Red Mosquito

I think it's one of the more immediately likable songs, but that could also be because I'm much more familiar with it than most of the rest.

Something about the breeziness of it coupled with the lyrics gives me a feeling of peace, despite the heaviness of it. Like the narrator is admitting something horrible about himself and can move on from there. However, I didn't include it in the stretch of four songs that I really really like because it kind of feels like a pause before a new section on the album. Really it stands alone for me

Their best album in a long time

tragabigzanda wrote:

washing machine wrote:How are you feeling about Tired of Taking it Out on You?

Bottom tier for this album. I think the lyrics are great, but the song doesn’t do much for me. I think the melody isn’t particularly strong.

Do you disagree?

This was probably the song I liked best on first pass

psychobain wrote:Their best album in a long time

It is certainly a long time

Many Worlds and Bird without a Tail/Base of my Skull both venture into some pretty psychedelic territory in a unique way. Mostly repetitive strumming patterns with little flourishes that spin out from the center of the song. The guitars on this whole thing keep surprising me.

tragabigzanda wrote:Most insightful review I’ve seen yet:

https://uproxx.com/indie/wilco-cruel-co ... um-review/

Good review. I was not surprised to read them make the same connections with the dead that I did on Bird and Many Worlds. Just so fun to hear these guys jam like that.

One thing these reviews want to focus on is how this record says something about living in America, but I also wonder if the many domestic themes on here play in sort of the same way. Love and loyalty despite pains and struggles is how I read several of these songs. "Cruel Country", "Tonight's the Day", "Please Be Wrong", "Tired of Taking it Out on You"... These themes make marriage and patriotism, the kind of patriotism rooted in faith and a resolve to continue to fight for happiness, feel like metaphors for each other. I think that so many of us in America struggle to separate feelings about country with feelings about life at home, post-2020 lockdowns. This record resonates so well because it somehow kind of nails that alongside some organically good music.

Finally able to venture into multiple listens and new discoveries territory. I don't think this album is homogenic sounding as we first thought. It's just massive and feels that way until you zoom in.

Top of my head top 10:

Bird without a Tail/Base of my Skull
Country Song Upside Down
Tired of Taking it Out on You
The Plains
Ambulance
Falling Apart (Right Now)
Tonight's the Day
Sad Kind of Way
Story to Tell
Many Worlds

have listened to this twice now. immediate favorites are (in track order):

I Am My Mother
Cruel Country
Hints
All Across the World
Bird Without a Tail / Base of My Skull
Tired of Taking It Out On You
The Universe
Many Worlds
Falling Apart
A Lifetime to Find
The Plains

There are certainly stretches where I just simply lose attention to songs that don't grab me due to the same tempo throughout the album, and things just sort of bleed together. If I was a huge Wilco fan, that wouldn't be the case, but being that i'm a fairly casual fan, i find the number of songs that are in a similar range to be a bit daunting.

The less subdued tunes on the album remind me a lot of the southern rock jam/roots bands that were all over every college bar or on the stereos at every house party. Which were all sort of just Grateful Dead knockoffs.

washing machine wrote:These themes make marriage and patriotism, the kind of patriotism rooted in faith and a resolve to continue to fight for happiness, feel like metaphors for each other. I think that so many of us in America struggle to separate feelings about country with feelings about life at home, post-2020 lockdowns.

I hear what you are saying in a lot of the lyrics too. I can also see this sort of marriage / patriotism combo kind of rooting back to the concept of the nuclear family from the 50s/60s. The imagery of the good ol' American family, usually suburban or rural, creating and living in the American Dream (or whatever it was that people were sold as the American Dream). One could maybe connect that with the concept of patriotism from that era, which still carries over today. Probably just grasping at straws here.

What rough part of Bozeman are you driving in where a man's out there poorly sewing back his arm?

Is that about the Scarecrow from Wizard of Oz?

This album is making me want to revisit Sky Blue Sky and Wilco (The Album) much more than Being There or AM. The three albums that came before stand alongside Cruel Country in great contrast, even though they share a few of the same tempos and textures. Something about the nature of how Cruel Country was recorded makes it feel worlds apart from Star Wars/Schmilco and Ode to Joy. I had no idea recording full band live takes versus studio dubbing made that much of a difference, though when I think about it of course it does.

tragabigzanda wrote:And then yeah, it’s similar to SBS because of how straightforward everything is, and how the musicians play off each other, rather than trying to fill out space around the Jeff/Glen show

I've been meaning to ask you, but can you possibly shed any insight or light onto the SBS/Cruel Country type recording process and the alternative, which I assume is laying down instruments individually and tweaking the boards? How about when a band records on a stage but the production comes across sounding like a studio thing? Thinking of things like Time Fades Away. In live recording like this, are there multiple takes or is what we hear truly, unedited live music?

Thanks for that. I could learn about studio dynamics and mechanics all day, but I find myself never really knowing how to ask the questions. Nothing technical comes naturally to me, yet recording is arguably the thing I pay attention to most after I dig deep into a song or album.