Alex wrote:i don't know why, but i'm still very excited about the prospect of a new wilco album
because you really enjoyed the last album and recognized what an improvement it was over sky blue sky and wilco the album?
it was an improvement over those two, but i wouldn't say it was a return to the heights of being there/summerteeth/YHF/AGIB. i don't think anyone would say that.
I think the last album is much closer to the quality of the being there - agib run than it is to sky blue sky and self titled.
Alex wrote:i don't know why, but i'm still very excited about the prospect of a new wilco album
because you really enjoyed the last album and recognized what an improvement it was over sky blue sky and wilco the album?
it was an improvement over those two, but i wouldn't say it was a return to the heights of being there/summerteeth/YHF/AGIB. i don't think anyone would say that.
I think the last album is much closer to the quality of the being there - agib run than it is to sky blue sky and self titled.
i'm going to say the same thing as the post i quote but in a different way.
The first five songs on "Sky Blue Sky" are fantastic -- the equivalent of "YHF" and "Ghost," I would say, less satisfying in a conceptual sense perhaps but equally engaged and expressive. It kind of takes a nosedive after that, though there are a few nice moments. I wish "One True Vine" and "The Thanks I Get" had made the album
i think there's a lot riding on the next album. we'll see whether TWL was an aberration in a long phase of relatively boring wilco, or was the first step toward a reinvigorated band.
Malloy wrote:making this place inhospitable to posting is really the only move left.
"The Whole Love" feels to me like a fairly deliberate attempt to recapture with a band of well-rehearsed pros a similar creative spirit to that which the internally unstable Wilco of 2001-2004 happened upon out of a sense of wonder. I respect the effort and ultimately agree that it is a better record than its two predecessors, but I find myself compelled to play it less frequently -- whatever their weaknesses, "Sky Blue Sky" and the self-titled album possess for me some weird, undefined sense of intrigue that keeps me coming back, wondering if I'd missed something.
I hope we get a new album at some point but I wonder if the rarities and hits sets weren't kind of the band's way of putting a pin in Wilco as a creative venture for a while. I still haven't listened to the Tweedy album, though his songwriting has always been the big appeal of Wilco for me (can't imagine what else would be, as it's been the only constant), so I should really check it out...
the trends of hand-wringing and the inability to reach consensus regarding wilco's last three albums are strikingly similar to these trends in the pearl jam community.
Malloy wrote:making this place inhospitable to posting is really the only move left.
Was Tweedy really writing fundamentally different kinds of songs back then, though? Seems to me that the big change has been setting-related, highlighted by the kind of complacent "groove" that comes with having a steady, well-rehearsed band that can finish each other's sentences.
Alex wrote:the trends of hand-wringing and the inability to reach consensus regarding wilco's last three albums are strikingly similar to these trends in the pearl jam community.
Yeah, pretty much, though I like The Whole Love better than SBS or S/T.