Wilco - Sky Blue Sky

why do wilco members wear long sleeve shirts, and sometimes even a suit above it on their live performence, for example yesterday,in this hot crowded venue at the end of june?
just wonderin'..

just to enhance the visual chemistry on stage i guess.

works nicely for me

The best thing about this album is the guitar solos. I've been wondering lately whether I might have a secret, as-yet-untapped jam-band love considering how much I like it when Wilco and Sonic Youth get all mellowed-out and jammy.

Well, what do you think of the Dead?

This album kind of rules. I bought the vinyl, which sounds soooo amazing. It's the first Wilco album I've ever bought (maybe the first one I've ever heard all the way through?) I bought it cuz I kept hearing them performing the songs on all these radio shows .. i think it was the 'Prarie Home Companion' set that sold me. but anyway, Nels Cline is seriously the star. there are points where he sounds just like my hero John Cipollina but in general he just brings some bite to this band. Tweedy still bugs me -- though sorta hafta admire just how well he has the Lennon phrasing down on this record -- but the band and music really shine.

and yeah, the "Brontosaurus" rip in "Hate It Here" is funny and great.

"The best thing about this album is the guitar solos"

OTM.it's Cline at the peak of his powers,Tom Verline style..
i'd say this:
best album - being there
best production - ghost is born
best playing - sky blue sky (though it has the weakest songs)

I reckon it's a lost John Lennon album from his Wilderness Years.

(That's the second half of the 70s, not 1980 - present day).

Well, what do you think of the Dead?

I haven't heard much of the Dead, although the little I have heard has them noodling over pretty basic three-chord blues progressions, so I haven't been too enthralled.

Tom Verlaine is another good example of a jammy guitar soloist I like.

Nice to see people coming around to this disc. Bee OK (who sounds like he or she might be affiliated with Wilco's management team, but I'm guessing) said upthread that BSB is "a very good album." That's right. And it's really the perfect compliment for this record: Humble, succinct and accurate.

Oops, I meant "SBS." Sorry.

Bee OK (who sounds like he or she might be affiliated with Wilco's management team, but I'm guessing) said upthread that BSB is "a very good album." That's right. And it's really the perfect compliment for this record: Humble, succinct and accurate.

haha, no i have nothing to do with Wilco, Nonesuch, WB or anything else having to do with the business. i'm just a music fan.

Fair enough. And it is a very good album.

From FLUXBLOG today:

Some people seem a bit surprised when I tell them Sky Blue Sky is one of my top favorite records from 2007, and maybe a lot of that has to do with the fact that I've barely written about it. It's been a fairly private pleasure for me, particularly over the summer when its calming chords provided some relief from stress and worry. This isn't to say that Sky Blue Sky is an entirely relaxing set of songs -- if anything, I kept going back to it because its emotional state so neatly echoed my own experience of trying to stay cool and collected while quietly freaking out. Most of the worst reviews for the record glibly dismissed the music as "dad rock," which is sort of aggravating because I think that the epithet accidentally touches on the stoicism and maturity that is key to the record's appeal, but favors a kneejerk appreciation of less emotionally (or musically) complicated music. Also, it's a huge mistake to write it off as an album full of wanky, meandering guitar solos. Yes, there's a lot of solos, but they are part of dynamic, meticulously crafted instrumental sections that carry a great deal of the record's emotional weight. The words are fine, and as usual, Tweedy's voice is extremely charismatic and expressive despite his limitations, but for the most part, the major action on the record happens in the instrumental sections -- the climax, the resolution, the postscript. It's both the feelings buried underneath the surface that you can't quite let out, and the things you just can't articulate with words for one reason or another. It's a very sophisticated and subtle work of art, and though it is understandable why so many people would either neglect or dismiss it for not automatically revealing its charms, I promise you that the album has quite a lot to offer.

Yeah!

"Impossible Germany" is one of my favorite songs of the year.

Then again, Wilco is my favorite band.

Wow Daniel, thanks for posting that Fluxblog piece. Matthew is OTM.

He is. I like how he describes Sky Blue Sky as "a work of art." That's totally OTM and it makes the rockist in me happy.

What some people miss about this disc is how great the performances are, especially by Nels Cline. The DVD included in the deluxe version of Sky Blue Sky makes this clear; Cline's solo on Impossible Germany (also one of my favorite songs of the year) is breathtaking and dynamic.

sky blue sky -
songwriting - mediocre.
instrument playing and production - superb.

I like this. I'll probably never not like anything they do though.

Daniel, have you seen the ACL performance of IG or heard the live version on the Sky Blue Sky Bonus EP? Nels shines on both of them (as usual).

i saw the ACL performance of Impossible Germany IN PERSON BABY

zomg

seeing wilco live some months ago was the best show ive seen last year i think.

Daniel, have you seen the ACL performance of IG or heard the live version on the Sky Blue Sky Bonus EP? Nels shines on both of them (as usual).

Live version on the DVD that came with the deluxe version of Sky Blue Sky. Not sure if that answers your question. But yeah, Nels Cline is a monster on the DVD version.

"Impossible Germany" is one of my favorite songs of the year Then again, despite the fact that Wilco is far from my favorite band.

Here's the version of 'Impossible Germany' I saw. So so so so good.

Nels Cline is so fucking ace on this record.

it's year in review time so i have been listening only to 2007 albums. this album has shot into my Top 5, outstanding!

On & On & On is also one of my favorite songs of the year. Those guitars! That keyboard sound! Tweedy's vocals! Incredible.

jaymc otm

*old person voice* this is the best wilco album and it's not close

"walken" is the best wings song i've ever heard

agree with you here, brad. this album is on another level.

I need to try this again. I remember liking most of it well enough but there was some song in the middle that I hated so much it retroactively made the songs before it suck.

another Sky Blue Sky fanatic over here. it is my fav of theirs though i always have to stop and think about it when i look at the Summerteeth tracklist and just see one killer song after another. The clean yet full production on Sky though is some sort of platonic ideal for me

You Are My Face is probably my favorite Wilco song.

Have they ever been polled?

another Sky Blue Sky fanatic over here. it is my fav of theirs though i always have to stop and think about it when i look at the Summerteeth tracklist and just see one killer song after another. The clean yet full production on Sky though is some sort of platonic ideal for me

― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Thursday, January 27, 2022 9:18 PM (fifty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

summerteeth would prob be no. 2 for me, just too many jams

Don't know where I would rank it, but Sky Blue Sky is the last Wilco album with more than one track I can recognize by name.

Josh, have you checked out the Whole Love? not as consistent but has some great ones. If you like noisy angsty YHF/Ghost era Wilco, the opening track Art of Almost is a welcome return, followed by a banger in I Might. The ballads are not as memorable as on the previous few albums, but I swoon big time for the title track

Oh, I have heard them all, except for maybe the last two, or at least the acoustic one? Anyway, they're always great when I'm listening to them, or when the songs are being played live. I just can't remember any of the songs after.

I need to try this again. I remember liking most of it well enough but there was some song in the middle that I hated so much it retroactively made the songs before it suck.

― Cow_Art, Thursday, January 27, 2022 8:12 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

couldn't Shake If Off, eh?

xxp I agree, The Whole Love is a better album than Sky Blue Sky, which is a bit too conservative for my tastes. Having said that, the last studio album I still listen to in its entirety is A Ghost Is Born, and even then that has a few tweaks (edited down the noise on "Less Than You Think" to about 15 seconds rather than 12 minutes, added "Panthers" after the opening track, added "Kicking Television" after "Less Than You Think"). I still have Being There through A Ghost Is Born, but I condensed the rest of their catalog into a compilation I made for myself.

I do wish "The Thanks I Get" had made it on to Sky Blue Sky. That leads off the compilation I made for myself.

I’ll have to revisit this album at some point. It’s hardly unlistenable but at the time it was where I got off the Wilco train, returning around Star Wars.

conservative my ass

nothing conservative about the dope ass playing on this record

i also find the directness of this record absolutely disarming and daring

LOL, well, compared to the what I liked before, and not politically, musically. (Except for "Impossible Germany," that was definitely a keeper.)

(Brad got what I meant, I just added "politically" in case there was any confusion for anyone else)

agreed with the sentiment that the whole love was their last truly great lp. it's not necessary, but try smoking a blunt to "art of almost" and it will likely open up a new dimension for you. "one sunday morning" also a good suggestion for the 'last songs' thread.

i need to properly revisit the extra material from the sky blue sky era.

'Shake It Off' and 'I'm a Wheel' (the middle stinker on Ghost) feature chromatic melodies that seem to highlight the "unacceptable dad rockness" of Wilco. It's something you don't want in your head while trying to enjoy Wilco. They lyrics are also a bit meta about it, which somehow makes the effect worse.

xxxxxxxp I like Star Wars too, that was more in spirit of the Wilco I prefer, but what I love most about Wilco had both the adventurousness and the songcraft, and a large part of Star Wars seemed a bit lacking in the latter.

xxp "One Sunday Morning" is amazing. It's a low-key song, not a jam or improvisation, and it goes on for so long. It has ONE real hook, a very simple and modest melody, and yet it's more than enough to carry the whole thing. It's really impressive the more I think about it.

Remember the tie-in campaign they had with Volkswagen for this record?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4XxEQwHYUY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-MQuf1Prz8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hkPuIkeZCQ

Love the salesman just giving up and rocking out to WILCO in the last ad.

I love Star Wars & Schmilco so much (I'm listening to the latter right now); but I just can't with most anything else by this band (and I have tried it all). Don't know what it is about those two albums - apparently they were recorded at the same time? - but the songwriting & performance/approach sure seem different from the rest of their catalog..

That's so interesting, nothing they have done since Whole Love has clicked with me. I've given each one a listen or two and found them enjoyable but forgettable. tbh I can't wrap my head around that morrisp. But I think it has more to do with me than the music.

I didn't like the last two albums, but they had some good cuts like "If Ever Was a Child," "Cry All Day," "Someone to Lose," "Love Is Everywhere," "Everyone Hides" and "Hold Me Anyway."

Star Wars is up there with their classic run imo, but Schmilco baffles me. I appreciate its relative oddness to most of their more recent fare, but it appears Stars Wars took all the tunes

Omg, the tunes on Schmilco are so good!

Have you given the Loose Fur albums a spin? Might have some of the qualities you’re enjoying in SW and Schmilco

I actually have! (I have them both). I like a few the songs OK, but the vibe as a whole... (I don't think I gel w/Jim O'Rourke too much).

^missed an "of" and a "not" (you decide where)

this is still my favorite album by Wilco and i thought i was the only one who thought that. glad to see Brad and others agree with me. everyone kept saying Ghost was their favorite but to me that album has too many plus ten minute songs on it. i have almost polled this album many times over the years but have put it off, if it doesn't get picked up i will do it this year, not now as we have a pretty big two weeks coming up on ILM.

a poll of this album would be rad and challenging as hell for me. i know most folks look to "impossible germany" as the standout, but man . . . i don't know.

ghost is born has some absolutely amazing songs on it and was my favorite for a long time. getting divorced and falling in love anew was what made me a blue sky convert.

but yeah, some of the long stuff on ghost is a bit silly. i liked "spiders" at the time and wouldn't mind if it popped up on a shuffle or playlist, but it is kind of meh.

Oh god Spiders is the best best best thing they ever did. And even then I remember playing the album version the first time it leaked and going 'what they fuck is going on' after hearing how they had played it before

I revisited Ghost for the first time in a few years and was startled by how … antiseptic it felt

(For the most part anyway)

so precise, and tiring?

"spiders" is one of the best tracks on a ghost is born. the drone on "less than you think" which is the only other long track is indeed self-indulgent nonsense though

i am boring and still think yhf and then summerteeth are their best. they're much more colourful records, losing bennett really seemed hurt their arrangements & having both him & o'rourke around on yhf went a long way to making it what it is.

just revisited sbs and my opinion on it hasn't really changed, the general mood & playing are lovely but around half of the songs are just sort of there, they don't all grab me in the way their best work does. still, the good stuff here is very very good

failed to mention that my diminishing appreciation for "spiders" stems from hearing the pre-studio live recordings (which i didn't hear until much later). studio version still decent, but makes me wonder why they changed the arrangement so much.

I remember hearing Spiders as the more conservative tune it began as, and then it transformed gradually towards the more familiar version. I got to see them, for the second time since the Summerteeth tour, at the Glastonbury 2004 early afternoon slot when largely they remained unknown (in the UK) except for a couple of hundred people down the front. That Spiders (full-blown Neu! arrangement) was absolutely sublime, I was already very much getting into the album version, but by then I was inarguably won over. It will always be my favourite Wilco song. They won't play it at the very rare UK shows I get to see these days, they always appear to field off a request with a quick Bull Black Nova up their sleeves ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sorry I wrote that as a 12 year old school holiday report love them though

Being There is still my go to

yeah, i'm a YHF, Being There and A.M. guy. then probably Summerteeth and Star Wars.

absolutely wore Being There out when I got it. I think for free after it was a rarely or probably never played promo-disc at the mall cd store I worked in at the time.

that run from BT>Summerteeth>YHF was my jam but honestly don’t pull them out much these days.

Yeah, it's almost as if there was something to the notion that Bennett was key, hmm. Anyway, me too, BT/Summerteeth/YHF, I love them all and yet they're all still better than I remember them when I put them on.

one of these threads made me get out those first two Golden Smog albums recently. Still pretty great and much more engaging than I ever found the 3 or so 90s era Jayhawks’ LPs I owned to be (which are still totally fine and good IMO)

Bennett was key

There's a Jay Bennett doc floating around out there somewhere, definitely will be checking that out.

I'm reluctant to call Being There a great album - it's really enjoyable in small doses, but too many tracks seem to carry the same chord changes and that gets old pretty fast. I want to say it should've been a single album rather than a double, but regardless it was a great starting point (A.M. feels like they're still getting it together), and they just blew up into a great band after that. Every album from Mermaid Avenue to YHF shows remarkable growth - they're all great albums to me, and the first Mermaid Avenue and YHF are my two favorites, the ones I play most. A Ghost Is Born loses a little something and like I mentioned I tweaked it for my own listening, but it still feels like a commendable follow-up to YHF. The first live album is great too. If I had to make a case for them being one of the great bands in rock, it would be based on those ten years.

i've always chuckled that being there ended up being able to fit on a single disc after all.

but yeah, it's really good — while it's playing. i still think about that transition point in "sunken treasure" at about the three minute mark ("i am so out of tune . . .") with a lot of reverence. but beyond that song, i don't really remember it unless it's playing.

Summerteeth was the biggest jump imo

Wilco is Too earnest for my taste but I do like golden smogs note for note cover of glad and sorry

xp or their biggest transition? i think if you're following Tweedy from the Uncle Tupelo years, Being There is a sort of pinnacle for his alt country sound. I'd say the same for Jay and Trace

half of being there is excellent and the other half ranges from not my thing to dull

re same chords changes on Being There—yep totally. I don’t hate it though. kinda gives it a thematic Red-Headed Stranger bine

Being There (the prototypically erratic double album) is pretty clearly where everything goes widescreen. Power-pop, country, Grateful Dead, Big Star's "Third," etc. Then "Summerteeth" is where it goes Technicolor. "YHF" is where it all falls apart (by deconstructed design). "Ghost" is where even a great band can't quite make up for Tweedy shouldering all the songwriting in addition to a pill addiction. Everything after that is pretty clear-eyed and consistent, and often kind of safe, but there are plenty of weird detours to be found.

vibe*
Xpost

(Speaking of Golden Smog's Faces cover, I literally only learned a week or two ago that "Bad Time" by the Jayhawks is actually a Grand Funk cover. I had no idea!)

idk I'm the boring dude who says exposure to Billy Bragg + Guthrie tightened them

Lotta fingers in that particular pie.

what i really miss from summerteeth/yhf is the power-pop influence, the tight pop hooks they used to have. it seems like bennett really helped push things in that direction, and then without him around tweedy's interests were firmly elsewhere after yhf.

Yeah, I miss that power pop element too. It's even there on Mermaid Avenue Vol. II:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQhk__Ti3pc

it's really just that the guitar on this record is so fucking amazing, every song's horizons are extended by some sick guitar part

The power pop appeared to come back on the uptempo songs from The Whole Love (and perhaps on You Never Know) but I couldn't help wondering what Jay would have brought to them

It feels like Jeff has fallen back to writing every song in first position on the guitar which to me is making so much of his recent output sound so samey. He's clearly happier keeping vocal pitching fairly low and hushed too

Rather than retread old ground, these days I'd just be keen to hear someone come up with some more interesting (and lively) chord changes here and there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5tmVsUKCiY

this 8 minute "impossible germany" rules

Just fired this up

So far: I can totally understand why the me of 2007 loathed this. It’s still not high in my overall Wilco estimation but after a long day of middle management it’s nice enough.

“Glass of white wine, middle-aged, home alone on a weeknight” Wilco

Otherwise known as Chillco

(I’m not making fun of it anymore than I’m making fun of myself at this age)

Oh right, “Leave Me” was always such a pretty song.

In conclusion: I’m in a mellower place with SBS but it’s still not The Wilco Album I Reach For Automatically.

i think Sky Blue Sky is vastly underrated. i felt it was an album that had Wilco hit their stride. i understand that is not like by most of their older fans but think it is their lost. it really has some of their more solid songs but most people just say that it's dad rock, so whatever.

― Bee OK, Wednesday, May 6, 2009 9:11 PM (twelve years ago)

i pretty much stand by that and i have been wanting to listen to this present day to see how i feel

good revival series for Wilco Brad, it has been fun to read #originalthread

i just remembered that years back when i worked at my college radio station we got the promo copy. i let my grad colleague hear it first because he'd been a bigger wilcohead and his immediate review was so lackluster that i'd never heard the album. what are the best YHF/AGIB type tracks?

none of it really sounds much like yhf but none of it is too far from most of the mellower tracks on agib. just listen to "impossible germany"

it's not the most agib-like track (idk which is exactly) but it's the album's defining moment

Do they ever not play Impossible Germany outside of album shows?

I don't know if this is their best record (probably Mermaid Avenue for me) but it's the only one I still listen to, and didn't get bored of.

This post was OTM

Oh man, why can't the whole album sound like the middle two minutes of 'You Are My Face'? Christ, why couldn't the whole of 'You Are My Face' sound like that?
― G00blar, Monday, March 12, 2007 1:13 AM (fourteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Do they ever not play Impossible Germany outside of album shows?

I'm not sure about more recently, but it did get played outside of album shows now and then. The band recently issued a box set of shows from the Capitol Theatre from 2014 where it was played.

they haven't played it at every show ever since its release but it's pretty close

possible and likely at every show

I got the impression it has got to the stage where there'd be riots if they didn't