Kicking Television (Nonesuch; 2005)
Here are Wilco’s unintentional greatest hits in live album form. Kicking Television works because of the aforementioned: it’s laid out like a greatest hits package, and all the songs have the benefit of flowing because it’s a live show performed by a veteran band. A veteran band also means veteran production (for the most part), so you don’t hear the echoing of the stadium or so much of the crowd’s cheering that you often would in regular live albums. It helps that Tweedy sings all the songs the exact same way that they appear in their respective albums, except for “I’m The Man Who Loves You,” but even then it’s not a terrible departure. The album is comprised of highlights from all their studio albums except for A.M, which is unfortunate because that album says so much about the band. Unfortunately, although A.M is the indication of their humble beginnings, its power country songs wouldn’t make sense alongside their more careful and mature releases. So, in Kicking Television you have a fantastic if not incomplete greatest hits and a pretty good live double album. Their best place to start is still with one of their albums.
And thus I retire from this thread. Thanks for reading!