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Wilco Discography Review
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Although I have already reviewed Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, I was inspired by Ethan's Talkin' Bob Dylan thread some time ago and decided it was time for another great American voice to get recognition. Jeff Tweedy is a trooper. First a member of the band The Primitives, then the member of Uncle Tupelo after lead singer of The Primitives split, and currently a member of Wilco when Jay Farrar of Uncle Tupelo and Tweedy’s relationship soured; Tweedy must think he’s pretty special, or he really does love music enough to stick around for this long. Coincidentally, I must think Wilco, the band he fronts, is pretty special to be writing an entire discography review/retrospective. Truth is I do think that Wilco are pretty special, if not solely for the fact that their 2002 effort Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was such an outstanding and distinctive album. But though Yankee Hotel was their undeniable pinnacle, their diverse discography and interesting collaborations make them more than just that band that released one of the most triumphant albums of this generation. Starting where they started, this retrospective will focus first on Wilco’s studio albums and then their live albums and collaborations. American aquarium drinkers please sit back and relax. Review of A.M when/if thread is approved. |
A.M (Reprise; 1995)
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...bb4edc0110.jpg Band Members * Jeff Tweedy – acoustic guitar, guitar, composer, vocals * John Stirratt – organ, acoustic guitar, bass, piano, bass guitar, vocals * Ken Coomer – drums, vocals * Max Johnston – banjo, dobro, fiddle, mandolin, vocals * Brian Henneman – guitar, vocals * Daniel Corrigan – bass, vocals, background vocals * Lloyd Maines – pedal steel, steel guitar Listen to the album here (Wilco's official website). Wilco had not yet shaken off Uncle Tupelo’s alternative country sound when they released A.M in 1995, shortly after the previous band’s break-up. Not much of a break-up, however, for most of the band members of Uncle Tupelo stuck around to create Wilco. Regardless, this is their transition record. As a Wilco album, it is a stepping-stone and hardly the shape of things to come for the band musically, yet lyrically it is very similar to everything else Tweedy will write. Someone once noted in Wilco’s last.fm shout box that A.M is their Pablo Honey (Radiohead), and they couldn’t be more right. They will soon sound more refined and ambitious on Being There, but more on that later. A.M is arguably their most accessible album, starting pop rocky and catchy with “I Must Be High” and following strong with “Casino Queen.” Soon after that the listener will notice a pattern. Each song is its own contained entity, none really contributing to a sensible flow. Thematically the songs don’t really change, making each succeeding song sound like old ground, although things get slightly mixed up with “That’s Not The Issue,” a banjo driven song. It isn’t a grower like Being There and a Ghost Is Born is, but if there is one Wilco album to listen to during a party, it would be this one. Although A.M is by no means a bad album, when compared to everything else that comes later it is a relatively unimpressive one. It's just alternative country. NEXT: Being There, latest by next week. |
Wow, I am so excited for this thread. Wilco is such a great band. Nice revew of A.M., that is so true how it is "their Pablo Honey." Also, I think it is their only album that can actualy be classified as "alt-country."
I'm really looking forward to your reviews of the big 3: A Ghost is Born, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and Summerteeth. My favorite of those three changes all the time because they are each such excellent and complete albums. |
BEING THERE (Reprise; 1996)
Cool Fact: The title of the album is derived from the 1979 movie of the same name. Cool Fact: Although it was packaged with two discs, Reprise sold Being There for the price of one. http://patrickmackenzie.com/blog/wp-...7/12/wilco.jpg Hot off the heels of their 1995 effort A.M, Wilco return, sounding more atmospheric and cryptic. Whereas A.M was straight up, flannel shirt wearing alternative country with no mystery or real ambition, Being There is a sprawling double album that, when not completely doing without their alternative country sound, sounds like a more refined version of their then signature sound. As soon as “Misunderstood” starts the listener knows that this is no part of this album is going to sound like the beloved “Casino Queen” or “I Must Be High” of the year prior. “Far, Far Away,” is probably the first lyrical surprise. At first it sounds like something that could have belonged in A.M, until the song nears its conclusion as Tweedy explains that he will find his beloved in the dark side. Citing The Dark Side Of The Moon provides the song with an eerie vibe that hints at Tweedy’s soon to be most infamous vocal, “I dreamt about killing you again last night, and it felt alright to me” (from Summerteeth). Although there are songs like “Monday” and “Outtasite (Outta mind)” (and, really, most of Disc 1) that are musically and thematically similar to the tracks found on A.M, there are a few surprise inclusions. “Kingpin” sounds like something Beck would have conjured, and “Dreamer In My Dreams” sounds like the Beatles resurrected. Plenty of Disc 2 also sounds more country (minus the alt) than A.M, creating a diverse, often surprising though sometimes-redundant double album. I’m going to cheat and go back and say that A.M is not their transition album, but that Being There is. There are hints of what came before and what is to come for the band musically and thematically, though they would really depart in the psychedelic Summerteeth. If A.M was their Pablo Honey, Being There is definitely their Bends. |
I love this comparison to Radiohead, and I agree that Being There is their Bends. They have not yet reached the true Wilco sound yet. Nevertheless Being There is a great album. The Lonely 1 is one Wilco's most beautiful songs, and it's one of my favorites by them.
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Thanks Manny. The Lonely 1 is a great song, I agree. I prefer Disc 1 to Disc 2.
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Summerteeth (Reprise; 1998)
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Listen to the album here. Summerteeth is so sexy. The whole album is drenched in mystery, darkness, sarcasm and catharsis. This is Jeff Tweedy at his lyrical bravest. In Via Chicago, one of the album’s strongest songs, Tweedy sings, “I dreamed about killing you again last night, and it felt alright to me/ dying on the banks of Embarcadero skies, I sat and watched you bleed/ Buried you alive in a fireworks display raining down on me/ Your cold, hot blood ran away from me, to the sea.” Couple that with Tweedy’s stance on God on “Can’t Stand It” and his sadism on “She’s A Jar” and what you get is their most daring album yet. Sexy is also the album’s production, which makes Wilco sound nothing like they did on A.M three years prior. They perfected the slight psychedelia of Being There, took away anything that resembled alternative country, and really came into their own. Two posts ago I said that A.M is their most accessible album. Summerteeth definitely challenges this. Not only is each of the first seven tracks better than anything on A.M, the entire album is much more memorable. One of the gems in the album, a song so surprising lyrically it immediately became my favourite song in the playlist, is Pieholden Suite. Whereas most of the album is kind of dark, Pieholden Suite surprises and delights by completely derailing and becoming positively nostalgic. The song starts as sad as anything else on the past three albums, but then Tweedy travels back in time to sing one perfect verse, “In the beginning we closed our eyes/ whenever we kissed we were surprised to find so much inside”, after which the song opens and builds up like a blue sky after rain. It’s a delight to listen to, but it’s often unfairly overlooked. In continuation with the Radiohead comparison, A.M = Pablo Honey, Being There = The Bends, but Summerteeth isn’t OK Computer. If anything it’s their The Bends take two. Although A.M is their easiest to listen to, Summerteeth is the most rewarding of the 90s releases. Start from Summerteeth. |
Summerteeth is far and away Wilco's finest musical moment. For the first time, Wilco sounds like a cohesive musical unit. At the end of the Nineties, Tweedy finally cuts loose from his Americana roots and moves into dark, haunting and emotionally searing pop psychedelica. It sounds like Music from Big Pink meets Pink Floyd 1967 for lunch in Paris 1919. Tweedy's most ambitous musical gamble was a commerical failure, selling only 200,000 units. Wilco's commerical failure seemed like a climb to heaven on Jacob's ladder.
With Summerteeth, Wilco crosses a bridge to explore exotic musical regions where few bands dared to tread. Summerteeth is Wilco's White Album from which a thousand fields of wildflowers open up and bloom. Summerteeth shimmers with shining light and vivid colors of a Giverny era Monet pastoral painting. With Summerteeth refutes F. Scott's Fitzgerald's idea that in life, there are no second acts. |
Great thread and reviews (which I agree with). Can't wait to see reviews of Yankee Hotel and Ghost is Born.
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comparing great bands
Great thread. I agree with comparison of Wilco to Radiohead's evolution, and I love hearing and understanding the evolution of bands by liistening to benchmark albums. I know this is a thread about Wilco, but I'm curious about how would you say your list of evoluntionary albums compares with The Beatles? I would put it:
Wilco: A.M. > Being There > Yankee Foxtrot Hotel Radiohead: Pablo Honey > The Bends > OK Computer Beatles: A Hard Day's Night > Sgt. Pepper's L.H.C.B. > Abbey Road Though, I know some would argue: Beatles: A Hard Day's Night > Revolver > Sgt. Pepper's... Just curious. Again, great thread--thanks for it. |
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Nonesuch; 2002)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...telFoxtrot.jpg I admit I might have over thought my first review for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an album worth praising and analyzing. At the end of the 90s, soon after Summerteeth, something strange happened to Wilco, a train of circumstances that create a story that alone propels an album to classic status. It’s a case of “the lead singer has a vision so the rest of the band better comply or **** off,” a-la My Bloody Valentine in Loveless albeit My Bloody Valentine are still the same band going in as they were coming out. But the comparisons still apply. Just like Loveless, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot took about two years between its creation and its release; there were money issues, illnesses (migraines for Tweedy and insomnia for Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine) and the end result was an album that explored new sonic landscapes. This is where the story gets good: thinking that the album had no “pop appeal,” Wilco’s label for the past three albums, Reprise, refused to release it. So they took their demos and went to Reprise’s hotter, smarter little sister Nonesuch Records, and the album gets released in 2002 to both critical and popular acclaim, becoming Wilco’s highest selling album at the time. I’m not sure who said it, but I once heard someone say that Tweedy was the first individual to successfully mix Folk/Country with a laptop. But don’t fear, people – this isn’t the second coming of Cotton Eyed Joe. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is instead a masterpiece of song structure and progression, easily the band’s defining moment and pinnacle. The most amazing thing is that nothing on Yankee Hotel sounds like anything that came before it, not even Summerteeth. The songs are so dense that even the more straightforward tracks like Kamera and Pot Kettle Black would have been out of place in anything that came before, and to be honest, anything that came after. Thank Jim O’Rourke, who once co-produced Stereolab’s fantastic “Emperor Tomato Ketchup.” Most people criticise Yankee Hotel for its predominantly low-key tracks, making the album boring or uninteresting. It honestly boggles my mind, but I think I understand what happened. Most new listeners trying to get into Wilco are taught that the band is a mix of alternative, country, and sometimes psychedelia. When “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart” comes on, most of these people don’t know what’s happening, and the confusion only builds up in the next 6 minutes. It also happened to people who listened to Summerteeth or A.M shortly before jumping into Yankee Hotel. When they don’t hear “Can’t Stand It” or “I Must Be High” right away, they are likewise confused. It doesn’t help that the lyrics make no real sense, and just when you think you have the album pinned down, Kamera comes on and ****s up the entire system again. So, for the first three tracks, two of which are over five minutes, the listener doesn’t know what to believe. It’s just too much of a mind****. So, mix low-key songs with questionable production and wtf lyrics and you’ve got the first few minutes of Yankee Hotel. This isn’t alt country! Then there are the more patient listeners who get the album right away, or who thrive in being tossed from one idea to the next – who get that there’s more to the album than they’ve been led to believe. And there is. Tweedy is no longer singing about the same people and emotions with the same immediacy as Wilco’s preceding releases. He’s singing about them under a veil of static and interference, as if his mind was being affected by the electronic distortions that accompany each track. I wholeheartedly believe that Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is a classic. I just know that generations from now people will appreciate it much more than it is now. From its production and release story, to its song hooks and progression, and to its minimalist album cover, everything about the album spells out modern classic. We just don’t all get it yet. So, yes, I would call this their OK Computer; their most successful album, where the band perfect its sound and hasn’t since been able to top the achievement. I would also call it their Sgt. Pepper’s LHCB for its experimentation. From this point on the band will sound more cohesive but less interesting, like the Beatles in Abbey Road. |
yes, I agree
"So, yes, I would call this their OK Computer; their most successful album, where the band perfect its sound and hasn’t since been able to top the achievement. I would also call it their Sgt. Pepper’s LHCB for its experimentation. From this point on the band will sound more cohesive but less interesting, like the Beatles in Abbey Road."You're right--I totally agree with your perspective now that I read your rationale. Yankee Hotel--like Sgt. Pepper's--is the band's apex in experimentation and creativity. After that, it becomes tighter, but less experimental. Thanks for your review--it makes sense to me. (Of course, Wilco is still kicking, so they might surprise us with another burst of creativity...) I also agree that all the 'nay sayers' about Yankee Hotel who don't listen or don't listen closely, will one day be surprised by the album's rise to "classic" status. |
It happened in my initial review for this album. The members of the forum that commented at the time happened to be into more heavy music, so it was unfortunate that they were the first few people to respond to my thread. It's unfortunate because they brought the album's value down for everyone else that read the thread after.
I just hope people give this a chance. Thanks Johne, I like you already : D |
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Such a great album. I agree with pretty much everything you said about it. I never knew the story behind that album, it makes it even better to learn what went into it. I can't really see Wilco getting better than this album. After Sky Blue Sky, I can kind of see the direction their going in and I just don't see them ever doing something better than YHF.
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The unfortunate thing about this forum is that most of the members that have been here a while (and new members that have read enough threads to feel as if they have been here for a long time) are tired of the hype that some individuals attach to certain albums. The preferred scene in this forum, I find, is the very underground scene, albums that are so off the radar that hype is impossible to attach. But what I realized some time ago is that hype is there for a reason - it builds momentum for a reason. Every important album in history has had some great hype behind it at some point or another, that's why we get the greatest albums of all time lists from different editors.
It's just a matter of WHO gives the hype. For example, Neutral Milk Hotel's fans aren't the best at hyping the album. Anyways, review for a Ghost is Born is coming very soon ; ) |
A Ghost Is Born [Nonesuch; 2004]
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...hostIsBorn.jpg Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was the black sheep of Wilco’s discography. There’s a clear thematic progression from A.M to Summerteeth; that is, you feel Tweedy grow as his song writing matures. Yankee Hotel stands still, doesn’t feel like a growth in lyrics as much as it does in music. And then came A Ghost Is Born, probably Wilco’s most depressing album and Tweedy’s most frightening incarnation. One of the first things you’ll notice about the album is that two of the songs, the second and penultimate songs, are both over 10 minutes long. Wilco have never composed a song that long, and for it to happen more than once is, if not interesting, then a bit worrisome. The fact becomes more affecting when the first song, At Least That’s What You Said starts playing. The song starts off very quiet, so quiet in fact that you can barely hear Tweedy, who sounds like he’s giving up on singing altogether. Will the two 10 minute songs be as dull as this? You think, until the song picks up with a long garage jam that would have never found a place in Yankee Hotel’s eccentric production, Summerteeth’s psychedelia, and A.M’s perfect alt-country. It would have made sense in Being There, but even then it would have been a stretch. As soon as At Least That’s What You Said picks up, you know that A Ghost Is Born is, once again, nothing like what came before. Wilco are good at doing that. A Ghost Is Born does something exceptionally interesting and, ultimately (if you have the patience) rewarding: It is the sequel to all Wilco releases thus far. It is the culmination of every idea and every character that had been created by that point. In A Ghost Is Born, Tweedy marries the overwhelming flaws he’s been hinting at up to that point with the violence and malevolence he’d been brewing since Summerteeth, but also with the good guy he’d been subtly adopting since his early days. His flaws are best exemplified in At Least That’s What You Said, where Tweedy comes to love the relationship he’s part of despite the black eye he sports from his love, as if the girl from She’s A Jar (from Summerteeth) finally hit back; In Handshake Drugs, where in the end he surrenders to his significant other, telling her that all he wants to be is what she wants him to be, so “exactly what do you want me to be?” And in Wishful Thinking, where he thanks his lucky stars that “you’re not me.” His flaws also seem to feed his evil, exemplified in Hell Is Chrome where Hell is, to him, a place where he belongs, a paradise better than Earth, and where the devil doesn’t force him to do anything, instead asking him to “come with me.” Strangely, Tweedy also sings about things that kind of make him the good guy, as in Hummgbird and Wishful Thinking, but don’t let those two songs convince you of anything, for Tweedy is once again a bastard in Less Than You Think. As for the similarities to Yankee Hotel, Jim O’Rourke returns to produce this one as well, but the album doesn’t sound like Yankee Hotel. There’s no static (except for the last 10 minutes of Less Than You Think) and no Heavy Metal Drummers, but perhaps that’s best. A Ghost Is Born is more cohesive, and makes more sense than anything that came before. It really draws an atmosphere, making you feel like you’re trapped inside the egg on the album’s cover, a prison from which you escape only to find nothing of value outside of it. It will take a lot of patience to get through this album if you’re expecting the sequel to Yankee Hotel or even the spirit of Summerteeth, but you may find it well worth it. They band has never really written anything as affecting, or as haunting. Don’t be surprised if it becomes your favourite of all of them. |
Very nice reviews and a great thread. The last three albums are such great albums and I could never pick a favorite of the three because they are all so amazing. Was your favorite Wilco album always YHF or has it changed around, or do you not have a favorite like me?
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The only one I can listen to from beginning to end 100% of the time and constantly blows my mind is YHF, though a Ghost Is Born is starting to grown on me, and Summerteeth is close behind YHF.
Thanks for your constant readership : ) |
Sky Blue Sky (Nonesuch; 2007)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Skybluesky.jpg I don’t like Sky Blue Sky. It’s too tame, sounds too polished and the song writing takes two steps backwards for everything that they did right. And they did do a few things right here, namely the opening track Either Way, but after Either Way’s perfect hooks and besides Impossible Germany’s nice jam, Sky Blue Sky is easier forgotten, and better off, to be honest. Although A Ghost Is Born was relatively tame as well, it was still an ambitious, courageous album. Sky Blue Sky just feels like an album made by a band that forgot its fans for a few recording sessions. It feels like an album that an album taking the lazy way out would make. There are a few admirable tracks, namely the two mentioned above and Hate It Here, but you’ll find you’re trying to convince yourself that it’s all really not as bad as it seems, that after a few times it’ll get better. It does, but there are more engaging things to listen to in the meantime. Depending on what you're looking for in Wilco - last eras country songsmiths or exciting, experimental Yankee Hotel Foxtrotters - you might favour or hate this album. To me, it belongs in the background, and it might be the same for you. Deal with that or skip this entirely. |
I've listened to Sky Blue Sky quite a few times sometime ago. I can't really remember a single track from the album. I might give it another chance, but you might be right. I was addicted to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot when I came across a copy at a Goodwill one time. I thought A Ghost is Born was pretty good, which I heard prior. I need to get Summerteeth and Being There.
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Sweet Goodwill find!
Get Summerteeth before Being There, if you can only get one at a time. |
I agree with you about Sky Blue Sky. I wouldn't say I don't like it, but it's nowhere near their previous three. It's like they lost all that pyschedelic/electronic craziness and just went for a completely polished and tame album as you said. There are a few tracks on it that I enjoy though. The first three are each solid songs. My favorites are "Sky Blue Sky" and "Please Be Patient With Me", they're really nice laid back tunes. I just hope this album does not represent the direction Wilco is going in the future.
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Yeah, it's really random what you might find at Goodwill. A friend of mine found Elliott Smith's Figure 8 once. I found a ton of really great vinyl once, they had R.E.M., Springsteen, B-52's, and some other good finds.
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Wilco Eyeing Spring '09 For New Album
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Can we be expecting a review of Kicking Television soon? |
Definitely, working on getting Kicking Television, review in the next week.
By the way, I would love to create a "best of" or starting playlist for this band and share it with MusicBanter, but I don't know how to make a playlist and host it for everyone to download. Anyone know how to go about doing this? |
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That didn't really work, since Last.fm doesn't allow you to play all the tracks, but here's a playlist I created with Playlist.com (some songs I wanted to include are missing since the website didn't have them):
Wilco Playlist |
Why don't you just create like a compilation and upload them onto a site like megaupload so everyone can actually download the songs?
If you don't know how to here's the PMO's Easy Peasy Guide to Uploading Your Own Compilations |
Thanks manny
Here's the mix once again (this time you can download it) WILCO'S GREATEST HITS by ROYGBIV! |
A.M. was the first Wilco album I listened to recently and I loved it.
Once I listen to the other ones I'll be sure to check back here. |
Due to economic issues, I won't be able to purchase and thus review the Mermaid Avenue releases.
I am, however, working on the Kicking Television review, coming soon. |
Kicking Television (Nonesuch; 2005)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Television.jpg 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! |
Nice review, and job well done on the thread Roygbiv! :thumb:
Kicking Television is what made me love Wilco. I always liked Wilco, just listening to their albums but for some reason Kicking Television just made me understand the band more. I then appreciated their albums a lot more after listening to KT, and Wilco became one of my favorite bands. |
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Cheers Roygbiv. Been great and I look forward to your next thread;) |
Thanks guys ^_^
The more I listen to Kicking Television, the more I accept it as an essential part of their discography. The only reason I mentioned that one should start with one of their albums it's due to the themes explored within them, but KT is a great place to start as well, if you weren't convinced by the first few Wilco releases. Anyways, it means a billion that you guys read and appreciate the thread. |
yeh, I remember the first Wilco tracks I really loved were off Yankee Hotel Foxtrot... also some tracks from summerteeth are amazing, ie "Im always in love"
But A Ghost is Born just blew me away... and i never really got back to them since that... |
I pretty much lost interest after A Ghost was Born.. which was the culmination of every interesting aspect of Wilco
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i actually gave sky blue sky a listen again
i should've given it a bigger chance before i reviewed it it's really not that bad, so you should listen to it vacuumnoise. it's an album that tweedy had to absolutely make to come to terms with all the demons he had. |
Anyone else excited for the new record?
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