Pitchfork Review of AMF & WY20

[bleedorange]

Really good review of the two albums and brief look at their career.

 

Pitchfork review

[ringo444]

As usual, I don't agree with Pitchfork's review of a Wilco release...7.0 is way too low for AMF.  Dismissive hipsters don't have time for 4 discs of excellence, I suppose.  

[Hixter]

I just noticed that the albums are #1 and #2 on Amazon's indie sales chart. Number 3 is the Arctic Monkeys album.

 

[shakes]

As usual, I don't agree with Pitchfork's review of a Wilco release...7.0 is way too low for AMF.  Dismissive hipsters don't have time for 4 discs of excellence, I suppose.  

but the review itself was highly complimentary

 

the text is the specific reviewers thoughts, the number is more of an editorial consensus

[choo-choo-charlie]

What's most interesting to me is the praise given to AGIB - a record regularly dismissed by the folks at Pitchfork - particularly with regards to Jeff's lead guitar work. Reviews of follow-up records even went so far as to point out how AGIB is Wilco's most difficult record.

 

AMF/What's your 20 review

 

Later on, Bennett’s ouster would lead Tweedy to flex his lead-guitar muscle on the brilliant A Ghost Is Born. And it’s this middle period filled with personnel switches and personal tumult—Summerteeth, Foxtrot, and Ghost—that still stands as their greatest work ... Tweedy’s stunning distorted guitar work—oddly one of the band’s most underutilized assets ... The sheer emotional audacity of these solos cannot be overstated; 21st-century rock guitar does not get better than this ... After figuring out how to get the most out of abstracting his lyrics and arrangements on Foxtrot, Tweedy did himself one better by eliminating language altogether on large swaths of Ghost, replacing it with six-string bursts that said just as much, if not more.

 

 

Original review of AGIB:

 

But more than anything, Jeff Tweedy confirms the fear I've held since I was exposed to most of this new material last year during Wilco's tour-closing show: He now revels in extended guitar solos. Five of Ghost's first six songs dissolve into noisy fretboard fingerings, and it's no coincidence that this first half of the album is where most of the weaknesses lie. As a Neil Young fan, I'm no anti-soloist, but for an artist as lyrically and vocally gifted as Tweedy to resort to expressing emotions through age-old bombast and pyrotechnics, something must be gumming up the songwriting works. Three of these shut-up-and-play guitar sections come in songs so sleepy and hazy ("At Least That's What You Said", "Muzzle of Bees", "Hell Is Chrome") that they practically invite idle speculation about Tweedy's prehab pill regimen. Sluggish and flat, they're the opposite of the idea-packed YHF material, with the affected quirks that fill out the arrangements unable to dispel the overall grogginess.

[Magnetized]

Wow, that is some contrast. Different reviewers, I guess, as well as likely an emphasis on the tabloid aspects of Jeff's personal life with the original review.

[bleedorange]

These are still individuals writing their reviews, though. I doubt Pitchfork is telling its writers that any references to past albums have to square with what was originally written about them.

[tinnitus photography]

These are still individuals writing their reviews, though. I doubt Pitchfork is telling its writers that any references to past albums have to square with what was originally written about them.

this.

 

 

P4K could have 10 different writers write 10 different reviews.

[Atticus]

Three of these shut-up-and-play guitar sections come in songs so sleepy and hazy ("At Least That's What You Said", "Muzzle of Bees", "Hell Is Chrome") that they practically invite idle speculation about Tweedy's prehab pill regimen. Sluggish and flat, they're the opposite of the idea-packed YHF material, with the affected quirks that fill out the arrangements unable to dispel the overall grogginess.

 

this guy is worse than the worst drunken idiot I've ever endured at a Wilco/Tweedy performance.

[choo-choo-charlie]

Oh, I completely understand that they're different writers. But it has been interesting that the original AGIB review and write-ups of every record following have still referenced AGIB in a negative fashion every time. It was just an interesting contrast of opinions, to me.

[TCP]

Different people having different opinions? Why, I never!

[jw harding]

Best thing about that original AGIB review is that it was written by a guy who is a huge Phish fan. I love Phish too, but you won't hear me criticizing extended guitar solos or the effects of drug use on music. Bring it on.

[worldrecordplayer]

Best thing about that original AGIB review is that it was written by a guy who is a huge Phish fan. I love Phish too, but you won't hear me criticizing extended guitar solos or the effects of drug use on music. Bring it on.

I had no idea Pitchfork had a writer who is a huge Phish fan.

 

I was surprised to read this Tweedy quote: "Even the singer himself recently admitted that their last record, 2011’s The Whole Love, "was taken for granted a little bit, not necessarily by critics, maybe by ourselves."

 

They toured extensively behind the album and I never detect any ambivalence when they play those songs.  I like TWL a lot, one of my faves.

[jw harding]

There are a few prominent phish fans within Pitchfork's hallowed halls. I know Mike Reed, promoter of the Pitchfork Music fest is/was a huge phish guy. He gave me a few hundred phish tapes back in the day. A friend of a friend is the president, and is apparently a fan as well. Those guys all went to college and got high. 

[Bosco]

I had no idea Pitchfork had a writer who is a huge Phish fan.

 

I was surprised to read this Tweedy quote: "Even the singer himself recently admitted that their last record, 2011’s The Whole Love, "was taken for granted a little bit, not necessarily by critics, maybe by ourselves."

 

They toured extensively behind the album and I never detect any ambivalence when they play those songs.  I like TWL a lot, one of my faves.

 

 

With Wilco, it's been one of the longer gaps now in-between releasing a record. Why is that?

 

JT: I think it's been really healthy. Everyone in Wilco's always been really engaged outside of the band and even more so as we've gotten older and different musicians have joined the band. Every time I see Nels [Cline, Wilco guitarist], he's made five more records. But I don't know, I think that there was maybe some sense that the [last] Wilco record was taken for granted a little bit, not necessarily by critics, maybe by ourselves, and being confident about what we're able to do in the studio. The feeling that I get now is that the palette has been cleansed quite a bit and there are a lot of approaches that are apparent to me now that maybe wouldn't have been if we'd just kept mouldering forward.

[choo-choo-charlie]

Different people having different opinions? Why, I never!

 

No need to be a smartass.

[worldrecordplayer]

There are a few prominent phish fans within Pitchfork's hallowed halls. I know Mike Reed, promoter of the Pitchfork Music fest is/was a huge phish guy. He gave me a few hundred phish tapes back in the day. A friend of a friend is the president, and is apparently a fan as well. Those guys all went to college and got high. 

I obviously don't read enough of Pitchfork.

[Mr. Heartbreak]

The review itself is highly complimentary, belying the middling rating.

 

I found this of particular interest (and I agree with it):

 

 

 

 Considering [Yankee Hotel] Foxtrot’s lofty status within the history of Wilco—along with its sign-of-the-times label drama, it’s still their best-selling album by a wide margin—it is somewhat underrepresented on Alpha. The box set boasts a few relatively well-known outtakes, but in light of Foxtrot’s painstaking gestation, which had the band trying songs out in many different styles to see what stuck, it would have been interesting to hear a few previously unreleased attempts at those beloved tracks.

 

I would love to have gotten cleaned up versions of Corduroy Cut-off Girl, Won't Let You Down, Venus Stopped the Train, etc. In fact, I was surprised by how much of the material on AMF had shown up on the fan collection And Sum Aren't, and how little came from the YHF Demos widely circulated. Interesting.

[shakes]

i wouldnt be surprised if a lot of yhf alternate cuts and stuff was held back with an eventual anniversary reissue in mind

 

since you could easily devote an entire disc just to yhf material its almost wasted on a compilation like amf

[chriscolbert]

i wouldnt be surprised if a lot of yhf alternate cuts and stuff was held back with an eventual anniversary reissue in mind

 

since you could easily devote an entire disc just to yhf material its almost wasted on a compilation like amf

 

This 100%

 

If ever there was an album that deserved the "ultimate/anniversary/complete" edition treatment it's YHF.  The only question is when, not if.

[imsjry]

What's most interesting to me is the praise given to AGIB - a record regularly dismissed by the folks at Pitchfork - particularly with regards to Jeff's lead guitar work. Reviews of follow-up records even went so far as to point out how AGIB is Wilco's most difficult record.

 

AMF/What's your 20 review

 

Later on, Bennett’s ouster would lead Tweedy to flex his lead-guitar muscle on the brilliant A Ghost Is Born. And it’s this middle period filled with personnel switches and personal tumult—Summerteeth, Foxtrot, and Ghost—that still stands as their greatest work ... Tweedy’s stunning distorted guitar work—oddly one of the band’s most underutilized assets ... The sheer emotional audacity of these solos cannot be overstated; 21st-century rock guitar does not get better than this ... After figuring out how to get the most out of abstracting his lyrics and arrangements on Foxtrot, Tweedy did himself one better by eliminating language altogether on large swaths of Ghost, replacing it with six-string bursts that said just as much, if not more.

 

 

Original review of AGIB:

 

But more than anything, Jeff Tweedy confirms the fear I've held since I was exposed to most of this new material last year during Wilco's tour-closing show: He now revels in extended guitar solos. Five of Ghost's first six songs dissolve into noisy fretboard fingerings, and it's no coincidence that this first half of the album is where most of the weaknesses lie. As a Neil Young fan, I'm no anti-soloist, but for an artist as lyrically and vocally gifted as Tweedy to resort to expressing emotions through age-old bombast and pyrotechnics, something must be gumming up the songwriting works. Three of these shut-up-and-play guitar sections come in songs so sleepy and hazy ("At Least That's What You Said", "Muzzle of Bees", "Hell Is Chrome") that they practically invite idle speculation about Tweedy's prehab pill regimen. Sluggish and flat, they're the opposite of the idea-packed YHF material, with the affected quirks that fill out the arrangements unable to dispel the overall grogginess.

I'll assume different authors?

[choo-choo-charlie]

I'll assume different authors?

 

Yes, we've established that. 

[lost highway]

With Wilco, it's been one of the longer gaps now in-between releasing a record. Why is that?

 

JT: But I don't know, I think that there was maybe some sense that the [last] Wilco record was taken for granted a little bit, not necessarily by critics, maybe by ourselves, and being confident about what we're able to do in the studio. The feeling that I get now is that the palette has been cleansed quite a bit and there are a lot of approaches that are apparent to me now that maybe wouldn't have been if we'd just kept mouldering forward.

I read that and never figured out what he meant. Maybe that they hadn't realized the strength of the record they'd made?

[jw harding]

That they didn't take the record seriously enough is the best I can come up with. They just kind of got by on their musicianship and recording skills, but could've pushed further. 

 

Just can't quite figure out if he means they were overly confident, or insecure.

[lost highway]

Whatever they did, it turned out a heck of a lot better than the last one.