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kidsmoke

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Albert Tatlock

Albert Tatlock

Posted
Posted

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. Yes

4. Yes

5. Yes

6. Yes

7  Yes

8. Yes

9. Yes

10. Yes! Yes! Yes!

 

Nice to hear a brighter, more diverse aural palette employed (back to Whole Love territory - which is a good thing). Nothing that I don't like (which is rare) but also nothing on first listen that immediately reaches up to the greatest heights of past favourites. Feel like there could be some growers though so not ruling that out (check back for an update if you can be arsed . . .). Overall pretty happy after the past few albums.

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craigwinn

craigwinn

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. Yes

4. Yes

5. Yes

6. Yes

7  Yes

8. Yes

9. Yes

10. Yes! Yes! Yes!

 

Nice to hear a brighter, more diverse aural palette employed (back to Whole Love territory - which is a good thing). Nothing that I don't like (which is rare) but also nothing on first listen that immediately reaches up to the greatest heights of past favourites. Feel like there could be some growers though so not ruling that out. Overall pretty happy after the past few albums.

This sums it up pretty well. It's nice to hear some tonal variety and space in the mix... 

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martynep

martynep

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Albert Tatlock said:

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. Yes

4. Yes

5. Yes

6. Yes

7  Yes

8. Yes

9. Yes

10. Yes! Yes! Yes!

 

Nice to hear a brighter, more diverse aural palette employed (back to Whole Love territory - which is a good thing). Nothing that I don't like (which is rare) but also nothing on first listen that immediately reaches up to the greatest heights of past favourites. Feel like there could be some growers though so not ruling that out (check back for an update if you can be arsed . . .). Overall pretty happy after the past few albums.


Using your ‘Yes’ rating system (hope you don’t mind 😁) here are mine after 2 listens 

1. Yes! Yes!

2. Yes! Yes! 

3. Yes! Yes! Yes!

4. Yes

5. Yes! Yes!

6. Yes! Yes! Yes!

7. Yes! Yes! Yes!

8. Yes! Yes! Yes!

9. Yes

10. Yes! Yes!

Maybe I’m more easily pleased, but I already rate it very highly and suspect it will only grow in my estimation 🤞

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jff

jff

Posted
Posted
21 hours ago, 5hake1t0ff said:

How Wilco Became the Most Misunderstood Band on Earth - InsideHook

Honestly the best thing I've read on Wilco in a long, long while.

 

I enjoyed that article and agree with many of its points.  But, then there's this lazy old chestnut:

 

It’s beyond reductive to say they’re not being utilized properly because of a lack of traditional guitar shredding.

This comment itself is reductive and arguably dishonest, because nobody is asking for more "shredding."  Like finger tapping or chicken pickin', shredding is a specific, definable style of guitar playing.  One that typically is not utilized in Wilco at all, except as the grand finale of a guitar solo in concert.  It's always been a vanishingly small percentage of what Wilco does.  (If you want to hear Nels shred, listen to Contemplating the Engine Room...there's a lot of shredding on there, and aside from Art of Almost and a very small portion of the guitar solos on a very small number of other songs, there's nothing like that on any Wilco studio album.)  It doesn't just mean "guitar solos" or the occasional "hot lick" as this writer seems to think, and it's not at all what the people he's referring to are calling for. 

 

Rather, some segment of the fanbase love the experimentation, but would like to hear a little or a lot more of the touchstones of rock and roll music incorporated into it.  This combination is a hallmark, perhaps THE singular hallmark, of Wilco's best work (and many other artist's best work) in the studio and on stage, and when they don't bother with it, it's not wrong for a rock music fan, or even a Wilco lifer, to feel like sometimes the meal Wilco makes for us just doesn't taste very good. 

 

I still like Wilco a lot, but every single person I've ever known has disappointed me at some point in our relationship.   I don't see any reason why that would be any different with music groups.  And I don't see why it's wrong to have certain criteria that determine whether or not you like a record.  Frankly, I think having criteria makes for educated analysis and is a lot better than simply loving everything you're served, which is really just Standom.

 

 

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5hake1t0ff

5hake1t0ff

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4 hours ago, jff said:

 

 

it's not wrong for a rock music fan, or even a Wilco lifer, to feel like sometimes the meal Wilco makes for us just doesn't taste very good. 

 

 

 

Totally not wrong! I agree with you there. And since I appreciate our back-and-forths...

 

I interpreted the writer's point a little differently than you. He's saying it's reductive to look for one style of Wilco and, having not received it, decide that amounts to everyone besides Jeff being "underutilized." I've seen a dozen different versions of the "underutilized" critique, and I do find it quite tiresome. Ever since Wilco became a sextet, it's probably invited this critique, which I don't even think is what you're saying exactly. I think you're just saying you prefer the guitar-led rockers to other styles of Wilco music; and in another part of that article, I felt the writer did a good job acknowledging that Wilco has different sets of fans who came on board during different eras who understandably want different things from the band. I'm pretty sure every band that has been around for 10+ studio albums has this dynamic. You can have those differences of opinion without the need to denigrate members of the band as "underutilized" would be my argument.

 

And I fully own my own Wilco Standom. So maybe guilty as charged there. For a select few bands/artists who've captured my heart over time, I just personally enjoy the "fan" journey of trying my best to appreciate something in every twist and turn of their output for as long as they can sustain my interest.

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jff

jff

Posted
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1 hour ago, 5hake1t0ff said:

 

I think you're just saying you prefer the guitar-led rockers to other styles of Wilco music

 

Not really.  I don't care if the song rocks or not.  Some of my favorite Wilco moments are things like the first half of Muzzle of Bees, the unusual note choices Nels makes at the end of each verse on Bull Black Nova, or pretty much everything about Ashes.  I'm the one who's always complaining because the quiet parts are the most interesting part of their concerts, yet that's when people really start running their mouths. 

 

But sure, I like the rockers, too.  In a rock ensemble, I want the instruments to be recognizable as the instruments they are the majority of the time (I welcome some dicking around with sounds and effects, but my ear tells me that in Wilco, Nels overdoes it).  I also want to hear active interaction between the musicians.  Sonic beds for Tweedy to do his thing over is not active interaction (this doesn't have anything to do with recording as a live band vs. recording one track at a time.)   Effects are fun and are great for enhancing or damaging the sound of things in various ways. But when the effects take the sound over entirely and remove every remnant of the sound an instrument would naturally make, as is common with modern era Wilco, I check out. 

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jackpunch

jackpunch

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Posted
39 minutes ago, jff said:

 

Not really.  I don't care if the song rocks or not.  Some of my favorite Wilco moments are things like the first half of Muzzle of Bees, the unusual note choices Nels makes at the end of each verse on Bull Black Nova, or pretty much everything about Ashes.  I'm the one who's always complaining because the quiet parts are the most interesting part of their concerts, yet that's when people really start running their mouths. 

 

But sure, I like the rockers, too.  In a rock ensemble, I want the instruments to be recognizable as the instruments they are the majority of the time (I welcome some dicking around with sounds and effects, but my ear tells me that in Wilco, Nels overdoes it).  I also want to hear active interaction between the musicians.  Sonic beds for Tweedy to do his thing over is not active interaction (this doesn't have anything to do with recording as a live band vs. recording one track at a time.)   Effects are fun and are great for enhancing or damaging the sound of things in various ways. But when the effects take the sound over entirely and remove every remnant of the sound an instrument would naturally make, as is common with modern era Wilco, I check out. 

 

Their last album was as "organic" as anything they've released in years. 

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jff

jff

Posted
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10 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Interesting thoughts - thanks. I like reading about how people receive their music, and in an environment where they are not jumped on for expressing personal opinions one way or another.

 

Same here.  This isn't a cult.  None of us are required to love everything Wilco does, or pretend to love everything they do.  It'd be inhuman if we all did that.

 

I'm confident everyone who has ever been in Wilco would agree with that.  

 

Having said that, I think the new album is pretty good, even if it doesn't scratch my itches in a way Wilco music did for a long time.

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Albert Tatlock

Albert Tatlock

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On 9/29/2023 at 12:42 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

check back for an update if you can be arsed . . .

 

So, I am increasingly inclined to declare that Cousin is my favourite Wilco album. There is a reluctance because it still maybe doesn't have a track that is up there to join the complete Wilco belters for me, but then again it does not have a track that fails to land. Every other Wilco album has at least one, and usually 2 or 3, tracks that I just don't like that much. 

Every song has a memorable melody, which is king for me, as I think someone else said above. I would struggle to hum any of the Cruel Country/Ode To Joy/Warm/Warmer songs - I just don't remember them (not that I have listened to any that much as they never got their hooks into me - except Quiet Amplifier/Everyone Hides). After one listen to Cousin I could actually remember songs. Maybe I'm just a simpleton, but that's a big measure for me.

I would say however that the initial live versions I've seen on YouTube need a bit moro ooomph in their delivery to match the album versions. There was a version of Pittsburgh that was a bit plodding, and Meant To Be should be lifting the rafters. So Wilco have a couple of Red Bulls before going on stage when next in the UK and front of house turn the oomph dial up to 11 please. 

P.S. JT probably does deserve a medal for performing at all with his current discomfort though.

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