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Wilco (The Album Discussion II) w/ spoilers


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I am surprised by the consistent lack of love for Country Disappeared. I can't that song and melody out of my head. Anyway, I loved SBS and the lack of love for it or this song won't stop me.

 

Worst song on the album for me. I agree with the person who said it sounds like an SBS outtake. Also agree with the person who said it sounds like a weak version of the "Comment" song from KT.

 

It's just boring to me- no melody, no hooks, nothing musically interesting about it- to me.

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Worst song on the album for me. I agree with the person who said it sounds like an SBS outtake. Also agree with the person who said it sounds like a weak version of the "Comment" song from KT.

 

It's just boring to me- no melody, no hooks, nothing musically interesting about it- to me.

 

How does it have no melody? I've had that melody stuck in my head since they debuted it live.

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How does it have no melody? I've had that melody stuck in my head since they debuted it live.

 

I also can't get the melody out of my head. However, that doesn't mean that others hear it the same way we do. I actually find it quite interesting how everyone's tastes are so completely different with this album. Some say it sounds like a SBS outtake. I personally don’t hear that connection, at all. Also, a couple people have said it's their least favorite song on the album. For me, right now, I would consider it to be in my top 3. :yes It’s one of a couple tracks I keep coming back to. We just hear things differently, I guess… nothing wrong with that. And just because others don’t care for it, doesn’t make me love the song any less.

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Just going through the album, I think 1-4 are just great, thoughtful and listenable songs. You and I is too bland- while Feist seems to be the saving grace for many, I think her role is just kind of distracting. You Never Know has disappointing lyrics coupled with a throwback sound that is so inconsistent with anything else on the album. Country Disappeared and Solitaire have a great acoustic pop vibe to them (the only thing I can't stand is the way Tweedy's voice is double-recorded on Solitaire). The lyrics for these are also pretty great. I don't even wanna talk about how much I dislike I'll Fight. Sonny Feeling is Wilco's epitome of pop- amazing. Everlasting is kind of in the middle for me- I really enjoy and relate to the lyrics, but certain things that occur musically are just too cliche (the bells, ascending orchestral lines at the end). However, I will note that Kotche's drumming is perfect and the last bit of Nel's multiple guitars is an unexpected moment of wide-eyed beauty.

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Country Disappeared is fast becoming my favourite song on the record and I'd say lyrically it has more of an Ashes of American flags vide to it rather than anything from SBS. I'm particularly in love with the lines:

 

So every evening we can watch from above

Crush cities like a bug...

 

And the way Jeff's voice sounds on the '...leaf red blood' line is sublime. As are a lot of his lyrical couplets. I know everybody will, but I don't think there's any point reading too far into the following verse:

 

You've got the white clouds hanging so high above you

You've got the helicopters dangling

Angling to shoot the shots to feed the hungry

Weekend news crew anchormen

 

...because again, I think it's just observational stuff as in Ashes... I am a little curious about the reference to the auctioneer though.

 

Man I love the feel of this song

Alex

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i love Country Disappeared, i too cannot get the melody out of my head. its beautiful, i think its my favorite on the album. You Never Know is another of my favorites. another one i can't get out of my head. I love the live version of this. I also agree that You and I would be better without the female voice.

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For me, W(TA) is like that person you hate at first but end up going ga-ga over. I was really disappointed after the first several listens, but now it's the only thing I've listened to for the past few days. And when I'm not listening to it, the songs are running through my head and I think, "Why am I not listening to that?!?"

 

 

Same

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Guest Speed Racer

Here's a cute track review of "Wilco (The Song)" from Pitchfork.

 

This album just keeps getting better and better for me. The funny thing is, I'm not listening to it a heck of a lot, but it grows and grows in my mind and then I'll listen to a song and say, "That's right, it is bitchin'!" :lol What a perfect time in my life for an album like this. Thank you, Wilco, for releasing an album on my emotional timetable.

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Here's a cute track review of "Wilco (The Song)" from Pitchfork.

 

This album just keeps getting better and better for me. The funny thing is, I'm not listening to it a heck of a lot, but it grows and grows in my mind and then I'll listen to a song and say, "That's right, it is bitchin'!" :lol What a perfect time in my life for an album like this. Thank you, Wilco, for releasing an album on my emotional timetable.

 

My sentiments exactly. Each one of these songs has burrowed itself somewhere in my brain and before I know it, I'm humming along to whichever one starts playing in my mind.

 

I had told myself I was going to shelve this after listening a few times until its official release date. But, I just have no desire to do that right now.

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In fact, my wife and I were driving back from Austin the other day and we listened to Wilco (The Album) and then I put in Summerteeth.

I did the same exact thing on Monday driving back from New York. One of our friends in the back seat fell asleep during Wilco (The Album) and woke up halfway through Summerteeth. When she woke up she said, "Wow this is a long album!" There are a lot of similarities.

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I had told myself I was going to shelve this after listening a few times until its official release date. But, I just have no desire to do that right now.

I put it away. Maybe to let it sink in, but I wanna hear turning on my turntable. Summerteeth made a reappearance for me too.

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I put it away. Maybe to let it sink in, but I wanna hear turning on my turntable. Summerteeth made a reappearance for me too.

 

I had been listening to the stream at home, and only listening to the leak on car rides. Now that the stream is down, I am shelving the leaked copy until the real thing comes out

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Well, now that I've been living with the album for a week, I finally feel like I have a grasp on it . . . and I like it. It's really grown on me. The songs I wasn't sure about at first have grown on me, and the ones I loved from the start haven't faded on me. For me, this has been the opposite of SBS, which came on strong and then faded into slight disappointment. My favorite Wilco albums have been growers, and this one is a grower. I don't think I'll ever grow to love it the way I do Being There, Summerteeth, or YHF, but it's my favorite out of the last three albums. I don't think I'll ever rank it up there with the other "growers" I mentioned, but I do think it bodes well for Wilco's future, which, I'm ashamed to admit, I had begun to question (in part because as much as I love Nels, I worried that Wilco would never be able to incorporate him into their sound the way they did with Glen, but they're getting there, even if I don't really care for his slide playing). Folks can call it dad-rock if they want, but I imagine a lot of those people think of the late Beatles stuff as dad-rock, too. Anyway, I've been surprised how much I've been listening to this album -- pleasantly surprised.

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These lyrics are amazing!

 

I agree. I've only just started delving into them and there is a lot there to dissect. They make the lyrics on SBS look even more pedestrian than I have always thought they were (for the most part, anyway).

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After a few trips through, the main thing I'm missing is one or two more dark tracks. That's what made me fall in love with YHF and AGIB -- the darkness and mysteriousness. Some really nice stuff here, just feels too light. But I think I'll like it better than SBS once it digests a little more.

Dark tracks when one is happy are kinda hard to manifest. I think Jeff is really quite happy right now. I don't know where the Hell he found BBN inside him. While dark is good on may levels having battled through my own dark times in the last 2 years, I am more than happy to welcome and embrace a One Wing (whcih actually has some arkness to it) and respect the Hell out of a BBN but also not call it a "better song" than One Wing becuase it is dark. Dark has it's places-and there is lsome dark on this CD. Look for it. I find it far more subtle than say a YHF

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I agree. I've only just started delving into them and there is a lot there to dissect. They make the lyrics on SBS look even more pedestrian than I have always thought they were (for the most part, anyway).

I'm with you, especially on I'll Fight. When I first heard it I thought the lyrics were horrendous. I'll fight for you, kill for you, die for you, blah, blah, blah, heard it before. Then I realized it was literal (a rose is a rose)! That song is like a movie now; certain lyrical images (you'll wake with a start from a dream, abandoned by the mill, in war's waters i will wade) are coming to me in full technicolor.

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This isn't trash, its just nothing to get excited about. Nothing moves me like I thought that they still could do; its a bit sad. You always expect something from the artists that have touched on perfection.

 

Sky Blue Sky was a bit of a letdown as well, just to give context: following A Ghost Is Born was tough, but at least it still had "You Are My Face" and "Either Way" and the guitar solo on "Side With the Seeds" and (arguably) a very cool slide guitar solo on "Impossible Germany." However, when combined with several shitty B-side cuts, the album sort of dragged its feet and finished with a whimper. Wilco (The Album) reeks more like the lyrics on "Hate It Here" and the melody of "Shake It Off," a very Tweedy vocal-centric performance that just doesn't do justice to what they used to be. Hell, when pop music was still cool they could do it on Summerteeth, but they've found more of a kindred spirit with the Moms and Dads out there and drifted towards a different sound. The duet on this album sounds as if its intended for the same target market as the people who love the new Robert Plant vocal work. The live show was sweet in Lollapalooza last August, but they missed a memorable few Yankee Hotel Foxtrot songs for the sake of what I consider inferior material. I hope that they don't make any rash 'performatory' decisions with this new material at their disposal.

 

Less of the artistry, more entertainment, if entertainment means that sound changes to fit a new demographic. What happened to the piano parts of "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" and "Poor Places" that elevated their alt-country sound to symphonic mastery, the electronic fuzz and the Americana overtones that encircled the entire "Wilco aesthetic" that they established. Has Jeff Tweedy found new inspiration in his family to the point that his melancholy-ridden poet's soul is sated?

 

And regarding this album, ultimately?

 

I've got reservations...

 

 

Very well said. Bottom line is that these guys lost their edge after AGIB. You could almost, almost hear it tailing away on that one, but that record contains enough of it to pass.

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Hell, when pop music was still cool they could do it on Summerteeth, but they've found more of a kindred spirit with the Moms and Dads out there and drifted towards a different sound.

 

What the hell does this even mean? Why do I even read these threads?

I believe there's legitimate criticism to be targeted at this album, but please people, make it readable.

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What the hell does this even mean? Why do I even read these threads?

I believe there's legitimate criticism to be targeted at this album, but please people, make it readable.

I think it means, "God damn Wilco for growing up and not being into SQUEEEKSQUONNKSQRAAANKWOOWOOOWOOO noises as much as they used to."

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