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Wilco (The Album) or Sky Blue Sky?


  

148 members have voted

  1. 1. Which album from this lineup of Wilco do you prefer?

    • Sky Blue Sky
      47
    • Wilco (The Album)
      101


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then i pick up this W(TA), and on the first listen i'm like "wtf? really? THIS is the successor to SBS?"

 

many of the songs are stale, and i thought that on the first listen unlike SBS. one wing, you and i, country disappeared, i'll fight....seriously what's with those songs? i don't like any of them.

 

Interesting. I'm on your side, a big SBS fan. When I look at WTA, though, and consider which songs might have fit into SBS decently, One Wing and Country Disappeared may be the most obvious candidates. Great songs, I think. If there's a SBS legacy, it may be those songs.

 

And despite the fact that I've been backing SBS throughout, I have to defend "I'll Fight" a little bit. I've seen some people knock the lyrics here, like that "I'll Fight.....I'll Die....etc" stuff is all the song is about. In fact, in subsequent verses Tweedy does entirely different things, turns some fairly complex phrases. I think it plays well off the initial simplistic refrain. End of the day, it shouldn't surprise any of us that Jeff Tweedy knows more about writing a great popular song than almost anybody. Especially us fans.

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I love Sky Blue Sky -- it is now and will always be my favoite Wilco album. I understand that ruffles some feathers (yes, I prefer SBS to Yhf -- Shocking, but true). There's been alot of critical essays about how it pales to the others, but it really comes down to one simple thing -- that album makes me gosh-darn happy. When I'm having a bad day, nothing warms my soul more than that simple opening -- it kind of welcomes you in like Grandma with with hot, out of the overn cholcolate chip cookies and a good, rose-smelling hug.

 

Loving W(TA) -- especially I'll Fight. And I can't wait for Bull Black Nove and Sonny Feeling live (I predict a sing a long with SF).

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Okay ya'll are crazy to compare these 2 albums! I think it is crazy to compare any 2 wilco albums as they all are different and that has been and I hope always will be the Wilco method of operation! That is why I love Wilco, none of their albums are the same. You can not explain them with one album. Now I think WTA they try and do just that, but that is okay with me! Good, or okay Wilco is better tahn 95% of the music out there! And I hope they become huge because i would like to see them in a huge arena with lights and lasers!! It worked for Radiohead. After Radiohead's first two albums they were left for dead. Now they play stadiums and everybody loves them. I'm sure if Wilco were to play stadiums you all would shit a brick!!! Guess what, if you love a band then you want them to be "bigger than Jesus, bigger than wrestling, bigger than the beatles, bigger than breast implants, gonna be the best thang to hit these little kids, bigger than guns, bigger than cigarettes!

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Okay ya'll are crazy to compare these 2 albums! I think it is crazy to compare any 2 wilco albums as they all are different and that has been and I hope always will be the Wilco method of operation! That is why I love Wilco, none of their albums are the same. You can not explain them with one album. Now I think WTA they try and do just that, but that is okay with me! Good, or okay Wilco is better tahn 95% of the music out there! And I hope they become huge because i would like to see them in a huge arena with lights and lasers!! It worked for Radiohead. After Radiohead's first two albums they were left for dead. Now they play stadiums and everybody loves them. I'm sure if Wilco were to play stadiums you all would shit a brick!!! Guess what, if you love a band then you want them to be "bigger than Jesus, bigger than wrestling, bigger than the beatles, bigger than breast implants, gonna be the best thang to hit these little kids, bigger than guns, bigger than cigarettes!

Wrong.

The Bends is, and was, critically acclaimed (deservedly so), and sometimes viewed as better than OK Computer.

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Haven't really listened to the album enough to give it my final judgement, but I will say that the album is much better produced that SBS. There are a lot of interesting things I pick up with each listen.

 

One Wing, Deeper Down, Bull Black Nova are obvious standouts.

 

Last few listens have been loving the understated piano and guitar rhythym section on Country Disappeared--the chord progression on that song is beautiful.

 

Also -- there is a real nice interplay btw, Tweedy and Nels on I'll Fight around 3:15 with he lead in to the final verse -- frickin' love that.

 

 

Overall I think there are more little nuances to pick up on this album. SBS was immediately accessable, but I got sick of it after about a month. Jury is still out on this one.

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An attempt at the ridiculous...

 

WTA is perhaps the Bill Clinton to SBS's Bush Sr., it is ultimately an improvement, but not quite the full scale change people probably wanted, and not quite up to par with the really great presidents or albums past Geogre Washington (which would be Being There), Abraham Lincoln (Summerteeth), FDR (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot) or JFK (A Ghost is Born). Furthering this analogy the first Loose Fur album would be RFK, it should have been a president or a Wilco album, but sadly isn't, and Trace could only be Richard Nixon.

 

--Mike

 

And . . . Uncle Tupelo is . . . Teddy Roosevelt? William Jennings Bryan?

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And . . . Uncle Tupelo is . . . Teddy Roosevelt? William Jennings Bryan?

 

The chronology doesn't quite work out, but A.M. would certainly have to Thomas Jefferson, as it was a Declaration of Independence of sorts from King George (Jay Farrar) which means that Uncle Tupelo (collectively) would be back somewhere around William Penn.

 

 

Hey wait, I'm taking this way too seriously.

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I've fallen in love wth Wilco (the album). I thought SBS was good and still do but Wta blows me away. I listened to it down by the sound (Long Island Sound) this morning with the sun coming up and it brought me to places only Wilco can. I love this album. The more I hear it the better it becomes. Very close to perfection. B)

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I've fallen in love wth Wilco (the album). I thought SBS was good and still do but Wta blows me away. I listened to it down by the sound (Long Island Sound) this morning with the sun coming up and it brought me to places only Wilco can. I love this album. The more I hear it the better it becomes. Very close to perfection. B)

 

I agree 100%! After sitting with this album for the past two weeks every spin offers me more and more emotional satisfaction. Although i think this release has the true; recent, Wilco sound. I also think this release is one of the most heavily influenced by Neil Young too. Especially the track Black Bull Nova.

Here is hoping a Texas stop in on the horizon. I would love to see how this material translates live.

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