's wrong"

 

...and then the battery went out on my mp3 player. first of all...that was freakin' weird.

 

it's like jeff was sending me a message regarding his feelings on the subject of Sky Blue Sky. i just want to let jeff know, that the message was received. and i'm also discovering that there is some real meaning behind these lyrics. once you get past the music and the understated vocal delivery, the lyrics are starting to make sense and resonate. i think i'm seeing the light.

 

"If you think you might need somebody

To pick you up when you drag

Don't lose sight of yourself

Don't let anyone change your bag

 

And if the whole world is singing your songs

And your painting have all been hung

Just remember what was your

Is everyone's from now on

 

And that's not wrong or right

But you can struggle with it all you like

You don't have to get uptight"

 

that's a pretty damn good song right there. i'm done being a critic now. i'm just going to enjoy it.

[j4lackey]

i cue'd up SBS for the morning drive today and it went right to What Light. i was digging it and was actually listening intently to the lyrics and these lines hit me.

 

"If you feel like singin' a song

And you want other people to sing along

Just sing what you feel

Don't let anyone tell you it's wrong

 

And if you're trying to paint a picture

But you're not sure what colors belong

Just paint what you feel

Don't let anyone tell you it's wrong"

 

...and then the battery went out on my mp3 player. first of all...that was freakin' weird.

 

i't like jeff was sending me a message regarding his feelings on the subject of Sky Blue Sky. i just want to let jeff know, that i the message was received. and i'm also discovering that there is some real meaning behind these lyrics. once you get past the music and the understated vocal delivery, the lyrics are starting to make sense and resonate. i think i'm seeing the light.

 

"If you think you might need somebody

To pick you up when you drag

Don't lose sight of yourself

Don't let anyone change your bag

 

And if the whole world is singing your songs

And your painting have all been hung

Just remember what was your

Is everyone's from now on

 

And that's not wrong or right

But you can struggle with it all you like

You don't have to get uptight"

 

that's a pretty damn good song right there. i'm done being a critic now. i'm just going to enjoy it.

Once more, UW, nice thread.

[tweedfolds]

ISO: Jeff farting in an empty grain elevator Chicago 3/13/07.

Will Do a B and P.

 

[quarter23cd]

I see SBS as being the essence of Wilco that has always been there, finally fully exposed.

I think there's a lot of truth to this. Wilco has gone through a lot of changes, musically, although I think a lot of it has actually been mostly on the surface--the songs underneath haven't changed as much as it sometimes seems.

 

I was one of the ones who jumped ship with Summerteeth. I was in a different place, musically, than the band was at that time and when I pressed play and heard the layered vocals and Jay's keyboard-army I quickly put it back in its case and lamented the fact that my previously-favorite band had gone a direction I didn't care to follow. At all. (sounds a little like some of the SBS comments I've heard recently)

 

In some ways that year or two off were a great thing to happen to me because when I came back to Wilco during the buildup to YHF it was with probably a more open attitude. I went into it aware that I wasn't going to like everything the band did and it didn't make sense for me to wish the band would make a certain type of album, but I was curious about the music they were making. Somewhere in the process of getting into YHF, I also went back and reconnected with Summerteeth and was able to better understand what they were trying to do. And I've been back on the Wilco wagon ever since.

 

SBS has been a breath of fresh air from my listens so far. I don't like everything about it, but it feels like the band crawling out from under the burden of certain expectations that the last couple albums have raised. Jeff's struggles with his migraines and such were well-documented in the movie and his rehab stint was the focus of most AGIB reviews I read--and there's a certain "tortured-artist" mystique that has developed around Jeff that I'm sure he'd be more than happy to shed. I don't know if this album with its straightforward songs is a rebirth, exactly, but it is kind of nice to see them emerge from blasts of static and dense poetic metaphors and just do something it seems like they really enjoyed making. (put me in the "right album at the right time" category, I guess)

[Mr. Heartbreak]

SBS has been a breath of fresh air from my listens so far. I don't like everything about it, but it feels like the band crawling out from under the burden of certain expectations that the last couple albums have raised. Jeff's struggles with his migraines and such were well-documented in the movie and his rehab stint was the focus of most AGIB reviews I read--and there's a certain "tortured-artist" mystique that has developed around Jeff that I'm sure he'd be more than happy to shed. I don't know if this album with its straightforward songs is a rebirth, exactly, but it is kind of nice to see them emerge from blasts of static and dense poetic metaphors and just do something it seems like they really enjoyed making.

This last paragraph sums up my sentiments exactly, and though I don't like absolutely everything about SBS either, I like it a lot better than AGIB.

To me a "bad" Wilco record would have been if they took the YHF>AGIB direction to its logical conclusion: long segments of static-y noise punctuated with barely-whispered vocals.

[imsjry]

Just as a matter of interest..

what would be considered a bad Wilco album? Or what would have disappointed people here?

 

Wilco have been consistenlty brilliant for as long as I can remember, and in the time that I have been a fan this is the first time that I have felt disappointed..I'm surprised that there are only a handful of people out there who feel the same

 

A "bad" Wilco disc for me would have been another sonic collage, YHF-type disc. As much as I liked it because it was SO different, it isn't what Wilco is all about for me. It really surprises me to think there are more fans of that record than say, Being There or AM.

 

I think SBS is the truest disc they have done since Being There. And "On and On" is the best closing track of any Wilco CD, hands down!

[jethro]

I think SBS is the truest disc they have done since Being There.

This sounds like bullshit, sorry. I don't think Jeff was being any more fake then than he is now, those records just represented what he was interested in then. It's not like anyone had him in a headlock and was forcing him to listen to the Conet Project. That's what was true to Jeff Tweedy circa 2001.

 

I would say that this is the most unadorned his songs have been in a while, and that's a good thing. You know a song like Far, Far Away was probably pretty close to how he brought it to the studio and so is a song like Sky Blue Sky or Please Be Patient. I think the band is better when it's more Jeff and less of the other Wilcos; art by committee just isn't ever a very good idea.

 

And "On and On" is the best closing track of any Wilco CD, hands down!

Not only no, but hell no. Worst closer for me, ever. And Either Way pulls down the worst opener crown. The day I deleted them was the day that I started to appreciate how good the record really was.

[willywoody]

about my third sober listen through the album now and i'm digging it. pretty mellow but it could take off live. these guys are so freakin' talented. never when i picked up a.m. back in the 90's would i think jeff would have taken me for such a great ride.

 

before i get back to imitating glenn's drum rolls on my belly for my infant daughter's amusement, has anyone heard if they might do a surround release for this album. dualdisc, sacd or dvd-a? also any news on a vinyl release?

[noyes]

its a good album but Wilco have the potential to do so much better. AGIB isn't even my fav album but the songs on there seem so much better than most of these new tracks. fuller and packed with an instant musical uppercut.

my favorite song is You Are My Face.

the only song, more so than Impossible Germany actually, that I think is up to par with their recent and even older songs.

it sounds like a marriage between She's A Jar (the verses) and At Least That's What You Said (at 1:30)

 

3:21 - 3:25 on Impossible Germany is incredibly beautiful. such a little moment but so sweet and sad. and then they all come in and.. yeah. goodness.

 

but who knows. maybe I'll come home one day feeling bummy and I'll put this on and it'll all make sense but I want to be excited a bit more next time.

 

good album for sure though

has definitely grown on me great so far.

[mikeo]

OK I am in my second real listen.

 

I can't comment on the reasons why or what can and can not be done.

 

I can comment on my heart's reaction. I hear honesty. I hear solid straight forward song writing. Its mellow for sure. I will be honest. I LOVE MELLOW!!!! This is something I will turn to more and more.

 

No doubt in my mind this is great album.

[dark heat]

I think I can say that it's my second favorite Wilco right now. "You Are My Face" has really grown on me since first listen, it's probably my favorite on the album now, and without question one of the best things they've ever done.

[mpolak21]

Yeah I am with everyone on the love for You Are My Face it's the perfect marriage of two of my favorite Tweedy cuts, Muzzle of Bees (which might be my favorite song ever) and Loose Fur's Wreckroom. It's a stand out for me and I can't get enough of Sky Blue Sky and Please Be Patient With Me. Hate it Here is starting to grow on me, and the album as a whole is quite pleasing to me. While my favorite stuff of theirs is probably always going to be more in the vein of YHF, Ghost, More Like The Moon EP, and The Wilco Book, I still appreciate the direction on SBS and I'm looking forward to seeing these songs grow and evolve in a live setting. It'll be interesting to see this lineup's sound continue to evolve in the future as well, as from the looks of things no one seems to be ready to go anywhere, anytime soon, but I thought that in 2003 too.

 

--Mike

[noyes]

I think I can say that it's my second favorite Wilco right now. "You Are My Face" has really grown on me since first listen, it's probably my favorite on the album now, and without question one of the best things they've ever done.

 

without a doubt.

[starbuck]

Just as a matter of interest..

what would be considered a bad Wilco album? Or what would have disappointed people here?

 

Wilco have been consistenlty brilliant for as long as I can remember, and in the time that I have been a fan this is the first time that I have felt disappointed..I'm surprised that there are only a handful of people out there who feel the same

 

So say we all.

 

I'm actually having a hard time putting it on to listen to again, I hate being reminded of the dissapointment.

I'm still a huge Wilco fan, seen them many times live and traveled all over to see them. But frakkin A, these songs just don't cut it. I too am surprised that there aren't more disappointed fans out there, does everyone just blindly accept everything they do? hmm. Actually, with me, maybe I OD'd on their last few tours and nothing really could've topped that, maybe anything would've been a letdown.

[cryptique]

So say we all.

 

I'm actually having a hard time putting it on to listen to again, I hate being reminded of the dissapointment.

I'm still a huge Wilco fan, seen them many times live and traveled all over to see them. But frakkin A, these songs just don't cut it. I too am surprised that there aren't more disappointed fans out there, does everyone just blindly accept everything they do? hmm. Actually, with me, maybe I OD'd on their last few tours and nothing really could've topped that, maybe anything would've been a letdown.

Wait. So you're saying that anyone who likes this album just "blindly accept" everything Wilco does? Get real.

 

Just because you don't enjoy the album doesn't mean others shouldn't. Yours is a disturbingly arrogant view.

 

So you don't like the album. Fine. Don't buy it. Just don't insult those of us who do.

[Guest Jules]

Wait. So you're saying that anyone who likes this album just "blindly accept" everything Wilco does? Get real.

 

Just because you don't enjoy the album doesn't mean others shouldn't. Yours is a disturbingly arrogant view.

 

So you don't like the album. Fine. Don't buy it. Just don't insult those of us who do.

what he said

[Beltmann]

I'm actually having a hard time putting it on to listen to again, I hate being reminded of the dissapointment.

I'm still a huge Wilco fan, seen them many times live and traveled all over to see them. But frakkin A, these songs just don't cut it. I too am surprised that there aren't more disappointed fans out there, does everyone just blindly accept everything they do? hmm. Actually, with me, maybe I OD'd on their last few tours and nothing really could've topped that, maybe anything would've been a letdown.

The problem is, you're always going to have people who like the Wilco album, because yes, there are those people who would buy an album that consisted of recordings of Jeff farting in an empty grain elevator while John and Glenn keep the rhythm on a rubber band and an old washing machine body. But there are also people who will recognize this album for what it is: an honest effort that's maybe not going to be everybody's cup of tea. For everyone who's disappointed (as I am, to an extent) that this is not a very "exciting" album, there will be someone who is totally in love with the pace and arrangement. Just because it's not what you were expecting doesn't mean it's not a good album. You may not ever like it, and that's okay. But it doesn't mean that people that do are deceiving themselves. They just enjoy something you don't.