Jump to content

Should Wilco call it quits?


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 100
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I'm not going to read this whole thread but it does seem very ridiculous. Not every album can be fantastic and not many artist continually put out their best work album after album. Great artists such as Dylan, Clapton, Neil Young and many more have had dry spells in their careers. Not that I think this applies to Wilco, but it certainly doesn't mean that a band should stop being creative just because they have made what is perceived at one time to be their best album and the next few don't receive the same critical acclaim.

 

On top of all that Wilco is raging in their live shows right now.

Link to post
Share on other sites

A Ghost Is Born is my favorite Wilco album and I think Sky Blue Sky is perfectly enjoyable, so the premise of this thread doesn't hold up for me.

 

 

just gotta stick with artists. if you like em enough, you can appreciate whatever they do. if not, then you get pissed off about their new release (ryan adams.)

 

I thought of Ryan Adams when I started reading this thread. Cardinology may be the first album that made me angry due to the artist's declining quality of output.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest kechefs

As a long time lurker who loves Wilco I felt I needed to respond to this. Are you insane? SBS was one of the best albums of 2007. The new album (diver down as Jeff stated in Burlington) will be the best album of the summer!!!!!!

Link to post
Share on other sites

A bad Wilco album is still better than a great (insert artist here) album. Wilco is a part of my family and we enjoy every single song on every album. It'll be a sad day if they ever break up but if they do we'll be eagerly awaiting all of the subsequent solo albums. Talk hard Jeff!!

Link to post
Share on other sites
Before you all impale me, hear me out:

 

1. The general consensus is that AGIB is not quite as good as YHF, and SBS is not quite as good as AGIB. (personally I agree)

 

2. Not everything can be a masterpiece (as is YHF) and AGIB is still a very good record. SBS is a good record taken on its own account BUT it does represent a 3-record-long downward trend.

 

3. As far as the new record is concerned there are several possibilities: a. the trend continues with something not as good as SBS b. something about equal to SBS c. something better than SBS but not another masterpiece, or d. another masterpiece.

 

I would suggest that if the new album is indeed choice "a." Wilco should break up before ruining their legacy completely. If it is "b." the same would probably hold true. If it is "d." then they should break up because it's better, as the old cliche goes, to quit while you're ahead. Leaving "c." which is in my humble opinion the only way they can continue without losing...well, something. My interest at least.

 

I just think that they've made a damn a good run of it thus far and would hate to see my favorite band slip into mediocrity. It would cheapen their legacy.

I don't personally agree with any of your points. (I put AGIB and ST about YHF, you could add BT in there most days too. Haven't noticed a downward trend. And they can just make a good album, like their others in the fact that they're really hard to compare. I need them all. Did you know that in addition to being able to battle each other, Wilco albums can also be listened to?)

 

And I don't see why in the world you would want a band to quit for any reason unless you're in it. When a band I like stops making albums that I like, I stop buying them.

 

Maybe you should join Wilco. Then you can save them from themselves...

Link to post
Share on other sites
I just think that they've made a damn a good run of it thus far and would hate to see my favorite band slip into mediocrity. It would cheapen their legacy.

 

They've earned the right to quit whenever they want, but I understand your points. But they've got to show me that there still isn't the possibility of them ever putting out another great record again or start sucking live before I really get bent out of shape, and I've been pretty uninterested unfairly judgmental of post-AGIB Wilco. But don't pick up that shovel quite yet.

 

--Mike.

 

Edited after WTA Leak.

Link to post
Share on other sites
As a long time lurker who loves Wilco I felt I needed to respond to this. Are you insane? SBS was one of the best albums of 2007. The new album (diver down as Jeff stated in Burlington) will be the best album of the summer!!!!!!

ALbum art:

DiverDown.jpg

Link to post
Share on other sites
ALbum art:

DiverDown.jpg

 

Is Tweedy going to be replaced by Sammy Haggar?

 

As I've given this some thought, regardless of whether or not there's a drop off in quality in Wilco's work it's still not going to make me like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot any less. When I listen to Remain In Light, my enjoyment of it isn't affected by the lesser albums the Talking Heads made late in their career. "Ebony and Ivory" doesn't put a cramp in "The Fool on The Hill." No one's docking points off Pet Sounds for "Kokomo."

 

It'd be nice if every band could release nothing but great albums, but it's very rare that there isn't a slight decline in a band's catalog. If you don't count Squeeze (which you shouldn't), The Velvets certainly did it, but they only put out four albums, there aren't a lot of bands/artists with more than five records though that have never had at least a small decline in quality with a record or two. Hell, even The Beatles' Let it Be, while not a bad record, isn't quite on par with the rest of their work. So, listen to a band's good albums, ignore the rest, and keep hoping eventually they'll get the magic back. But until Tweedy is replaced by Haggar who is then replaced by Gary Charone, I think the answer to this question is "no, but keeping Bennett and O'Rourke on the speed dial in the loft isn't a bad idea."

 

--Mike

Link to post
Share on other sites

SBS is a good record- I never said i didn't like it. And yes, as someone stated a few posts back the worst album by Wilco is better than the best album by most people out there.

 

But recently Tweedy's take on Dylan's "A Simple twist of Fate" came up on the shuffle on my ipod andi was struck at how intense and powerful the sparse arrangement was. Undoubtedly Tweedy has some good material left in him, I'm just not sure whether the Wilco machine is the best platform for him to deliver the best material he could.

 

At least to my ears, because i this is all subjective.

Link to post
Share on other sites
no thanks. all of you folks would compare me negatively with every former member of the band, and i would be hated even more on this board than i am now. then i would get fired, and be loved

Ah, nobody hates ya, some of us think maybe you need to clean your ears out.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...

×
×
  • Create New...