Schmilco Impressions.

[southern hotel foxtrot]

I'm really getting into side two.

 

Shrug and Destroy reminds me of something from the Lost In Translation soundtrack.

Me too...on my first few listens, I was liking side one a little better, but side two is starting to stand out the more times I hear it.

[linclink]

"Just Say Goodbye"

Such a beaut.  This song sounds like autumn to me.

Funny you say that because the whole record reminds me of autumn. Nice review by the way. 

What I initially wrote here: "...I've found not only plenty to love easily, but also a fascinating listening, geared well to the approach of Fall (for me at least) in that it's also deeply layered, on so many levels. I look forward to having it bloom as Autumn does it's own particular blossoming & I am incredibly excited to hear how they'll be retooling the whole show to harmonize with the vibe of this album (the physical set/backdrop for the show itself is completely stunning!!)... that should make it's impact after seeing them all the more interesting & rewarding."

 

I truly wish there were some east coast Autumn shows- such an incredibly beautiful time to be on the east coast, I'm actually really surprised that they're aren't any!!

 

I'll finish by saying I'm just loving the album more & more & this: "I also tend to now just view this era as the incredibly prolific time when Jeff poured himself into the process of writing & recording at an amazing pace (there is a 5th album, a single Tweedy disc, that's supposedly already in the can & ready to go next up...) in the face of the personal challenges involving Suzi's healing journey.

 

I love combining "Star Wars" & "Schmilco" as a real Yang/Yin double album!! I think if they'd tried to sequence it out, it would have felt more similar to the Tweedy double & releasing two double that close together is doubling up all the issues around such demanding listening. So I understand why they/he made the choice they did, but it's truly fascinating to hear just as a double album worth of those particular Wilco sessions & an, other side of the mirror, perfect companion to the Tweedy double album debut."

[Boss_Tweedy]

These albums, particularly some of the songs from the "Tweedy" album and "Schmilco," couldn't have come at a better time for me. My dad was diagnosed with Stage IV Hodgkin's lymphoma around the same time as Susan's diagnosis, and he was initially given 2-3 months to live. Then I lost a good college friend in November of 2014 to melanoma. A few months before the surprise release of "Star Wars," we received a bigger surprise - that my dad's cancer was in remission. Lots of big changes as I've hit middle age, and these songs have really been comforting.

[rwrkb]

I've only listened a few times so far. Definitely more mellow than I was hoping for, though there are some really fantastic songs that I loved instantly. Interestingly (to myself at least), I like "If Ever I Was a Child" more in the context of the album than I did when I heard it on its own. My feelings on the album as a whole are still developing but I'm kind of getting the feeling I did when Sky Blue Sky followed A Ghost Is Born. I need more noise.

[The Inside of Outside]

Might be a grower, might not. I like it so far. I don't love it yet. Maybe my expectations were off - I expected more country from this f#$^ed up country album.

[Alone in the Zone]

Hi everyone: If you want to hear some fans talk about Schmilco, here is our podcast (first half is not about Schmilco):

 

http://www.chunkyglasses.com/content/episode-217-wilco-schmilco

[Boss_Tweedy]

I've listened to the album about five times. "If I Ever Was a Child" and "Someone to Lose" are still among my favorites. I've really liked both songs from the time they were released. My other early favorites are "Cry All Day," "Nope," and "Just Say Goodbye." I was always the kid in high school literature class with whom the teacher disagreed over interpretation of poems and whatnot, but "Just Say Goodbye" kinda sounds like a song that could've been on a late-period R.E.M. album. The only song I don't like (at least at this point) is "We Aren't the World (Safety Girl)." I'm sure my feelings will change about some of these songs.

 

I definitely agree with The Inside of Outside though that I was hoping for more of a country sound (a la "Being There"). While I don't know if I'll be playing this one a lot six months or so from now, as with "Star Wars" I think "Schmilco" is a solid album with two or three songs I'll probably never tire of hearing. 

[sonicshoulder]

Is it just me or is this a Tweedy album? I love Sukierae, and I really like this album after a half a dozen listens but this sounds like the second disc to Sukierae much more than a follow up to Star Wars.

[Alone in the Zone]

Is it just me or is this a Tweedy album? I love Sukierae, and I really like this album after a half a dozen listens but this sounds like the second disc to Sukierae much more than a follow up to Star Wars.

I said something similar in the podcast (link above). Debatable. I don't think Tweedy could have made Common Sense or Locator. But they could have made many of the other tracks.

[jff]

Got my copy on Saturday.  Listened once, and I like it so far. It always takes me a few listens to form a real opinion, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

Petty complaint...vinyl version comes in the thinnest protective sleeve I've ever seen, which is then wrapped in another plastic sleeve which is too large to be useful.  Both went straight into the trash. I don't feel good about that.  Just shrink wrap it.

[tinypeopleinthewoods]

I like my Wilco albums to be growers. YHF, AGIB, SW and BT took some time to settle in for me and they are among my favorite Wilco albums now. I remember hearing TWL the first time and I remember telling a friend when I was 5 songs in that this is the best Wilco album I've ever heard. Now it's probably my least favorite. I think Schmilco is a grower. I don't understand it quite yet and that's a good thing. Songs that seemed weak upon the first listen (Quarters, Just Say Goodbye, Shrug and Destroy) are becoming my favorites. Only time will tell, but I have a feeling that Schmilco will be up in the ranking once the dust settles.

[jff]

I like my Wilco albums to be growers. YHF, AGIB, SW and BT took some time to settle in for me and they are among my favorite Wilco albums now.

 

This is how all music is for me.  Albums I love on first spin almost always lack staying power.  Some of my favorite albums ever left me confused as to whether or not I even enjoyed them, but something about them made me want to listen again right away.  I probably would have listened to Schmilco again right away, but I bought five records on Saturday and I wanted to hear the other ones before replaying Wilco.

[linclink]

Is it just me or is this a Tweedy album? I love Sukierae, and I really like this album after a half a dozen listens but this sounds like the second disc to Sukierae much more than a follow up to Star Wars.

Here's what I wrote here initially: "I think while "Star Wars" was the easiest to quickly love & batting average wise it looks the strongest now... and "Tweedy" was the most sprawling, being a double, but by that virtue, it offers the most number of great songs just by it's sheer breadth... "Schmilco" sits somewhere in between these.. not as accessible as & instantly stunning as "Star Wars", but not as overwhelming as "Sukierae" was to take all in. I think it has more in common vibe wise with "Sukierae".

 

I also tend to now just view this era as the incredibly prolific time when Jeff poured himself into the process of writing & recording at an amazing pace (there is a 5th album, a single Tweedy disc, that's supposedly already in the can & ready to go next up...) in the face of the personal challenges involving Suzi's healing journey."

 

I also mentioned making a comp CD-R with 9 songs from the Tweedy double & 8 from each of the two recent Wilco albums & it really is one incredible period piece road trip CD. I keep waiting for something to drop off...but Yo La Tengo is another band/artist who has kept crazy highest standards with nary a falter for decades... rare is such a case. Even rarer is an artist/band burning this brightly & being this prolific in a later stage of their career. I am loving this album, looking forward to the live dates coming up at some point & just truly incredibly grateful for the gift of this music!!!

[kidsmoke]

I haven't commented yet on the album, because I've been too busy being just gobsmacked by the thing. I'll pay it the highest compliment I can....it is a worthy addition to the Wilco canon.

This album has such depth and maturity to it, but by maturity I mean nothing in the direction of that goddawful "dad rock" label. I mean maturity in the sense that when an artist (artists) have really hit their stride, and found a place in their artistic career where they've learned to kind of get out of the way and let their creativity flow without interference, you get some of the very best that any form of art can offer. This has that kind of maturity. Different songs keep breaking over me like waves, so if you asked me from one hour to the next what my favorite song was, you'd get a lot of different answers. I don't think there's a song on the album that doesn't sweep me up in its mood.

 

Some of Jeff's finest, and truest, and most poignant lyrics are here, and there's wonderful range, from confessional to sly to outright smartass. I just love it.

The art seems so fitting, because this band is electrified...connected all all wavelengths. (Let's not force me to explain my understanding of electricity and wavelengths and such, though, because we'll all just go away so confused. You get my general drift, right?)

 

Bravo, Wilco, I'm so schmilco'd!

 

Also, I managed to offer "gum" to both my daughter and son, with satisfying gasps/yelps in result, and was able to repulse their efforts to give me "gum" as well.

[worldrecordplayer]

Given it only 2 good listens so far, once under some good headphones. My response to the music is still developing, but I can't deny that so far I was hoping for more of the "fucked-up country' sound. Whatever that is I don't know, but there's nothing "country" about this to me. Absent that, I'm missing some good old Wilco rock songs.

 

Hard for me to fathom these tunes were recorded at the same sessions as Star Wars. Seems like night and day to me.

 

Are a lot of songs I connected with immediately, including the 3 that were pre-released and We Aren't the World (Safety Girl). In a blind listening test, I would swear Nope is off Sukierae. 

 

I agree, Tweedy's lyrics on this album are off the charts great. So many lines to add to my "Wilco lyrics" notepad I keep on the start screen of my phone.

 

Common Sense is a problem for me. I have yet to warm up to it in any way, and I'm quite sure my wife never will. I have the vinyl and it sits right there in the middle of side 1. Thankfully it's only 3:25.

[mus2009]

Common Sense sort of reminds me of Elegant Transaction off of Born Again in the USA

[craigwinn]

I second this emotion

 

I haven't commented yet on the album, because I've been too busy being just gobsmacked by the thing. I'll pay it the highest compliment I can....it is a worthy addition to the Wilco canon.

This album has such depth and maturity to it, but by maturity I mean nothing in the direction of that goddawful "dad rock" label. I mean maturity in the sense that when an artist (artists) have really hit their stride, and found a place in their artistic career where they've learned to kind of get out of the way and let their creativity flow without interference, you get some of the very best that any form of art can offer. This has that kind of maturity. Different songs keep breaking over me like waves, so if you asked me from one hour to the next what my favorite song was, you'd get a lot of different answers. I don't think there's a song on the album that doesn't sweep me up in its mood.

 

Some of Jeff's finest, and truest, and most poignant lyrics are here, and there's wonderful range, from confessional to sly to outright smartass. I just love it.

The art seems so fitting, because this band is electrified...connected all all wavelengths. (Let's not force me to explain my understanding of electricity and wavelengths and such, though, because we'll all just go away so confused. You get my general drift, right?)

 

Bravo, Wilco, I'm so schmilco'd!

 

Also, I managed to offer "gum" to both my daughter and son, with satisfying gasps/yelps in result, and was able to repulse their efforts to give me "gum" as well.

[holyshit]

I have to get personal here.  Please forgive me, but this record demands it.

 

Having this arrive as I face both my 60th birthday and the 10th anniversary of my husband's death early next year, as I struggle with the end of a 4-year-long relationship I thought would fill the rest of my life (and the disintegration of the decade-long friendship from which it grew)---not to mention the coming political Armageddon---made Schmilco the most disturbing Wilcowork I ever encountered.  They created the soundtrack to my annihilation, I thought.

 

Jeff being Jeff, of course, the more I listen, the more I am saved.  I will certainly cry---a lot---but I will make it through. 

 

The unexpected musical touches and intimate lyrics are rich, subtle, and rewarding, and will only sound better as the years go by.   

 

Thanks, guys.

[lost highway]

My favorite band in high school had a smart quote in their liner notes which applies here:

 

"Music is an indirect force for change, because it provides an anchor against human tragedy."

 

I'm glad we all have that. Hang in there.

[kidsmoke]

My favorite band in high school had a smart quote in their liner notes which applies here:

 

"Music is an indirect force for change, because it provides an anchor against human tragedy."

 

I'm glad we all have that. Hang in there.

 

What a wonderful quote that is! And holyshit, 60 feels just like 59, once you get past the actual day of. Hang in there and play Schmilco loud! Musical therapy is the best.

[Atticus]

I wish I could listen to Happiness without hearing High as Hello. Sincerely.

[Beltmann]

I have to get personal here.  Please forgive me, but this record demands it.

 

Having this arrive as I face both my 60th birthday and the 10th anniversary of my husband's death early next year, as I struggle with the end of a 4-year-long relationship I thought would fill the rest of my life (and the disintegration of the decade-long friendship from which it grew)---not to mention the coming political Armageddon---made Schmilco the most disturbing Wilcowork I ever encountered.  They created the soundtrack to my annihilation, I thought.

 

Jeff being Jeff, of course, the more I listen, the more I am saved.  I will certainly cry---a lot---but I will make it through. 

 

The unexpected musical touches and intimate lyrics are rich, subtle, and rewarding, and will only sound better as the years go by.   

 

Thanks, guys.

 

Thank you for this. Artworks can, of course, become important facts in our lives, and you have, in short order, explained the how and why. Hang in there!

[davidtobin100]

The more I listen to Common Sense the more I love it. It's the stand out track for me so far.

[wilconut]

I've had Schmilco basically on repeat since picking it up Friday morning - and I'm completely in love with it. Perhaps some of the most intimate, personal work Tweedy has put forth in a long, long time. Still struggling to find my way with Common Sense and Shrug and Destroy, but the rest of the cuts are stellar. 

 

Hate to create a false dichotomy here, but, since both Schmilco and Star Wars were recorded during the same period, I'm way more pleased, excited, passionate about Schmilco than Star Wars. Don't get me wrong, SW has some killer songs on it, but I rarely listen to it from start to finish. With Schmilco, at least thus far, I've only listened to it from beginning to end. Just a much stronger overall listening experience, at least for me. 

 

Alright, back to tending to my newborn daughter - just five days old and already she's cracked a smile or two when Cry All Day comes on. Cheers!

[lost highway]

Alright, back to tending to my newborn daughter - just five days old and already she's cracked a smile or two when Cry All Day comes on. Cheers!

Ha! My daughter is just 2 weeks old. I keep saying "Cry All Day" is her theme.I find sitting around at home with a newborn to be perfect for listening to records all day. Congratulations!