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"Ode To Joy" Reactions


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I'm in the same spot. Lyrically, "Citizens" is right up my alley, but sonically the song doesn't grab me. "White Wooden Cross" and "One and a Half Stars," on the other hand, are album highlights for me.

 

That's funny White Wooden Cross and One and a Half Stars are the two that took the longest to grab me, I thought they were pretty mediocre on the first few listens. After seeing them both live now, I definitely love One and a Half Stars, and I like WWC more but it's still probably my least favorite on the album, it's just super basic imo 

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You must be from upstate NY!

Only if 45 minutes north of Manhattan counts as "upstate"!

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Ode To Joy has taken longer than any other Wilco record to hit for me, but it has indeed hit and I love it. If I had to rank the Wilco proper records, it'd look something like this:

 

1 Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

2 Being There

3 Summerteeth

4 A Ghost Is Born

5 The Whole Love

6 Ode to Joy

7 Sky Blue Sky

8 AM

9 Wilco (the Album)

10 Star Wars

11 Schmilco

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It is, and ultimately, they gave me the option of a refund or a replacement.   I took the refund and went to the record store a couple days later to buy it.  I told my friend at the record store about the warped record (and showed him the video I too  of it spinning on my turntable), and he said their shipment was recalled due to damage and that a lot of the are probably like that.  Maybe it had to do with the heatwave in the south that week, because everyone else seems to be getting good copies.  So a week later they finally got their shipment and I went back to get a pink copy.

 

So it worked out in the end.

good to hear!

 

I bought a Melvins LP from their merch table years ago (Nude With Boots) and they were cheap at $10 but with a giant BUYER BEWARE sign, as they were all warped... i took a chance on one that looked OK in the shrinkwrap, put it on at home the next day, and teh stylus got launched into outer space on the first revolution. total no-go.

 

but i had a bunch of 12"x12" floor tiles leftover from a kitchen project, and stacked about 6-8 on the LP and left it in the basement for ~6 months. plays fine now!

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good to hear!

 

I bought a Melvins LP from their merch table years ago (Nude With Boots) and they were cheap at $10 but with a giant BUYER BEWARE sign, as they were all warped... i took a chance on one that looked OK in the shrinkwrap, put it on at home the next day, and teh stylus got launched into outer space on the first revolution. total no-go.

 

but i had a bunch of 12"x12" floor tiles leftover from a kitchen project, and stacked about 6-8 on the LP and left it in the basement for ~6 months. plays fine now!

 

That's a good idea!   I have a couple hundred pounds worth of tiles in my shed.  I might try that.

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The latest issue of Guitar Player has Jeff and Nels on the cover.   Pretty good interview.  Sort of gear oriented.  One surprising piece of info from it:  That's Jeff playing the lead guitar hook on Love is Everywhere.  He said it was faster to just record it himself than it would be to teach it to Nels.  (Nels plays it on stage, and it sounds exactly the same.)

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After being lukewarm about the album at first, I'm really enjoying it now. Little nuances reveal themselves with every listen, guitar parts and lyrics start to stick and time flies by listening to it rather than it being a chore to get through.

 

Whereas Jeff has previously sung about their songs being "an aural arms open wide" and "a sonic shoulder to cry on", a lot of the tunes on this record actually deliver on that particular promise... :thumbup

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm trying. I'm really trying. And I'll keep trying.

But I still haven't warmed up to Ode to Joy. 

 

This and Schmilco are such a huge departure from anything that's been done previously. 

 

I realize we're never going to have another Summerteeth or Being There but I miss the roots-rock-Americana sound that made Wilco famous. 

Saw them in Indy on 11/12 and am seeing them again tonight in St. Louis. Also have tickets for one night of the Chicago shows.

 

I will say that I enjoyed the songs more live than I do on the album, but there were a total of 8 songs from OTJ and I expect there'll be about that many tonight. 
 

Currently on the 15th or so play through of OTJ. I'm becoming more familiar with the songs. 

 

My parents were fond of telling me the story of how I used to try to force myself to like watermelon because my dad really liked it. Apparently I would force myself to eat it and, while suppressing the gag reflex, would declare my love for it. I really wanted to like watermelon because I wanted to be like my dad. 

 

I really want to like OTJ because it's by my favorite band, but so far it's all effort and little reward.

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  • 2 months later...

I don't think OTJ is such a departure from the previous Wilco catalogue. I hear distant echoes of YHF, ST and AGIB, in particular with the headphones on, as some VCers mentioned. I would love to hear the band playing it in an intimate setting

Overall, I think is a great record. It has soothed my soul along the autumn and early winter. Thank you Wilco!

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