MAGNET Magazine's list of the five most overrated and five most underrated Wilco songs

[Hoodoo Man]

I don't really give a rat's ass how Wilco's songs are rated, nor do I care what this cat considers over or under rated; what bothers me is that we fell for this blatant con by MAGNET to get us to hit their website. I feel rather foolish. So foolish that I might grace some of Wilco's undeserving, less intellectual fodder, i.e. HMD, Box of Letters, with my discriminating, uber hip listening time.

[nodep5]

You know Magnet isn't a bad magazine and once again I think lists are fun for the exact reason of us all getting worked up. But whoever mentioned Lester Bangs is spot on. What I have read of Lester Bangs, even though I usually don't care for bands he wrote about like MC5 or the Velvets, I love how he can write about music without writing about music. Music journalism today is awful. My wife likes to read record reviews in Paste or Uncut and she laughs at the pseudo intellectual crap that passes for music critique. I would rather have a two word review stating "this sucks" than read about the contrast between devotion and despair and on and on about crap the musician never intended in the first place. There are only so many ways to spell it out and people are trying way to hard. So yeah this list was kind of nice.

[Winston Legthigh]

Well, I'm not a huge fan of his voice either, but for me it's more indifference than hatred.

exactly. I don't really geev sheet.

[stagerug]

I figure the goal of this thread was to get people to click on the links to the magazine. So, it is spam in a way.

 

I came across this thread late, but I agree with Analogman implicitly, this was the first thing that popped into my head when i saw it. Not that I am a VC veteran by any means, but considering it was his FIRST POST and his screen name is the name of the magazine, chances are trending early toward spaminess.

 

So I guess I will say WELCOME. But I wouldn't count on any more posts from this member that don't have links directly to their magazine.

 

On the subject at hand, and maybe substituting under and over-rated with overall popularity and usage in the bands live sets, I PERSONALLY would like to see more of songs like "Panthers" and "The Unwelcome Guest" played more and a maybe a little less of "Shot in The Arm" and...yes...sorry..."Hate It Here"...I love this song but I hear it almost every time I see the band these days, as well as he is playing it solo now too.

 

Just one man's opinion.

[radiokills]

Not terribly controversial

[Guest Jules]

I PERSONALLY would like to see more of songs like "Panthers" and "The Unwelcome Guest" played more and a maybe a little less of "Shot in The Arm" and...yes...sorry..."Hate It Here"...I love this song but I hear it almost every time I see the band these days, as well as he is playing it solo now too.

I love the Unwelcome Guest, but they would need Mr. Bragg for that one.

 

There are plenty of threads on setlist desires. I'm sure they'll pop up again soon.

[Theremin]

What Light is pretty bad indeed though, but I never felt it was higly rated.

[stagerug]

Yeah, "What Light" definitely doesn't seem to have been rated highly enough to be over-rated. I have to say, even though it has shades of the self-help section of your local book store...I don't hate it.

[dondoboy]

Maybe by over-rated they meant "What Light" was over played. Which it was.

[ThisIsNowhere]

I like A.M. and I like Heavy Metal Drummer. I must not be a true Wilco fan.

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

I never really understood the point of these list articles, even though they're so trendy these days. If you're digging deeply into a band's catalog, your audience is mostly people who're already familiar with that catalog, unless you're doing something to try to win new listeners over, which this piece doesn't seem to. Basically, they all just come out sounding like "songs I like and songs I don't," and the writer usually comes off as whiny. I don't strongly disagree with any of the choices on either list, but sweeping generalizations and exaggerations aren't helping (I've always thought Impossible Germany is a little too long, but not like "Hey, I'm going to go get another beer and some nachos" too long). What's especially odd to me is that Heavy Metal Drummer is probably the Wilco song that's most popular among people I know who aren't really that in to Wilco. Personally, I love it and think it's a fun tune, but I don't think I'd call it underrated.

 

The only other thing I remember ever reading in Magnet was a really fantastic interview with Carla Bozulich last summer. When I read it, it made me wonder if this was a magazine I should be paying more attention to. This made me realize that it's another mediocre music magazine that happened to publish a really fantastic interview with Carla Bozulich.

[ThisIsNowhere]

Honestly I don't like listening to What Light on its own, but I think it fits together nicely on Sky Blue Sky. When you listen to it while listening to the entire album, it's a great song.

[Theremin]

To me it's only use in the context of the CD seems to be making 'On and On and On' an even more magnificent closer.

[Moe_Syzlak]

To me it's only use in the context of the CD seems to be making 'On and On and On' an even more magnificent closer.

Or to be the closer when you just can't stomach On & On & On.

[solace]

any writer who thinks 'Shot In The Arm' is underrated is clearly a Wilco n00b

 

that song is one of Wilco's most celebrated, especially live.

 

as for Bon Iver, whether or not anyone in this thread likes him or not, he acts like it's a shock that people on a Wilco board dig artists like him and Will Oldham (esp the latter).

 

Magnet is a great magazine, but their online stuff lately (that whole Wrens shit) has been tabloid-esque stuff just to generate hits

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

[stagerug]

[Gobias Industries]

Didn't agree with a single entry on the Overrated list, but whatever. These sorts of lists don't really bother me anymore, as I only listen to albums and the song in the album context matters more than the song, period.

[HungryHippo]

I like A.M. and I like Heavy Metal Drummer. I must not be a true Wilco fan.

if you garner weird looks from strangers and dress like Willy Wonka, you might be a true Wilco fan!

[TheMaker]

Via Chicago is easily the most overrated Wilco song, but that`s about the only aspect of the list I agree with. Meh, indeed.

[yermom]

I don't get how Via Chicago could be over rated? It's a great song, especially live. I would call it "over rated" if we were all petitioning to have it replace the national anthem or something, but I haven't seen it get any more credit than it's completely due.

[isadorah]

i once heard that lists in publications reflects a lack of editorial budgets and not so skilled writers. and am i the only one completely annoyed that an old picture of wilco was used. i mean the "article" was written in 2009 and songs with the current line-up were mentioned, so ummmm, at least post a new picture. they are fairly easy to come by, just go to the management website for the band and download the press images. *sigh* out of date picture and poor list making editorial content, YUK.

 

--

ps: before bigshoulders hops in here and discloses my secret, i'll rat myself out, i don't like son volt. it is not because of some rivalry or jeff is better than jay kind of thing, i just don't like jay's voice. and i have tried and tried. it just doesn't do it for me. there i said it. heckle and hecklesome more, kevin gives me shit about it all the time. i can take it.

[Doug C]

I mentioned the ridiculous photo, among other things, in my comment after the article.

[Moss]

i once heard that lists in publications reflects a lack of editorial budgets and not so skilled writers. and am i the only one completely annoyed that an old picture of wilco was used. i mean the "article" was written in 2009 and songs with the current line-up were mentioned, so ummmm, at least post a new picture. they are fairly easy to come by, just go to the management website for the band and download the press images. *sigh* out of date picture and poor list making editorial content, YUK.

 

--

ps: before bigshoulders hops in here and discloses my secret, i'll rat myself out, i don't like son volt. it is not because of some rivalry or jeff is better than jay kind of thing, i just don't like jay's voice. and i have tried and tried. it just doesn't do it for me. there i said it. heckle and hecklesome more, kevin gives me shit about it all the time. i can take it.

 

I love Son Volt but I can totally see how someone would not appreciate Jay's voice.

[Guest Gym Teacher Man]

I love Son Volt but I can totally see how someone would not appreciate Jay's voice.

 

Me too. Especially since I was one of those people who couldn't stand Jay's voice at first. But all of a sudden, I started to realize his voice truly is "timeless" as some have said. Wish I could sing like that man.