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Hillarious Sky Blue Sky review!


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this one cracked me up and was worth transcribing!. :lol

found it one of the Street mags yesterday (Beat Magazine, who gave glowing reviews of the april shows).. no mention of rehab or Vdubs though

 

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Wilco’s mixed up because the world’s mixed up, I’m mixed up because Wilco’s mixed up and this review’s mixed up because I’m mixed up. Since the outlaw-country-lapsteel-suburban-punk-out known as Uncle Tupelo disbanded and half of the members started a new band called you-know-who, Wilco has mastered many styles rooted in the Americana way: country, rock, pop; from the light to the dark, the ordinary to the extraordinary , the experimental, the dull, the weird, the shit, the good shit. I preferred the good shit. Their last album was the good shit. Sky Blue Sky is kinda shit.

 

“You feel like singing a song and want other people to sing along/then just sing what you feel /don’t let anyone say it’s wrong”. Jeff Tweedy sings, soporifically summing up the modus operandi here. Strictly speaking, Sky Blue Sky contains the largest proportion of crap that Wilco have ever put out. Not since the likes of Casino Queen have there been such turds. The shitty Hate It Here (which sounds like an inferior version of an anthem for a strip show at a strip mall) and Walken, which is just downright stupid, are products of poor taste, no matter how well played. Yet this is Wilco (very important) and there remains some bona fide gold in these sky blue skies.

 

Sky Blue Sky brings a downbeat flavour well suited to bar closing time. Nice and smooth 70s inspired soft rock with dippy lyrics. I’m finding myself inexplicitly getting down to some normal music I haven’t heard in some time. Plus, the production is so godddamn classy it’s like Steely Dan even though it sounds nothing like Steely Dan except for that one nifty breakdown on On and On and On. There’s only been a handful of Wilco lyrics that have meant something to me beyond the song and it was mainly stuff off Being There about growing up and getting high. The rest I could appreciate for their abstract quality, but mostly it was Jeff’s flow. But when the lyrics have lost their ambiguity, you really notice it and that’s what lacks. As Jeff explains in the DVD accompanying the CD, Wilco are now a corporation. A CEO named Jeff and five other stakeholders plus a long time manager who shares his last name with a pizza. Guitarist Nels Cline, expected to break all kinds of masturbation records here, shows admiral Tantric restraint. His guitar playing is wonderful. The first three tracks are terrific. It has its moments though, most of which are mellow, but a moment it is nevertheless and what else do we have these days, but moments

 

- Shane Moritz

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what is all this shit about tweedy's lyrics? so many reviewers seem to be so impartial or condescending toward Jeff's lyrics. this is ridiculous. Jeff's words have always been one of if not THE best thing about Wilco. IATTBYH, Via Chicago, Misunderstood, She's a Jar, Jesus Etc. You can't look at the words in these songs and dismiss Jeff as a songwriter.

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"I have been in the service of His Majesty's Navy for a great many years and I have never heard of an Admiral Tantric Restraint. Sounds vaguely French to me." - The Admiral, The Admiralty

 

gw_jellicoe_02.jpg

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The first paragraph is great, this reviewer knows his stuff.

 

Too funny, the band should post that first paragraph on the front page of their website, for new fans, not familiar with their stuff - as a bit of a history lesson.

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Too funny, the band should post that first paragraph on the front page of their website, for new fans, not familiar with their stuff - as a bit of a history lesson.

 

I agree that would be hilarious!

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what is all this shit about tweedy's lyrics? so many reviewers seem to be so impartial or condescending toward Jeff's lyrics. this is ridiculous. Jeff's words have always been one of if not THE best thing about Wilco. IATTBYH, Via Chicago, Misunderstood, She's a Jar, Jesus Etc. You can't look at the words in these songs and dismiss Jeff as a songwriter.

Funny that the reviewer wouldn't take into account the lyrics of a bunch of songs that aren't on Sky Blue Sky for his review of Sky Blue Sky.

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  • 2 months later...

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