Wilco's relevance.

[you ever seen a ghost?]

>I know it's off topic, but hell no, Dylan also made "John Wesley Harding," "Nashville Skyline," and "The Basement Tapes" (though it's not really an official album) to just name a few after his surreal world era.

 

and of course "Love & Theft" and Modern Times. anyway, it's not really off-topic any longer!

 

-justin

[ianshaw]

I've yet to have a big breakthrough moment with either Love & Theft or Modern Times. To me, they're both good modern Dylan (better than a lot of other things, but not essential listening). I think Time Out of Mind is a masterpiece of writing though. I come back to some of those songs - particularly "Not Dark Yet" again and again.

 

Just that any recording artist could release work over the span of 40 years and have people discussing the artistic impact is impressive to me.

 

To be on topic - I think the question is, will Wilco still be discussed in these terms in 40 years?

 

to which all I think I can offer is . . . damned if I know.

 

Ian

[you ever seen a ghost?]

Bob said himself that Time Out Of Mind kinda flowed together and sounded like the same song...which is my main beef with it too. he also had problems with Lanois' production...even though he'd used him before on Oh Mercy. anyway, producing L & T and MT (and a handful of other misc. tracks) himself under the moniker Jack Frost was a great decision on his part. while i enjoy TOOM, i don't like it nearly as much as the other two. Dylan said that if there were to be any sort of trilogy, it would start at L & T and not at TOOM, but i'd always considered them as essentially different anyway.

 

>will Wilco still be discussed in these terms in 40 years?

 

i truly do. like i said, wait for 20 years, until the deluxe reissues of the albums and Bootleg Series and concert releases. then you'll see their albums ever further up on the "best albums of all time" lists.

 

-justin

[phish907]

The fact that Wilco doesn't explore the same sounds album after album makes them revelant period. Although I love YHF, I would no longer be a fan if the followup was YHF part II under another name. I get excited about each new release because I know it is gonna be a different approach. I love watching the posts grow on this board when a new song is played live, until it evolves into what it will become on the studio effort. With all do respect to Spoon and other bands mentioned in the original post, those bands could,t hold Wilcos' jock on their best day. Each release doesn't have to be a sonic experiment. Actually, I have heard Jeff qouted as saying that the songs on SBS are more complicated to play stripped down acoustic than YHF or Ghost. Even though the songs in principle are simple the arrangements show off a complicated skilled band at their height. Now that to me is revelant.