wilco

[BigRedLedbetter]

I just enjoy my tweedy drugged up on pain pills. You know?

Agreed 100% with this.

[Norah]

"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...

Interesting. I find myself listening to yhf and the whole love the most of all.

[darth_vedder]

And I still think they tried too hard to pigeonhole Matt Cameron into a Pearl Jam "sound." And because of that, the songs themselves continue to suffer.

God I hate songs like The Fixer, World Wide Suicide, and Let the Records Play.

[Alex]

And I still think they tried too hard to pigeonhole Matt Cameron into a Pearl Jam "sound." And because of that, the songs themselves continue to suffer.

God I hate songs like The Fixer, World Wide Suicide, and Let the Records Play.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

And I still think they tried too hard to pigeonhole Nels Cline into a Wilco "sound." And because of that, the songs themselves continue to suffer.

God I hate songs like Hate It Here, Walkin, and You Never Know.

i really like you never know...i can take or leave walken...and hate it here is my least favorite wilco song

[Alex]

And I still think they tried too hard to pigeonhole Nels Cline into a Wilco "sound." And because of that, the songs themselves continue to suffer.

God I hate songs like Hate It Here, Walkin, and You Never Know.

i really like you never know...i can take or leave walken...and hate it here is my least favorite wilco song

i do the dishes, i mow the lawn, i eat a ten-pack of hot dogs on valentine's day, cuz i know you ain't comin home

[BigRedLedbetter]

Oh this solo. Just destroys me for some reason. Adore it so.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I79m7_kAnA

[Kevin Davis]

only in the sense that the beatles were writing fundamentally different songs in help! compared to the white album, except reverse the chronologies

I think that's a reasonable analogy overall, except that when I hear songs like "Happiness is a Warm Gun" and "Yer Blues" and "Rocky Raccoon" and "Sexy Sadie" and "Everybody's Got Something to Hide..." and the list goes on, I legitimately do hear songs that are stylistically and structurally different, employ different kinds of chords and harmonies (in some cases, riffs in lieu of chords), and evidence an entirely different approach to lyric-writing in comparison to earlier Beatles material. I think there's a much narrower compositional range between "Outta Mind (Outta Site)" and "Can't Stand It" and "I'm the Man Who Loves You" and "Hate It Here" and "You Never Know" (or between "Someone Else's Song" and "Muzzle of Bees" and "Solitaire") (or between "Student Loan Stereo" and "I'm a Wheel" and "Kicking Television" and "Sonny Feeling") than there are between most songs on "Help" and the white album. Basically, I struggle to identify a set of compositional tools that was available to Tweedy circa "YHF"/"Ghost" that has since been lost; the kinds of songs he writes now are the same kinds of songs he's always written. As will happen, what each type of song entails has evolved over time and with the artist, but overall I think the differences amount to aesthetics and ideologies more than anything.

"Ghost" is really the only album that has that fatigued "doped up on pills" vibe to it, though I would bet that sense is greatly overstated simply because of what we know about Tweedy's personal life. John Stirratt said at one point that Tweedy getting his act together in that regard "improved the focus" of the band, so maybe that's the x factor -- too much focus and not enough surrender to stray impulse.

[Mike]

Oh man, I love Summerteeth so much. Jay Bennett should have stayed.

[BigRedLedbetter]

Just bought tickets to their show in KC in July. Hell yes! Can't wait!!

[Chris_H_2]

Just bought night 1 for the Pitchfork Fest. Wilco, Chvrches, Panda Bear, etc.

[LetMeSleep]

Oh man, I love Summerteeth so much. Jay Bennett should have stayed.

Yes yes yes. And Ken Coomer's loose playing was so right.

[Jorge]

wished jay bennett used have

[zeb]

I dig their self titled record. The first side is very enjoyable. Maybe you guys don't like straightforward arrangements on Wilco records?

[Mike]

'I Might' is exactly what I want from modern Wilco.

[Chris_H_2]

Maybe you guys don't like straightforward arrangements on Wilco records?

I'm guilty of this. There are other bands/musicians that do straightforward arrangements much, much better than Wilco.

Honestly: would you ever have gotten into Wilco as much as you did if albums like Being There, Summerteeth, or YHF had straightforward arrangements? What drew me to the band was that they were anything but straightfoward.

[Chris_H_2]

'I'll Fight' is exactly what I loathe about modern Wilco.

[Kevin Davis]

I dunno, I think "Being There" is about as straightforward as it gets. Much like "The Bends," it gets a lot of graces for being a step on the ascent rather than a point on the decline. But in my eyes its ultimate relationship to the peak is similar to more recent records; I don't really hear "Outtasite" and "Monday" as being much different than "You Never Know." And I think "I'll Fight" is a wonderful song.

[verb_to_trust]

That's all well and good but the highs of Misunderstood and Sunken Treasure aren't there on that album.

As far as a song like I'll Fight goes, its a typically charming Tweedy song that sounds clunky when the whole band gets involved:





The reason why the Tweedy album is better than the last two Wilco records is because the band isn't there to get in the way of what has always made Wilco good in the first place: Jeff Tweedy. Sure, there are exceptions like Bull Black Nova and Art of Almost.... but mostly you end up with stuff like I Might.

[digster]

I get not liking Sky Blue Sky and the s/t; there's highlights but they're spotty. I don't see many issues with The Whole Love. Yeah, it's not as good as YHF, but I'm not going to hold that against it.