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Official reviews of The Whole Love


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Paste give it an 8.5, say it's their best since YHF.

 

http://www.pastemaga...whole-love.html

 

"layered sonic experimentation" of YHF

 

BOR-ING! Come up with another descriptor, please people.

 

Otherwise, not bad.

 

 

I noticed that. How can you not know what a waltz is?

 

I mean, I don't expect all music critics or writers to be full-on experts of every style or be highly accomplished musicians themselves, but at least identify something so basic correctly.

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AV Club gave it a B, but it was a bit harsh. http://www.avclub.co...ole-love,62309/

The Onion's AV Club review IS a bit harsh, but a pretty good take."The Whole Love" does have a "low-stakes feel" (tracks 1 and 2 excepted), as pointed out by the AV Club writer. But for me, that's not a negative. I don't think a band needs to torture themselves on every record to recreate the wheel. Saying that, I would LOVE if Wilco made a whole record that had the vibe of Bull Black Nova or Art of Almost. Both songs sound spontaneous and natural. Same with the Wilco Book disc...I really like the feel of that record.I don't know. I like the varieties of song types on The Whole Love, but it DOES sound a bit purposely crowd-pleasing in parts...not that that's a bad thing.
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AV Club gave it a B, but it was a bit harsh. http://www.avclub.co...ole-love,62309/

 

It reads like it should have PF's meh numeric rating...and PF's review reads like it should have AVC's grade.

 

Dancing about architecture...

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Am I the only one a bit disappointed that no digital material came with the digital download (Deluxe version)? Don't you usually get a digital version of the CD / Album sleeve, lyrics etc...?

I downloaded from itunes. It included the digital booklet with lyrics, credits and photos. All I need now are some karaoke versions and I'm all set.

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I've been engaged in quite a conversation over at the complain-y No Depression review. Best comment to arise yet:

 

"To be fair, I gave the album another listen, but I still can't hear anything in it that I like. It has no roots in anything earthy, no antecedents that I feel compelled to trace. Musically, it even seems vaguely incestuous--the sound of art having sex with itself, and taking itself way too seriously. Just not my cup of tea."

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I've been engaged in quite a conversation over at the complain-y No Depression review. Best comment to arise yet:

 

"To be fair, I gave the album another listen, but I still can't hear anything in it that I like. It has no roots in anything earthy, no antecedents that I feel compelled to trace. Musically, it even seems vaguely incestuous--the sound of art having sex with itself, and taking itself way too seriously. Just not my cup of tea."

 

:rotfl

 

Plus, that same dude seems to hold a grudge for his own misinterpretation of what Tweedy said in that interview 15 years ago.

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The Atlantic

 

***

 

Wilco gets everything backwards.

 

Rock bands are supposed to start small, releasing music on obscure, independent labels, and working their way up to a major record company contract. Wilco, though, began their career on a major label subsidiary in 1994, divorced it to release 2001's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, signed to another subsidiary, and, four studio albums and one Grammy later, decided to start their own indie imprint, dBpm Records. Their first release on that label, The Whole Love, is out today.

 

See? Backwards.

 

The band's also flipped the stereotype about rockers growing jaded over the years, settling into a samey groove, and penning ever-weepier ballads about the downside of success. The recent arc of Wilco's career has seen singer Jeff Tweedy and his bandmates writing some of their most open-hearted, adventuresome material yet.

 

"Maybe it was something about coming from punk rock," Tweedy said over the phone a few weeks ago. "Or maybe it was the people I was playing with. But back at the start of my career, there was always this sense that it was wrong to feel good about yourself and feel joy in what you do. A lot of time, I would just beat myself up and think I was a terrible person. Now I just don't give a shit. I'm just going to have fun making music and take joy in that."

 

You can hear that joy across the remarkably diverse Whole Love. A few songs harken back to the band's earlier, rootsier, smorgasbord-of-Americana sound. "Open Mind" is a countrified ballad replete with spacy, pedal-steel guitar that showcases Tweedy's trademark, heartbroken, tenor-alto warble at its painfully intimate best. There's "Black Moon," a lonely six-string dirge, filled with Appalachian doom. And "Capital City" plays like a boozy, dreamy, punch-drunk waltz though Tin Pan Alley, sounding like Cole Porter if he was channeling Charles Bukowski.

 

MORE ON WILCO

 

 

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Indigo Studios

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Inside Wilco's Solid Sound Festival
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How Jeff Tweedy Writes a Song
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But then there's straight-up rock, played with vigor and swagger. Tight, bright, occasionally downright bouncy, the record brims with catchy riffs and hummable hooks, and works best when it shamelessly celebrates pop songcraft. "Standing O," a churning blast of mid-'70's pop sheen, delightedly wags a middle-finger at the world. The first single, "I Might," is a growling, insinuated threat backed by surging Vox organ, circa "96 Tears." "Dawned on Me," meanwhile, merrily chugs from a dirty, post-punk garage before an out-of-nowhere, "Hell Bent for Leather" solo by guitarist Nels Cline sends it skyward.

 

What keeps the songs hanging together is a sense of propulsion and purpose; each track was crafted by collaborators who have become more in sync than ever, Tweedy said. It takes "an ability to keep an eye on the overall picture of what the record is going to be, while still being able to stay focused on the extreme detail" to make these songs work: "[it] could be a way track feels—why it loses energy in one spot. Somebody can pick out that one snare hit that's off, move it one little bit, and suddenly the whole track will come alive again."

 

Bookending The Whole Love are two curve-ball tracks: the thrumming, cinematic opener "Art of Almost," which builds off of a stutter electronic groove, and the gentle, 12-minute folk yarn "One Sunday Morning" that closes the proceedings. How to label a release as varied as this? Tweedy's got a simple answer. "Rock," he said. "We play rock music."

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Other than that one blog from No Depression, has there even been one negative review of this album?

 

No, but that one was incredibly dismissive of their endeavor.

 

Also, if this was already posted, I didn't see it (partly I'm posting it because the comment 6 (malachy) cracks me up. Wilco is the band some people love to hate.)

 

http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/blogs/130634553.html

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I've been engaged in quite a conversation over at the complain-y No Depression review. Best comment to arise yet:

 

"To be fair, I gave the album another listen, but I still can't hear anything in it that I like. It has no roots in anything earthy, no antecedents that I feel compelled to trace. Musically, it even seems vaguely incestuous--the sound of art having sex with itself, and taking itself way too seriously. Just not my cup of tea."

 

Yup, Wilco the band some people love to hate.

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I've been engaged in quite a conversation over at the complain-y No Depression review. Best comment to arise yet:

 

"To be fair, I gave the album another listen, but I still can't hear anything in it that I like. It has no roots in anything earthy, no antecedents that I feel compelled to trace. Musically, it even seems vaguely incestuous--the sound of art having sex with itself, and taking itself way too seriously. Just not my cup of tea."

 

who's your conversation with, Jay Farrar? :glare

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It got Exclaim's seal of approval! Plus a nice little interview with Jeff.

 

http://exclaim.ca/Re...ilco-whole_love

 

Little isn't the word - that goes on and on. Nie one - thanks.

 

Raccoonista

"And generally, once we have the title, we don't need any other words because the Raccoonists have a very strict "No words" policy. It only allows for titles and maybe slogans here and there." :guitar

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Yup, Wilco the band some people love to hate.

 

 

...and still feel the need to weigh in on, even if they haven't listened in years or don't care for them anymore.

 

 

who's your conversation with, Jay Farrar? :glare

 

 

If you've got the time, go through all seven pages of comments. It's amazing.

 

 

Seriously, do these writers even know what a waltz is?

 

1-2-3 / 1-2-3 / 1-2-3 / 1-2-3

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