Official reviews of The Whole Love

[lost highway]

I think TWL is just as challenging, and shines a light in just as many dark corners of the psyche as YHF. I'm not going to say whether it is better or worse.

 

So far I like the reviews where the listener was able to take it in as an experience without being overburdened by some back story. For example, the fact that this album is being released on their own label has almost no artistic relevance whatsoever. Every journalist is forced to notice this, and many are tempted to interpret what they hear through the lens of that nearly irrelevant fact.

[Albert Tatlock]

American Songwriter

 

4.5 / 5

 

http://www.americans...the-whole-love/

 

 

Wilco: The Whole Love

 

By Nick Zaino September 19th, 2011 at 9:56 am

 

When “Art of Almost” kicks off with what sounds like a high wind on an open microphone over a shuffling beat and a bubbling synth, it’s reasonable to think we’re heading back to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot territory. But the song that follows is, while not straightforward in its arrangement, a catchy, maybe even hummable tune. When the words run out, guitarist Nels Cline takes over, stretching a phrase tautly over is ambient background until the clouds burst around minute six.

 

That’s a pretty good indication of what the rest of The Whole Love is about. Jeff Tweedy continues to meld his melodic sensibilities with his band’s capacity for strange noises and unusual choices. IfWilco (The Album) was the band tempering their experimental nature into something more accessible, The Whole Love refines that approach and showcases the full range of Wilco’s considerable abilities.

 

“Art of Almost” runs just over seven minutes to open the album, and the twelve-minute marvel “One Sunday Morning (song for Jane Smiley’s boyfriend)” closes it. In between, the longest track is four minutes and three seconds. There is little fat on this album. Everything makes sense structurally, thematically, or melodically. Even “One Sunday Morning” is engaging all the way through. There is no chorus to speak of, just a sturdy verse and melody structure for the first eight minutes, and a story strong enough to carry it. The coda is like the closing credits to a satisfying movie.

 

Tweedy the lyricist is in fine form here. Often impressionistic, these songs don’t give up their secrets easily. But they are evocative, and give you an opening to explore, if you choose. What does Tweedy mean when he sings, “You won’t set the kids on fire/But I might” or “Do all lies have a taste?” Who knows, but it’s all right. On “Sunloathe,” Tweedy sings the beautiful turn of phrase, “I don’t want to lose this fight/I don’t want to end this fight/Goodbye.”

 

While you’re wondering what he meant by that last line, Tweedy can smack you with something straightforward and tie it all together. “Open Mind” might be the sweetest love song he’s ever written, and after pondering “the rogue waves of your brain” and what it would mean to disobey the dark, you get the gentle, earnest chorus, “Oh I can only dream the dreams we’d share/If you were so inclined/I would love to be the one to open up your mind.”

 

And for all the musical and lyrical absurdity Wilco embraces, they sure do love a good two-and-four rock and roll song. There are a few of them sprinkled through the album, including the warm and groovy “Whole Love” and “Dawned on Me.” Though drummer Glenn Kotche and bassist John Stirratt play with the beat, “Born Alone” has a straightforward, insistent pulse leading up to its marching chorus. And “Standing O” is the most rocking track on the album. It could be an anti-Emo anthem. How would you interpret the lines, “Instead I turn my mood on a dime/I’m finally off of my back/I come from a long, long line/I mope and I cry and attack.”

 

Tweedy also seems to be inviting more Beatles comparisons. “Capitol City” is a jaunty, McCartney-easque pop song that includes muffled transmissions, a la “Yellow Submarine.” “Sunloathe” is his “Because.” There are flourishes of classic 60s sounds all over the album, most notably on “I Might,” which features a happy organ sound that would be right at home with the Spencer Davis Group.

Gently arpeggiating acoustic guitars are at the core of “Black Moon” and “Rising Red Lung,” and they would sound fine in just that sort of arrangement. But with this particular group of players, how could they make music that was anything but sonically dense? Even the lighter songs are layered. There’s always something lurking in the background – a pedal steel sweeping, the vibrato of a Fender Rhodes, atmospheric guitar.

 

The Whole Love is the first release on Wilco’s dBpm Records, and it’s a hell of a start.

[TLF18]

The Whole Wilco: Tweedy Finds a Fix for the Fits

 

review: http://bumslogic.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/the-whole-wilco-tweedy-finds-a-fix-for-the-fits/

[lost highway]

And still we're misusing epic, even when trying to note the correct usage:

 

"Opening track “Art of Almost,” and the closer “One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend)” are truly epic in the pre-internet sense of the word."

Everyone needs to let that word rest a while.

[TLF18]

agree it needs to rest (hence the "pre-internet"), but not sure that qualified as a misuse:

ep·ic   /ˈɛpɪk/

adjective Also, ep·i·cal.

1. noting or pertaining to a long poetic composition;

2. resembling or suggesting such poetry;

3. heroic; majestic; impressively great.

4. of unusually great size or extent;

 

 

both songs pretty much match all 4 definitions.

[junkiesmile]

agree it needs to rest (hence the "pre-internet"), but not sure that qualified as a misuse:

ep·ic   /ˈɛpɪk/

adjective Also, ep·i·cal.

1. noting or pertaining to a long poetic composition;

2. resembling or suggesting such poetry;

3. heroic; majestic; impressively great.

4. of unusually great size or extent;

 

 

both songs pretty much match all 4 definitions.

Ha ha. It's funny because it's true.

[rjreda]

Still waiting on the Allmusic.com review. I agree with 95% of the reviews on that site so that's the one I'm most curious to read.

[Shakespeare In The Alley]

They'll give it a 4/5, like 95% of what they review.

 

That being said, AMG reviews (reviews, not scores) are generally spot on as far as I'm concerned.

[hilliard]

http://www.ology.com/music/album-review-%E2%80%98-whole-love%E2%80%99-wilco

[choo-choo-charlie]

Not bad. Points for mentioning many of the touchstones of a Wilco review:

• Brian Wilson
  
• alt-country
  
• experimental
  
• Krautrock
  

One thing, though -- where the hell do people keep coming up with idea that "Capitol City" is f*cking ragtime? I'm just not hearing any Scott Joplin in the song. It's as if they've never actually listened to any before and it's the only thing they can think of. It's much more akin to something like "Why Would You Wanna Live." Both of those songs sound more like "Honey Pie" or "When I'm 64," both of which are more music hall style numbers...

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

Not bad. Points for mentioning many of the touchstones of a Wilco review:

• Brian Wilson
  
• alt-country
  
• experimental
  
• Krautrock
  

One thing, though -- where the hell do people keep coming up with idea that "Capitol City" is f*cking ragtime? I'm just not hearing any Scott Joplin in the song. It's as if they've never actually listened to any before and it's the only thing they can think of. It's much more akin to something like "Why Would You Wanna Live." Both of those songs sound more like "Honey Pie" or "When I'm 64," both of which are more music hall style numbers...

 

 

This.

 

And One Sunday Morning a tone poem on lost love?

Lost Love?

[Shakespeare In The Alley]

There's plenty of lost love in that song.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

There's plenty of lost love in that song.

 

Not in the context the bloghole was citing

[Shakespeare In The Alley]

But they don't give a context. Lost love doesn't have to mean relationship love. One Sunday Morning totally fits.

[pathfire]

Not bad. Points for mentioning many of the touchstones of a Wilco review:

• Brian Wilson
  
• alt-country
  
• experimental
  
• Krautrock
  

One thing, though -- where the hell do people keep coming up with idea that "Capitol City" is f*cking ragtime? I'm just not hearing any Scott Joplin in the song. It's as if they've never actually listened to any before and it's the only thing they can think of. It's much more akin to something like "Why Would You Wanna Live." Both of those songs sound more like "Honey Pie" or "When I'm 64," both of which are more music hall style numbers...

 

 

Agree re: Capitol City. Before I heard the song, all of the reviews made me think it was going to be this 1920s sounding ragtime jazz tune with a horn section etc (which I would still be intrigued to hear). Your comparisons are more apt as are the Randy Newman touchstones I've heard other people mention. I'm not sure why that song has become so polarizing, but I fall into the camp of enjoying it.

[Guest Jules]

I think it's the stupid bells.

[Ghost of Electricity]

One thing, though -- where the hell do people keep coming up with idea that "Capitol City" is f*cking ragtime? I'm just not hearing any Scott Joplin in the song. It's as if they've never actually listened to any before and it's the only thing they can think of. It's much more akin to something like "Why Would You Wanna Live." Both of those songs sound more like "Honey Pie" or "When I'm 64," both of which are more music hall style numbers...

This has bugged me too. From Wikipedia:

The rag was a modification of the march made popular by John Philip Sousa, with additional polyrhythms coming from African music.^[5] It was usually written in 2/4 or 4/4 time with a predominant left hand pattern of bass notes on odd-numbered beats and chords on even-numbered beats accompanying a syncopated melody in the right hand. According to some sources the name "ragtime" may come from the "ragged or syncopated rhythm" of the right hand.^[2] A rag written in 3/4 time is a "ragtime waltz."

Ragtime is not a "time" (meter) in the same sense that march time is 2/4 meter and waltz time is 3/4 meter; it is rather a musical genre that uses an effect that can be applied to any meter. The defining characteristic of ragtime music is a specific type of syncopation in which melodic accents occur between metrical beats. This results in a melody that seems to be avoiding some metrical beats of the accompaniment by emphasizing notes that either anticipate or follow the beat ("a rhythmic base of metric affirmation, and a melody of metric denial"^[21]). The ultimate (and intended) effect on the listener is actually to accentuate the beat, thereby inducing the listener to move to the music. Scott Joplin, the composer/pianist known as the "King of Ragtime", called the effect "weird and intoxicating." He also used the term "swing" in describing how to play ragtime music: "Play slowly until you catch the swing...".^[22] The name swing later came to be applied to an early genre of jazz that developed from ragtime. Converting a non-ragtime piece of music into ragtime by changing the time values of melody notes is known as "ragging" the piece. Original ragtime pieces usually contain several distinct themes, four being the most common number. These themes were typically 16 bars, each theme divided into periods of four four-bar phrases and arranged in patterns of repeats and reprises. Typical patterns were AABBACCC′, AABBACCDD and AABBCCA, with the first two strains in the tonic key and the following strains in the subdominant. Sometimes rags would include introductions of four bars or bridges, between themes, of anywhere between four and 24 bars.^[2]

[heyhey]

5/5!

 

http://godisinthetvzine.co.uk/index.php/2011/09/20/wilco-the-whole-love-dbpm-records/

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

But they don't give a context. Lost love doesn't have to mean relationship love. One Sunday Morning totally fits.

 

It is a really odd reference point for a song about religion,family relations and regret.

[Analogman]

Not bad. Points for mentioning many of the touchstones of a Wilco review:

• Brian Wilson
  
• alt-country
  
• experimental
  
• Krautrock
  

One thing, though -- where the hell do people keep coming up with idea that "Capitol City" is f*cking ragtime? I'm just not hearing any Scott Joplin in the song. It's as if they've never actually listened to any before and it's the only thing they can think of. It's much more akin to something like "Why Would You Wanna Live." Both of those songs sound more like "Honey Pie" or "When I'm 64," both of which are more music hall style numbers...

 

 

My first thought was it reminded me of four Beach Boys songs: County Fair/Country Air/Busy Doin' Nothin'/Heroes and Villains. I have not listened to the stream that much - but I like that song.

[junkiesmile]

 

 

It is a really odd reference point for a song about religion,family relations and regret.

I agree

[sticky2000]

5/5!

 

http://godisinthetvz...e-dbpm-records/

 

that's my review - thanks for posting it. hope people like what I wrote.....

[Albert Tatlock]

Entertainment Weekly: A- (feels like the review should be written in red biro)

 

http://www.ew.com/ew...0530263,00.html

 

 

The Whole Love

 

Reviewed by Melissa Maerz | Sep 21, 2011

 

 

Should Wilco be worried about Jeff Tweedy? The shaggy-dog singer wanted to call this albumGet Well Soon, Everybody, but he could maybe take that advice himself. On his acclaimed band's eighth studio set, he's letting his brain run off the rails (''Dawned on Me''), popping pills (''Born Alone''), and thinking about setting the kids on fire (''I Might''), while the avant-Americana music echoes the peals of static and feedback that the longtime migraine sufferer likely hears in his head. It's a far cry from 2009's Wilco (The Album), on which the band's I'm-okay-you're-okay folk jams came on like a dad-rock mood stabilizer. And it's also Wilco's most sonically adventurous work since 2004's A Ghost Is Born. For the first time in years, it's clear that Tweedy's actually feeling something.

 

With The Whole Love, Wilco make noise-pop exciting again, perhaps because the pop part doesn't come easy. For them, there's always more triumph in finding a pretty hook when it's buried beneath sirens, whistling teakettles, and church bells — and there's always more meaning in a love song once some good old-fashioned resentment's built up. With its Byrds-ian melody and gnarled guitars, ''Dawned on Me'' is a testament to a long, hard marriage where ''every night is a test.'' On ''Rising Red Lung,'' Tweedy finds comfort only in the anxious hiss of his own compositions. ''Sadness is my luxury,'' he admits on ''Born Alone,'' and when you listen to The Whole Love, it's easy to understand what he means. If there's a good kind of sadness, this is it. A-

[Albert Tatlock]

The Beeb wades in:-

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk...ic/reviews/fxgw

 

 

 

BBC Review

 

Their most adventurous, confident and engaging record in years.

James Skinner 2011-09-21

 

Since 1994 Wilco have proved themselves one of the most reliable and enjoyable bands to occupy the upper tier of indie-rock hierarchy, though recent LPs Sky Blue Sky (2007) and Wilco (The Album) (2009) might have dented their reputation somewhat as one of the most exciting. Although not bad albums by any stretch of the imagination, they rarely displayed the depth of imagination and beauty present across the group’s back catalogue, exemplified on 2002’s stunningYankee Hotel Foxtrot.

 

It’s pleasing to be able to report, then, that the band seems both relaxed and reinvigorated on The Whole Love, which is equally at home spinning into stormy electric guitar crescendos as it is offering up deft acoustic numbers. The current line-up has been in place since 2004, multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone notably receiving a production credit here, while renowned guitarist Nels Cline’s contribution feels more vital to proceedings than ever before.

 

But it is on the strength of Jeff Tweedy’s songwriting that the band ultimately succeeds, and here he seems ready and willing to embrace some of the complexities and strangeness that have made their best work so enthralling. Art of Almost makes for a terrific, though slightly misleading opening gambit; Tweedy has noted its position in the tracklisting stems from not having any idea what people will make of it. A dark, hypnotic groove boasting programmed beats, sweeping strings and a deep low end before a thunderous wig-out to finish, it will doubtless (and not for the first time) earn the band many Radioheadcomparisons. Yet with Tweedy’s forlorn, husky pipes at its fore it remains indubitably a product of the Chicago sextet: one that confidently sketches out new territory for the group while sounding almost purpose-built to reward repeated listens.

 

Lead single I Might furnishes its chugging, catchy hooks with another expressive vocal from Tweedy, who whoops, sighs and hollers his way through the song in playful, free-associative style, while Open Mind is one of the most straightforwardly gorgeous ballads he’s ever written, of a heartbreaking melody and yearning, unrequited lyric so intuitive you wonder it hasn’t always existed (likewise the exuberant, sunny chorus of Dawned on Me). With the closing One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend) the band gracefully unwinds over 12 minutes of twinkling, ruminative acoustica, thus bringing to an end their most adventurous, confident and engaging record in years.

[junkiesmile]

I think everyone is reading to much into the "you won't set the kids on fire" lyric. To me it's a dad rock reference about wilco's music not exciting the young kids and to that Tweedy responds " oh but I might.". Anyone else read it that way?