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Yankee Hotel Foxtrot!


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Unbelievable! What an accomplishment!

 

I'm listening to this for the umpteenth time tonight and I'm as blown away as I've ever been. Do we realize how amazing this album is? Why, yes, yes we do. I know, but, dammit, it can never be said too much for an album like this. If you haven't listened in a while, do it. You'll be blown away again and again. I know you know that, but sometimes we forget, so here' your reminder.

 

(I did a search. YHF came up a million times. Big surprise. I'm sorry to start a useless thread, but... I just had to!)

 

His fangs have been pulled and I really wanna see you tonight. uuhuhuguhuguhuguhuguh. too good.

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They could release twelve albums of just Leave Me Like You Found Me outtakes in a row and it still wouldn't ruin the legacy of this record. It's so good, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart is the fourth best song on the album (behind Jesus, Ashes, and Poor Places), that's the highest compliment I can give it right now.

 

--Mike

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They could release twelve albums of just Leave Me Like You Found Me outtakes in a row and it still would ruin the legacy of this record. It's so good, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart is the fourth best song on the album (behind Reservations, Jesus, Ashes, and Poor Places), that's the highest compliment I can give it right now.

 

--Mike

 

 

FTFY ;)

 

War On War, Pot Kettle Black and ITMWLY have to be mentioned too-- and all three are AMAZING to hear live. Radio Cure is a superb, superb song, I just find Jeff's voice the studio version a bit painful to listen to sometimes. It's too real.

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They could release twelve albums of just Leave Me Like You Found Me outtakes in a row and it still wouldn't(?) ruin the legacy of this record. It's so good, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart is the fourth best song on the album (behind Jesus, Ashes, and Poor Places), that's the highest compliment I can give it right now.

 

--Mike

 

Thanks for not slaying me in this thread. I was impassioned and a little tipsy, actually forgot I posted this until I came back here this morning. I've been in, uh, other communities that would have just killed me for something like this. Screw them. I love the Wilco community. :cheers

 

IATTBYH, Kamera, Radio Cure.... makes me weak in the knees. And, oddly, makes me crave a cigarette more often than not. Don't know how that became one of my triggers...

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The thing that gets me is how almost universal the admiration for this album is. I'm talking specifically about the Wilco community here, and I realize it's kind of a "duh!" comment. But pretty much all their albums inspire a certain amount of ambivalence. With the likely exception of "Being There," their other albums have some huge fans, but also some huge detractors. And you can understand consensus on BT -- if you're not a head banger, there's not a lot to dislike with BT. Strong songs built off a fairly conventional pop structure. With YHF, though -- damn, people who like their music straight up can find some reasons for "reservations" here. And yet, somehow, with the vast majority of Wilco fans -- if YHF isn't their favorite, it's not far down the list. Somehow the UT alt-country people embrace it. And the ST power pop people. And the AGiB krautrock crowd. And...well, you know what I mean. When you look at those lists we all love to make, it's almost invariably near the top. For an album that diverged so greatly from the ones that preceded it...with all the attendant prospects for alienating the fans who had come that far...its widespread popularity is pretty interesting.

 

And, yes, its my favorite, too. Slightly ahead of AGiB....

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I think it's safe for me to say that if YHF had never been recorded I would not be the Wilco fan that I am today, and I probably would have never came to this message board. So I'm sorry about that. :lol

 

As I've said many times YHF leaves all the other albums in the dust (imo).

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I know we've discussed all of this a million times over, but there's almost an entire other album's worth of "unreleased" songs that can nearly stand toe to toe with the album proper. "Cars Can't Escape," "Venus Stopped The Train," "Magazine Called Sunset," "Not For The Season," "Won't Let You Down," to name a few. Most bands never write songs of the caliber of these in a lifetime and yet for Wilco, they were tossed off largely. Not too mention all of those unbelievably great early versions and alternate versions of eventual YHF tracks. That uptempo "Poor Places" is a great what might've been. The instrumental jams forming early skeletons of still undeveloped songs are a cool sneak peak into the inner workings of the band. The multitude of takes on "Kamera" are all worthwhile, and in the case of the big guitar rock version, something I'd like to see more of from Wilco. I mean top to bottom with the album and both demos you're talking about around 25 songs that are just about all superb. That eventual box set is gonna blow minds of those out there who have still yet to hear all that was left behind. Just unbelievable!

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I know we've discussed all of this a million times over, but there's almost an entire other album's worth of "unreleased" songs that can nearly stand toe to toe with the album proper. "Cars Can't Escape," "Venus Stopped The Train," "Magazine Called Sunset," "Not For The Season," "Won't Let You Down," to name a few. Most bands never write songs of the caliber of these in a lifetime and yet for Wilco, they were tossed off largely. Not too mention all of those unbelievably great early versions and alternate versions of eventual YHF tracks. That uptempo "Poor Places" is a great what might've been. The instrumental jams forming early skeletons of still undeveloped songs are a cool sneak peak into the inner workings of the band. The multitude of takes on "Kamera" are all worthwhile, and in the case of the big guitar rock version, something I'd like to see more of from Wilco. I mean top to bottom with the album and both demos you're talking about around 25 songs that are just about all superb. That eventual box set is gonna blow minds of those out there who have still yet to hear all that was left behind. Just unbelievable!

 

Right on - I've been on a YHF demos kick lately (once again). So good.

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I remember listening to YHF MP3's before it was originally released. I was driving back from a Bob Mould concert in Omaha with a friend. This was on his Modulate (Carnival of Light and Sound) tour that incorporated a lot of electronica. I kept on thinking how much better Wilco incorporated dissonance and electronic sounds than Mould did. I'm pretty sure it was that evening that Mould went from being my favorite to Wilco.

 

BTW, it makes great listening for late night drives.

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Favorite part of the entire album: The piano part under Tweedy's "I am down on my hands and knees, every time a door bell rings." Close second: Poor Places, the ending might be the closest anyone's come to getting the same effect of "A Day in The Life."

 

The other high compliment I can give this record is anytime something awful happens in my life or in the world at large, this is almost always what I put on. And unlike something like Death Cab's Transatlanticism, which was my "angry young man" record years ago that I now can't listen to at all without being reminded how ridiculous I was when it was my favorite album, Foxtrot has always endured for me. It's universal in a weird way that can adapt to almost any mood, and yet all the songs feel completely specific towards a time or an emotion.

 

--Mike

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I think it's safe for me to say that if YHF had never been recorded I would not be the Wilco fan that I am today, and I probably would have never came to this message board. So I'm sorry about that. :lol

Same here. Wilco was on my radar before YHF, but it was that album that made me a Wilco geek. It has been in regular rotation ever since I bought it. It's one of those rare records that simply never wears out for me. I am always hoping that the next Wilco record will be like YHF--not in the sense that I want them to revive that particular sound, but in the sense that whatever new sound they try I will love it as profoundly as I love YHF.

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The thing that gets me is how almost universal the admiration for this album is. I'm talking specifically about the Wilco community here, and I realize it's kind of a "duh!" comment. But pretty much all their albums inspire a certain amount of ambivalence. With the likely exception of "Being There," their other albums have some huge fans, but also some huge detractors. And you can understand consensus on BT -- if you're not a head banger, there's not a lot to dislike with BT. Strong songs built off a fairly conventional pop structure. With YHF, though -- damn, people who like their music straight up can find some reasons for "reservations" here. And yet, somehow, with the vast majority of Wilco fans -- if YHF isn't their favorite, it's not far down the list. Somehow the UT alt-country people embrace it. And the ST power pop people. And the AGiB krautrock crowd. And...well, you know what I mean. When you look at those lists we all love to make, it's almost invariably near the top. For an album that diverged so greatly from the ones that preceded it...with all the attendant prospects for alienating the fans who had come that far...its widespread popularity is pretty interesting.

 

And, yes, its my favorite, too. Slightly ahead of AGiB....

 

Yeah, that's a great point. While the perception of their other records has changed and evolved over time, since it came out Foxtrot seems to be universally excepted as either their best or close to it.

 

--Mike

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My dad introduced me to Wilco and the only album he ever really listened to was AM. So for a while that's all I knew about Wilco and was never a huge fan of them. Until I went to the beach one year with my family, and listened to YHF all the way through the first time. Ever since then Wilco has been my favorite band. YHF is still my favorite album of all time.

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I know we've discussed all of this a million times over, but there's almost an entire other album's worth of "unreleased" songs that can nearly stand toe to toe with the album proper. "Cars Can't Escape," "Venus Stopped The Train," "Magazine Called Sunset," "Not For The Season," "Won't Let You Down," to name a few. Most bands never write songs of the caliber of these in a lifetime and yet for Wilco, they were tossed off largely. Not too mention all of those unbelievably great early versions and alternate versions of eventual YHF tracks. That uptempo "Poor Places" is a great what might've been. The instrumental jams forming early skeletons of still undeveloped songs are a cool sneak peak into the inner workings of the band. The multitude of takes on "Kamera" are all worthwhile, and in the case of the big guitar rock version, something I'd like to see more of from Wilco. I mean top to bottom with the album and both demos you're talking about around 25 songs that are just about all superb. That eventual box set is gonna blow minds of those out there who have still yet to hear all that was left behind. Just unbelievable!

 

 

My sentiments exactly!!! :thumbup

 

-Robert

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