Your ranking of Wilco albums

[stagerug]

This is always is motion for me, but for now...

 

BT

AGIB

YHF

SBS

W(TA)

AM

ST

[a-me-with-a-you]

If you pointed a gun to my head and made me choose between AGIB or YHF, you'd have to pull the trigger. I do listen to AGIB more. The best of the rest are ranked accordingly:

 

1)ST

2)BT

3)SBS

4)WTA

5)A.M.

[Jayson]

Dang is this hard for me, I'll redo mine.

 

1. Sky Blue Sky- Deeply personal record for me, and my favorite album of all time.

2. Being There

3. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot + A Ghost Is Born (I practically view them as two sides of the same record, even though so much happened in between them. I could never put one over the other)

4. A.M.

5. Summerteeth

6. Wilco (the album)

[Pezish]

1. A Ghost Is Born

2. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

3. Sky Blue Sky

4. Being There

5. Summerteeth

6. AM

7.

8.

9.

10.

11. Wilco (The Album)

 

I'm counting on their next four studio albums being better than Wilco (The Album); it just doesn't do it for me.

 

P.S. I bought Being There shortly after it was released and had a copy of AM on cassette. So I've been a longtime fan. It looks like (The Album) is at the bottom of several lists...

[RainDogToo]

1. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

2. Summerteeth

3. A Ghost is Born

4. Being There

5. Sky Blue Sky

6. Wilco (the album)

7. A.M.

[paulcalypse]

1. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

2. Summerteeth

3. Being There

4. AM

5. A Ghost Is Born

6. Sky Blue Sky

7. Wilco (The Album)

 

Why do people hate AM so much?

[Guest Ordinary Beehive]

1. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

2. Summerteeth

3. Being There

4. AM

5. A Ghost Is Born

6. Sky Blue Sky

7. Wilco (The Album)

 

Why do people hate AM so much?

 

I've always wondered that myself. I love AM. Flip ST and BT on your list, and that's mine.

[paulcalypse]

I've always wondered that myself. I love AM. Flip ST and BT on your list, and that's mine.

Yeah those two are really a toss-up for me, too. Depends on my mood.

 

I have a couple friends that would ONLY listen to AM before the other Wilco albums started growing on them. Guess it depends on your musical background.

[othersongs]

I bet WTA wouldn't be so low on people's list if it were marketed better as an album. By that i mean, having a more serious album name, better artwork and lack of the title track. There are great songs on there and it flows well together, but it's packaged more like a b-sides project and subconsiously fans are processing it that way.

 

Marketing roots run deeper than you think.

[peteboiler]

YHF is their masterpiece IMO. I used to have SUMMERTEETH as the one closest to my heart. Now the order goes...

 

1. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

2. Summerteeth

3. A Ghost is Born

4. Being There

5. Sky Blue Sky

6. Wilco (TA)

7. AM

 

I won't include Kicking Television because it is a live album, but it does kick ass!!!

[Chinese Apple]

I bet WTA wouldn't be so low on people's list if it were marketed better as an album. By that i mean, having a more serious album name, better artwork and lack of the title track. There are great songs on there and it flows well together, but it's packaged more like a b-sides project and subconsiously fans are processing it that way.

 

Marketing roots run deeper than you think.

 

Perhaps it was marketed to a different target audience, because it did quite well commercially.

 

I liked what Nels said in one interview, using a "bus stop" analogy: that at each stop, people will come on board or get off the bus.

 

A lot of people got on the Wilco Bus with WTA that I didn't think I wanted to ride the bus with, but on the other hand, Wilco might make them better people, so I'll stay on for the ride.

[The Inside of Outside]

1. A Ghost is Born

2. Being There

3. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

4. Summerteeth

5. Sky Blue Sky

6. A.M.

7. The Album

 

Top 3 are solid, bottom 4 move around frequently. I remember hearing a bootlegged copy of Being There before it came out, and being blown away. Still am.

[MCHowdy]

1. YHF

2. Being There

3. Sky Blue Sky

4. Summerteeth

5. A Ghost is Born

6. A.M.

7. The Album

 

 

Sky Blue Sky is the album that always continues to rise in my estimation. The more I become aware of John's bass playing on that album, and the guitar interplay, the more interested I become in it.

 

Wilco (The Album) is the only album they have produced that, over time, I've liked less and less. I really check out when You and I comes on.

[mpolak21]

I think this...

 

Wilco (The Album) is the only album they have produced that, over time, I've liked less and less. I really check out when You and I comes on.

 

seems more probable than this...

 

I bet WTA wouldn't be so low on people's list if it were marketed better as an album. By that i mean, having a more serious album name, better artwork and lack of the title track. There are great songs on there and it flows well together, but it's packaged more like a b-sides project and subconsiously fans are processing it that way.

 

Marketing roots run deeper than you think.

[Guest Speed Racer]

I bet WTA wouldn't be so low on people's list if it were marketed better as an album. By that i mean, having a more serious album name, better artwork and lack of the title track. There are great songs on there and it flows well together, but it's packaged more like a b-sides project and subconsiously fans are processing it that way.

 

Marketing roots run deeper than you think.

 

Well, if by "marketing" you mean, "song quality," and by "album name, better artwork and lack of title track" you mean, "song quality, except for the title track and one or two others," and by "great songs" you mean, "less than great songs," I agree entirely.

 

I like W(TA) just fine, but the songs I dislike on there I've disliked since they first started playing them. I mean, unless the so-called "marketing campaign" started when they first played One Wing and Sonny Feeling two summers ago, there's no way I can agree with you. For me, the title track, album title and artwork are all awesome. This is probably some of my favorite Wilco album art, I think it's a fun spin on a self-titled album, and I enjoy that an album with relatively serious subject matter has a fun title track. The only thing the album lacks for me is a high enough quantity of awesome songs, which very well might change as the album lives with me for a while.

 

Let's see - A.M. is about 10 years old to my ears - that is, I purchased it in 2000/2001. I was hot/cold on that album for a while, and now I enjoy it very much. I'll bet 10 years from now, I'll feel about W(TA) the way I feel about A.M. today.

 

Oh, and can you explain how it's "packaged" as a b-sides project?

[Guest Ordinary Beehive]

I still don't get how you can not love One Wing.

[Guest Speed Racer]

Well, first I don't like the lyrics, and second, I don't care much for the tune. I don't think it's an abomination like LMLYFM, I just don't care for it.

[MCHowdy]

Not to beat up on W(TA) too much, because I think it has some really nice songs. But I think it lacks in song craft overall, and that's not a problem I see with any other Wilco album. I'm not concerned about marketing in the least. I think that on any particular album some fans are going to consider some tracks throwaways, while others will consider those throwaways gems. One Wing was attractive to me initially, but like other parts of the album, the lyrics began to seem a bit trite. Now folks, not Bon Jovi trite, ok? Just not up to Tweedy standard. Hold your fire.

 

And You and I not only sounds weak to me, it sounds unfinished.

 

But there's some danger to speaking about specific songs, since someone's going to say "Hey, that's OUR song! My wife and I LOVE that one!" And you should.

 

Sonny Feeling? The lyrics don't bother me, but that chorus sure does.

[JMal]

YHF was the first one I bought. right now, I feel like my favs are

 

1. Being There

2. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

3. A Ghost Is Born

4. Wilco (TA)

5. Sky Blue Sky TIE Summerteeth

7. A.M.

[Guest Ordinary Beehive]

One Wing was attractive to me initially, but like other parts of the album, the lyrics began to seem a bit trite. Now folks, not Bon Jovi trite, ok? Just not up to Tweedy standard. Hold your fire.

 

I guess I can understand those lyrics being described as trite thematically, but I thought it was a pretty original way to say it.

 

Plus I just love that the song starts out "we once belonged to a bird". Before understanding the song and knowing it's title, that was definitely a confusing one to me. A definite "what the fuck does that even mean?" moment.

[Guest Speed Racer]

A definite "what the fuck does that even mean?" moment.

 

I agree with you on that statement, but for me its the sentiment I get reading a classmate's terrible essay, and not a "Woah, art, man!" sentiment.

[DFW2010]

1. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Ashes of American Flags)

2. Sky Blue Sky (Either Way)

3. A Ghost is Born (Theologians)

4. Summerteeth (A Shot in the Arm)

5. Being There (Red-eyed an Blue)

6. A.M. (Passenger Side or It's Just That Simple)

7. Wilco (The Album) (Bull Black Nova)

 

I added a twist and picked my favorite song on the Album. It really helped me put them in order as I had a difficult time picking my favorite on the ones at the top because there were so many good ones to choose from.

[gbudoff]

1) being there

2) a ghost is born

3) yankee hotel foxtrot

4) summer teeth

5) sky blue sky

6) AM

7) wilco the album

[Central Scrutinizer]

I bet WTA wouldn't be so low on people's list if it were marketed better as an album. By that i mean, having a more serious album name, better artwork and lack of the title track. There are great songs on there and it flows well together, but it's packaged more like a b-sides project and subconsiously fans are processing it that way.

 

Marketing roots run deeper than you think.

I disagree with this. I think they marketed this album directly to its strengths -- a collection of songs without a common theme; a fun album (yes, acknowledging it has a "fun" song like BBN). Of all their albums this has the least flow to it IMHO -- competing perhaps with AM, which is more cohesive just because stylistically there isn't enough of a range to veer off course.

 

This current line up went from meticulous structure (SBS) which may have missed with listeners because it was more a sum-of-the-whole, while W(TA) may have missed with listeners because it was unstructured, parts-greater-than-the-sum.

 

Where would we be without wishful thinking, but I anticipate the band is planning and gearing up for its recording this summer and the result will be a deeper, more resonating effort that will defy attempts to market it, and succeed because of it.

[Central Scrutinizer]

I like W(TA) just fine, but the songs I dislike on there I've disliked since they first started playing them. I mean, unless the so-called "marketing campaign" started when they first played One Wing and Sonny Feeling two summers ago, there's no way I can agree with you. For me, the title track, album title and artwork are all awesome. This is probably some of my favorite Wilco album art, I think it's a fun spin on a self-titled album, and I enjoy that an album with relatively serious subject matter has a fun title track. The only thing the album lacks for me is a high enough quantity of awesome songs, which very well might change as the album lives with me for a while.

 

Let's see - A.M. is about 10 years old to my ears - that is, I purchased it in 2000/2001. I was hot/cold on that album for a while, and now I enjoy it very much. I'll bet 10 years from now, I'll feel about W(TA) the way I feel about A.M. today.

These are some great points, particularly on how the album was packaged.

 

I know a lot of people railed One Wing on the list when it was played live. I think it was definitely a case of the band seeing the song going one way, but fan response caused them to change up the song by the time it was recorded. I thought it had promise initially, but I think the arguments of thrashing excess were probably accurate. This may not make sense but I think the song has an unfinished feel, because it never became the song they envisioned because it wasn't one that fans seemed to want.

 

I approached A.M. later than at least half of the albums, and it never collectively resonated with me, but I love practically each of the songs -- some moreso live, obviously. I can't say that about W(TA). They're nice songs, fun songs for concert. But I'm waiting for what's next or still punch drunk from what preceded it.