Wilco - The Whole Love

So far, Wilco have laid down some 20 tracks for the album, which has the working title of Get Well Soon Everybody. Tweedy says the material fits into two categories: experimental-leaning rock and "cinematic-sounding country music…you know, folk music."

http://www.spin.com/articles/jeff-tweedy-talks-wilcos-irreverent-fall-album

yuck. couldn't they just send out some chicken noodle soup and a Hallmark card?

http://i.imgur.com/Qqi33.jpg

Weird to see Michael Moore without his glasses.

really thought that url read irrelavent for a minute

"I spit and swallowed opioids"

But I have no doubt that the second this record becomes available there's somebody sitting in a basement at their computer with the word 'meh' already typed up, waiting to post a review."

what a petulant douche

Ilx gonna make me the biggest wilco fans. Could we get more of u corn balls fronting tuff guy abt this band?

^^ love this

ha
been on a little tupelo kick lately, so that'll probably lead into a wilco kick. even though wilco (the album) was prob my least favorite of theirs, still excited to hear the new stuff!

I haven't fucked w/ wilco in a long minute but I think this is an awesome title

I like Wilco, used to love them & then kinda lost track after A Ghost Is Born (was annoyed about the rehab thing b/c I was excited to see them at Coachella that year & alas they couldn't make it). I've listened to the live album once & the next album a couple of times, but not the latest one yet (b/c the reviews were bleh & time is always short/demands more Pink Floyd bootlegs/etc.). I'm tentatively excited about a new one I guess! as one ought to be for a former favorite band.

it's always tough when you're faced with the decision between "new album by whoever" vs. pink floyd bootlegs. even if you pick that new album, in your heart of hearts you're still thinking about that floyd bootleg.

Live at Paris Cinema, London, 30-09-1971 is really hot! "Fat Old Sun"! give me one like that, Jeff Tweedy, & we'll talk again.

Oh, if only we had a thread about Floyd boots.

Tyler did you get that record store day link floyd thing?

what a petulant douche

I'm only a moderate Wilco fan--a huge fan of two or three songs--but I love that Tweedy quote. If you're going to take on people who hate your work (and preemptively, at that), you have to go about it with a bit of style and humour or, agreed, you come off as petulant. Lou Reed's Christgau line would be one example of how to do it right, and Tweedy's quote for me is another--the throwaway "meh" is perfect.

This from a guy whose most lavishly praised record broke thanks to dudes dying to hear his music downloading it "in the basement." He's like Brian Williams sticking it to "bloggers in bathrobes."

xpost That's a weird definition of style & humor.

But "meh"--as Homer Simpson says, it's funny because it's true.

it's always the critical darlings that are the most remarkably thin-skinned and paranoid about their detractors

that's not even thin-skinned or paranoid though, it's sorta realistic

This from a guy whose most lavishly praised record broke thanks to dudes dying to hear his music downloading it "in the basement." He's like Brian Williams sticking it to "bloggers in bathrobes."

― My mom is all about capital gains tax butthurtedness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, April 23, 2011 3:24 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is a pretty blatant misreading of his quote. he's not taking a shot at dudes who download music in their basements, he's taking a shot at people who have prejudged the album before even hearing it.

I wouldn't say you can make any generalizations about that. Some of them, yes; others, especially after they've been around for a while, seem completely removed from whatever's written about them. Anyway, I skimmed the Spin piece, and you guys are making a big deal out of one line. It's not like he started railing against critics or anything.

that's not even thin-skinned or paranoid though, it's sorta realistic

― iatee, Saturday, April 23, 2011 4:44 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

well, of course there are going to be people downloading any record that comes out and saying negative things about it on the internet. that's every record. but a new Wilco album, more than most other albums, stands a good chance of a top 5 chart debut and a 4 star review from Rolling Stone. successful people whining about what the "haters" will say about something that isn't even out yet is pretty paranoid imo.

"whining"

The finished album may be one of the group's most adventurous yet. "I do think it's a little bit more obnoxious and irreverent of a pop record than people have heard from us, maybe, ever," he says. "And that's exciting. But I have no doubt that the second this record becomes available there's somebody sitting in a basement at their computer with the word 'meh' already typed up, waiting to post a review."

If it were actual whining, I'd agree with you; Tweedy's comment seems much more playful to me, like he just said it because he wanted to make fun of the word "meh."

yeah what's going on in this thread is closer to 'whining' than what he actually said

get well soon everybody

Considering the first few responses in this thread were kind of in that dismissive vein, I think Tweedy makes a valid point.

ok not whining per se, but it's definitely preemptive snark. like, everyone says they're excited about the new album they're working on and that they hope people will love it, of course they know not everyone will but what's even the point of going "oh some loser already decided to pan the record before he's heard it"

I think we should get Tweedy to post on ILM. We could talk about Wilco; maybe he'll poll their oeuvre; but I bet he has a killer archive of Floyd bootlegs & it would be cool to get access to that.

also butthurt is kinda Tweedy's thing, like going back to Uncle Tupelo days ("Watch Me Fall", "We've Been Had") & continues into Wilco days.

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1809188793

lol

Their previous album should have been titled "Meh"

Wilco (Meh Album)

Being Butthurt

Wilco (The Album) was my favorite Wilco release in many years, so meh to you. xps

this is a pretty blatant misreading of his quote. he's not taking a shot at dudes who download music in their basements, he's taking a shot at people who have prejudged the album before even hearing it.

I was referring to his use of the by now cliched designation of critics as guys in basements.

http://westkanye.info/obrazki/mixtape/GetWellSoon.jpg

Does Kanye ever wear skinny jeans?

I don't really ever feel like listening to a who;e Wilco album but I like a bunch of individual tracks

" experimental-leaning rock and "cinematic-sounding country music…you know, folk music. "
^sounds good to me

"jesus etc." is chamber folk and if that is what they're going for then good for them. i'd tell them to lean in towards chamber stuff and lean away from country stuff though

Man, Jesus etc. is so good.

^^^ my favorite Wilco song.

The fact that Jay Bennett is no longer alive continues to bother me. It would have nice to think that one day they could eventually work together again - Jay said as much himself.

that pic is from like 10 years ago before skinny jeans really existed in rap

haha -- I was musing aloud.

(it had nothing to do with the pic)

I can't wait to completely ignore this album

I can't wait to read 1000 posts about this album but never listen to it

I can't wait to ask markers if there's any songs with prominent Nels Cline bits I should check out

i can't wait to read 1000 posts about this album by people who never listen to it.

there was a pink floyd record store day thing?

I can't wait to read 1000 posts on this thread before anybody's heard the album!

I can't wait to visit those busy basements!

Has there ever been much excitement about a new Wilco album on ILM before? Unless we go ~m~e~t~a~ I don't see it happening for this one (unless maybe they cover "Wish You Were Here")

tyler - the RSD Floyd thing was the 1966/67 live thing on vinyl. I don't think Floyd has any control over those couple of recordings.

back on topic: I'll be excited if this sounds builds on the sound of Summer Teeth. If it sounds like anything they've made in the past decade I don't care.

unless the new wilco is an album of grateful dead covers i ain't listening.

It's a Phish tribute in your honor.

I can't wait to ask markers if there's any songs with prominent Nels Cline bits I should check out

― some dude, Sunday, 24 April 2011 00:53

ask me again when the record comes out and i'll let you know!

this might be interesting, Nels-wise:

Tweedy is being modest. One new song, "Art of Almost," has an experimental feel, like 2009's "Bull Black Nova" and 2004's "Spiders (Kidsmoke)." It's a seven-minute, two-parter that starts as a free-form jam, punctuated with burbling synths, mellotrons, and tribal drums. It swells into a punk-ish coda, with virtuosic, fuzzed-out guitar shredding courtesy of Cline, the band's secret weapon. Tweedy says the inspiration for the track came from Neil Young. "It's a sort of atmospheric song you might hear on Tonight's the Night," he says. "I don't know what happened to that song, to be honest. It just sort of morphed over time into something that's a lot more interesting to us now."

That right there takes away what little interest I had.

the only wilko i will ever need.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rViBFgjChH0

oh man my hero. nels who?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yimn3Y19R-A&feature=related

back on topic: I'll be excited if this sounds builds on the sound of Summer Teeth. If it sounds like anything they've made in the past decade I don't care.

pretty much works for me.

i've heard tweedy play a pretty nice version of "ripple"

There's a new song floating around with a lyric that sounds like Tweedy trying to bed a straight dude. "Open Up Your Mind" or some such. It's a good song, in that John Lennon-y kinda way Tweedy writes sometimes.

I haven't cared about Wilco in a long time (my wife is the resident Wilco fan in her house, though even she tuned out after Sky Blue Sky), but I think, to counter Tweedy's claim, there are some of us who really WANT To like a new Wilco album. I really hope this album is amazing. But if it isn't, my feeling won't be 'meh,' my feeling will be "thank God there's still a band of this caliber selling records and making rock and roll in 2011, even if I don't dig what they're doing right now."

Well said, Airport! That's the best response yet. I feel the same way, too, as I'm not into the jam band direction though I'm down with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

why have yr record titled something rad like get well soon everybody when you can have it titled

THE WHOLE LOVE

http://pitchfork.com/news/42991-new-wilco-i-might/

why have yr record titled something rad like get well soon everybody when you can have it titled

THE WHOLE LOVE

― markers, Monday, June 27, 2011 3:38 AM

http://i53.tinypic.com/eslve0.jpg

The Whole Love >>>>> Get Well Soon Everybody.

In fact, I was thinking about finding this thread and remarking on how Wilco is really good with the record titles.

not feeling it

http://www.badmovieplanet.com/unknownmovies/pictures/thunderpants2.jpg

idk, i think i like this song.

i was startling the first time i heard it; it doesn't sound like i expect wilco to sound. but you could also call it a refreshing change of direction. it's poppy and energetic, and i like the guitar squalls in the background (they could be a little noisy-ish, but they're set low enough in the mix to not induce a headache; i guess that's nels cline on guitar).

The bass line kinda sounds like they ripped it off from The Fall when Brix was in the band. Not that that's a bad thing.

i like this. is the sound lo-fi, or is it just a crappppy mp3?

TWO NEW SONGS ~LIVE~

http://pitchfork.com/news/42999-watch-wilco-play-two-new-songs-live/

these sound good too! go wilco go!

I hadn't seen Wilco live in five years and left pretty abruptly shortly after A Ghost Is Born - era. By far their greatest record and that tour was crackerjack with Nels in the band, etc. I went to the Wilco Fest this weekend despite all my cynicism, pessimism and general tendency to be "that guy in the basement going 'meh' " - Baby, I'm a believer. New songs were very good, much better than most of the material from the last two albums, which are largely skippable (there are exceptions). Their live show is tremendous, they really went all out for this thing.

:D :D :D

looooooooooooooooooove a ghost is born

i actually don't own that album, but it recently appeared on emusic (along with the newer, self-titled disc).

reaction to Wilco (The Album) was quite divided, but I was definitely in the pro camp. harkens back to the first three records mostly.

I JUST CAME HOME FROM 7-ELEVEN AND THE NEW SINGLE WAS ON THE RADIO!

daniel, definitely check out a ghost is born! wilco (the album) is nice, but it's no ghost. would like to hear your reactions to either though

Ilx gonna make me the biggest wilco fans. Could we get more of u corn balls fronting tuff guy abt this band?

so otm - I didn't give 2 shits about these guys for years but just mention that you don't actively pray for their death every night & there's 10 very tuff ilx dudes reminding you that OMG THEY PLAY THEM ON NPR!!!1!

also BRAGGIN '11 dude is a solid & nice dude so stfu about Jeff Tweedy he's a cool guy

if you ever met j newsom i hope you cop to what you & the others did to my beloved hoom thread

*meet

difference there, her music is actively horrible

;_;

did any other ilxors go to the festival thing? i think it would be nice to go eventually

Overall the festival is super yuppie/white (SHOCKER) but extremely well run and a great time. It's inside a beautiful contemporary art museum, they truck in a great sound system/setup and it's very relaxed/mellow. Everyone is very affable and you make friends throughout the day. Highlights besides Wilco were Purling Hiss, Sic Alps, Thurston Moore/Nels Cline, Jamie Lidell, Darin Gray and Syl Johnson. All the extraneous stuff (art/photo exhibits, comedy, films, etc.) was very enjoyable too. Bonus was good, reasonably priced food and beer (Lagunitas bottles for $5.00), the staff is extremely friendly and there is almost no security/bouncer presence. Wilco dudes and other musicians just stroll around all day. ATP for cool dads and aging hippies, no doubt.

:D

"Thurston Moore/Nels Cline" \(^o^)/

never realized it was INSIDE a building a tbh -- that's rad

Yeah Thurston and Nels Cline sounds v v v awesome, would watch.

They hadn't played as a strict duo in 13 years, they did a full hour. Complete scree fest, driving the dads away in hoards. Lovely, lovely time.

I love "I Love My Label", and that's a good/faithful cover.

out 9/27 - http://pitchfork.com/news/43034-wilco-announce-new-album-fall-tour/

song for jane smiley's boyfriend?

http://www.anti.com/catalog/view/180/The_Whole_Love

The Whole Love is a veritable sonic stew, showcasing Wilco’s far-reaching musical prowess (multiple guitars, keyboards, synthesizers and percussion plus Mellotron, strings, loops and more) perfectly accompanying Jeff Tweedy’s provocative and insightful lyrics. The Whole Love opens with the seven-minute “Art of Almost” and concludes with the twelve-minute “One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend).” In between: 10 adventurous tunes (each clocking in at four minutes or less) including the current single, “I Might” which was released this past weekend at the band’s Solid Sound Festival.

This sounds promising actually! They owe us a great record after the appalling snoozefest that was the last one.

i really hope it's good -- i think i'm going to try to avoid reading stuff about the record until release day

"Appalling snoozefest" is a little strong, but definitely was amongst their weakest efforts. "Bull Black Nova" is still an awesome song.

"provocative" AND "insightful"!

Jon, yeah I know, but I'm someone who deeply treasures YHF, A Ghost is Born (!). Liked Sky Blue Sky as in very pleasant, but Wilco (the album) was such a huge let-down after the three that preceded it.

wilco (the album) is probably the only wilco album i don't really like. something super-generic about the overall sound.

Jon, yeah I know, but I'm someone who deeply treasures YHF, A Ghost is Born (!). Liked Sky Blue Sky as in very pleasant, but Wilco (the album) was such a huge let-down after the three that preceded it.

Yeah, it was a big letdown, for sure. I've just managed to come around on a handful of songs, enough that I can't dimiss the whole thing.

heard "one wing" in a cvs last year and it made some kind of sense

I got off the Wilco boat after A Ghost Is Born (by far my favorite Wilco album). The last three albums were not my bag at all, except for digging "Impossible Germany." But I'm really liking the new single, and I'm holding a lot of hope for the new one. They kinda owe us a ripsnorter, what with how great the band is.

loving the love for a ghost is born, y'all

kicking television -- the live record -- is the last really awesome thing they've done

kicking television -- the live record -- is the last really awesome thing they've done

OTM

Not really sure how that band (that played on Kicking Television) made two snoozers in quick succession.

I would love for the new one to be a return to form...especially intrigued by the super long songs.

Yeah, SBS and the S/T were intensely forgettable BUT the live band has continued to be amazing throughout; some of my favourite live material ever recorded - by anyone - came off the Sky Blue Sky tour.

"Appalling snoozefest" = great title

I never heard kicking televisions, does nels go ham on it?

I don't get the Nils love, honestly. I've seen the band a bazillion times, both before and since his addition, and frankly don't hear him bringing much to the table in this context. I mean, he's a good player, but I wish he was more Quine-y or something.

I never heard kicking televisions, does nels go ham on it?

yes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdTn0hXzVZU

damn that sounds hottttt

it's a good sign

hope most of the rest of the record, at least, is like that

Wilco are our Radiohead. Which is of course awesome NO TUFFGUY

LIKE A PLAID RADIOHEAD!!!!!!!!

upthread i posted this quote from the spin article i linked to in the first post itt:

Tweedy is being modest. One new song, "Art of Almost," has an experimental feel, like 2009's "Bull Black Nova" and 2004's "Spiders (Kidsmoke)." It's a seven-minute, two-parter that starts as a free-form jam, punctuated with burbling synths, mellotrons, and tribal drums. It swells into a punk-ish coda, with virtuosic, fuzzed-out guitar shredding courtesy of Cline, the band's secret weapon. Tweedy says the inspiration for the track came from Neil Young. "It's a sort of atmospheric song you might hear on Tonight's the Night," he says. "I don't know what happened to that song, to be honest. It just sort of morphed over time into something that's a lot more interesting to us now."

http://www.pitchfork.com/news/43606-watch-jeff-tweedy-play-a-new-wilco-song/

http://pitchfork.com/news/43893-wilco-to-stream-the-whole-love-for-24-hours/

They had free Wilco "The Whole Love" bookmarks at Barnes & Noble but not the CD....

had not heard abt the bookmarks, thx 4 the heads up

Who really consider Nels Cline the band's "secret weapon?" What kind of secret is Nels Cline? If anything, Tweedy's skronky guitar playing is the band's secret weapon. Or Stirratt's melodic playing and backing vocals. Or Kotche, who has been doing much more with less lately. Or even the other guys, so secret I don't really know what they do. But Cline? That's like calling John McLaughlin the Mahavishnu Orchestra's secret weapon or something.

The back of the bookmark says "go to www.bn.com/wilco to see exclusive video and hear a preview of music from The Whole Love - CD & Limited Edition Deluxe CD - available 27th of September". The video is of "I Love My Label" and you can stream "I Might".

Now

http://wilcoworld.net/twlsplash/

Opening song sounds like 'I'm a redneck and I'm afraid of robots'

I like this. Didn't think I'd get to say that about another Wilco record.

Agreed. This is a good album.

It's a good album but it didn't make me feel like buying it. Hell, it's only a first listen. Let's see.

Yeah, good point. I just finished my first listen. Perhaps I'm just pleased that I don't hate it. I'll give it another shot tonight.

Stream isn't working for me, just keeps saying "Loading Tracks", have tried about four times and it just sits there.

Wilco doesn't like you

Its not just me, tons of people now complaining on their Facebook page. Guessing it got overloaded?

Yep, they just posted a message on Facebook "Server overloaded - thanks for your patience - we'll get it back up."

Not a big deal, just kind of amazes me that in 2011 people still really don't have a handle on how to anticipate the traffic a big announcement or whatever will bring.

I'm listening to it fine here in the 3rd World.

glenn kotche and john stirratt are definitely the heroes of this record. the most interesting stuff here is rhythmic.

also tweedy seems to be writing hooks again.

I dig the pedal steel in Black Moon

Seems to be working now, I really like this. Although I haven't been as down on the last couple records as most of you guys seems to have been. The last one was definitely the worst yet, but still a handful of salvageable tunes. Very encouraging first listen.

Well, it crashed before I got to hear the final four songs, but I really liked what I heard!

i'm in the middle of listening to this now -- it might end up being their best studio record in seven years

it's probably more interesting than the last two, at least

i'm not listening on headphones, but i probably should be -- there are details here and there

this isn't prime wilco (a ghost is born, yankee hotel foxtrot, and summerteeth) good though

first few songs are shockingly great.

i don't hear more "hooks." i hear a tougher, more free-spirited, more confident rock record.

yeah, "art of almost" is their best opener since "at least that's what you said"

i don't really see this as a record filled with hooks either

the last record where that was the point was, like, summer teeth

fuckin autocorrect, summerteeth

as a record filled with hooks either

eh, my complaint with the post jay bennett records is that tweedy seemed to half-write the songs, subtracting the, you know, relatively rewarding choruses that are littered througout being there summerteeth and even yankee hotel foxtrot. for instance: wilco (the album) was a lot like summerteeth but minus all of the sharp songwriting, and this new one seems to regain some of that sharpness, to my ears

don't know why i quoted half of your sentence there markers; it is saturday

this isn't prime wilco (a ghost is born, yankee hotel foxtrot, and summerteeth) good though

― markers, Saturday, September 3, 2011 9:46 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

otm... BUT this is fab Wilco after the last two dire albums. Feel like my Wilco is slowly returning to form! Yay!

I like this a lot, but I liked the last two, too. I guess this is a more overt return to "weird" form who didn't recognize that the lack of weirdness of the last two was sort of weird in and of itself. But, yeah, the band's boutique "weird" pedal is clearly back from the shop.

It doesn't sound obliquely "good because it's weird" to me at all, rather that the band is actually trying again, looking for new ways, treading new paths.. The last two Wilco records were numbingly dull for me, because every notion of experimentation seemed off limits. Whereas I loved the three records before them just because they mixed the known with the unknown, with such surprisingly great results. Maybe I did miss them pushing the "weird" pedal, but it sounds like they are unified and willing to look for new sounds again, instead of making dull americana records like the last two. I've long given up on Wilco making another YHF of 'Ghost', but this is definitely closer to the two than the last two albums they churned out.

sky blue sky tried, and i thought it succeeded. i would have been happy if it ushered in a new era of tuneful west-coast soft-rock. but there were dull spots on it. this seems more confident and swaggering and, yeah, weird.

Honestly, I think those last two were pretty important artistic steps, at least in terms of Tweedy learning how to write a clearer, more straight-forward way, post-Bennett, post-rehab and post nonsense "Ghost" lyrics. Which is why I consider them experimental records, at least in the context of Wilco. They were trying something different, which in their case meant trying something that wasn't trying so hard to be different. I talked to Tweedy once or twice over the past few years about how funny it was that not including 20 minute drones or strange sounds or freakouts was the band's first divisive, controversial move.

Anyway, what really sold it to me was the band live, when none of the stuff from the last two records seemed the least bit boring or out of place.

good, but Tweedy's songwriting still isn't so great since Ghost Is Born, for most of the tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTqEB0MyGdY

Tweedy is such a horrible singer now. He can keep his guitar but just step away from the mic please.

i dunno he seems about the same to me

that song is pretty nice

like the end jam out a lot

owww my earrrs

good point, rip

too bad most of the tracks arent as good as Born Alone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3PRmu0tr6k&feature=player_embedded#!

he was quite funny the 2 times i saw them

Tweedy is such a horrible singer now. He can keep his guitar but just step away from the mic please.

― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, September 7, 2011 11:44 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

Yeah, is it just me or are his vocals weak as fuck on this record? It sounds like his lungs are hooked up to a breathing machine.

This guy has sung like a dead cat since 2002, but now it's metastazized.

I know most of you guys have no idea who is Alceu Valença but I was struck by the similarity between ‘One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend)’ and Valença's'Anunciação'.

By the way, Alceu Valença >>>>>> Wilco

http://www.mixcloud.com/shin-oliva-suzuki/alceu-tweedy/#utm_source=widget&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=flash_links

I'm happily surprised by this--high quality, nice songwriting, not afraid of a little more adventurous production. Much better than anything I've heard since 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot'. Not as much of a surprise as Portishead's '3' or Flaming Lips' 'Embryonic,' but very good. Loved this band circa 'Being There,' and enjoyed watching their progress over the next two albums. But the "dad rock" dismissal seemed mostly accurate after that--a krautrock jam or two notwithstanding.

As for the similarity between that track and the Alceu--got to imagine that's a coincidence, as the chord progression and arpeggios aren't exactly rocket science in either case. It's a very natural set up and resolution. Gotta say, the production values alone give a major edge to the Wilco approach, there.

The four songs I like on this are really awesome. Absolutely despise the Radioheadishness of the first track and the Wilco: The Musical-sounding "Capitol City." Last song is their "I Dream A Highway" - beautiful. Also, tracks 5-7.

after the first listen i am positively surprised. the experimentalish opener is very promising, the album cannot hold that level (of abstraction) but it is still pretty solid. it could have been shorter though. the last song is nice to fall asleep to. or to wake up to.

listening now. i've always been slightly annoyed when people call wilco the "american radiohead" -- did not seem otm to me -- but uhh this first song does sound quite a bit like radiohead.

sounds ok though!

clien freakout is cool. i guess this is their way of answering people who complained that they haven't let nels wail on record yet.

*cline* i mean

hey homies it's up on npr http://www.npr.org/2011/09/19/140476897/first-listen-wilco-the-whole-love

It's on NPR? That's weird.

r u being sarcastic

:)

\(^o^)/

http://wilcoworld.net/#!/watch-wilcos-live-on-letterman-performance/

THIS IS OUT TODAY

NOW HE KNOOOOOOOOOWS HE WAS WRONG

DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO

Bought it on saturday, really enjoying it!

Picked it up last night at a local record store that had a listening/release party. Sounded good, but I want to hear it in a less noisy context!

this is a good album!

think the only one i kind of hate is capitol city skyline or w/e. sounds like a bad randy newman pastiche.

yeah this is a good record

and one sunday morning is great! pretty into them stretching things out like this, i'd take a four-song album with stuff like this tbh.

Eric Weisbard, quoting Keith Harris:

don't write like the Wilco gush you can find below. To which I add, why has Salon so aggressively pursued terrible music writing after simply ignoring music writing altogether for years and years? This is supposed to be the equal of Andrew O'Hehir and Laura Miller?

About this excerpt:

When Wilco emerged from the ashes of Uncle Tupelo some 17 years ago with the sturdy, catchy roots-rock of "A.M." and "Being There," it would have taken a special imagination to see that Jeff Tweedy would become one of the most daring songwriters of his generation -- and that Wilco would become a vital, adventurous band breaking new stylistic ground with each ambitious and creatively restless album."

i like to think that i have a "special imagination."

is it restless?

i have a special, creatively restless imagination, yes.

i'd take a four-song album with stuff like this tbh.

Search: First Loose Fur LP

yeah, i guess good chinese apple is what that tune reminds me of.

As part of my Jim O'Rourke Unified Theory of Rock Music I posit that the limp albums that followed Ghost were directly a result of Jim' lack of involvement. If you check the credits he played on nearly every track on Ghost and seemed to be a very productive "disturbing" influence on the band (not dissimilar to the role he played with Sonic Youth).

TL;DR Jim O'Rourke come back from Japan and save music.

I still need to pick this up, but am anticipating it.

Though I hate that the album title continuously reminds me of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuQba4inleQ

:-/

Was listening to this again today. Boy does the band sound like The Attractions on "I Might."

That's funny, for a while I had a reverse Jim O'Rourke Unified Theory, that he had a habit of making bands worse, but I've since come around.

O'rourke did make them better, but they were good also before him.
now the arent as good as they used to be, with or without him imo

he was involved in two of three of their best studio records

Listening to this for the first time, really good! Best since ghost is born

yeah this album is really super. first listen I was like, hm not so sure. second listen I was like OK this rules. still not sure if I like it better than the last two (my two favorite Wilco albums), but it grows stronger with each spin (currently in the middle of my third)

"One Sunday Morning" is just devastating.

can't wait to hear these songs live. been 15 months since I saw Wilco!

I've become a fan, with a few favourite songs, and I look forward to hearing this album. But that clip above of Tweedy doing "I Got a Feeling" is unbelievably smug. I'd like to think that as a songwriter, he'd recognize "I Got a Feeling" as a great pop song.

I'm not a fan of "I Got a Feeling," but Tweedy and his audience are a bunch of assholes in that clip. If you don't feel a song worth covering, don't cover it.

It reminded me how different the reaction was to Richard Thompson covering Britney.

so far so good

I've become a fan, with a few favourite songs, and I look forward to hearing this album. But that clip above of Tweedy doing "I Got a Feeling" is unbelievably smug. I'd like to think that as a songwriter, he'd recognize "I Got a Feeling" as a great pop song.

I write songs from time to time & I consider "I Got A Feeling" one of the most cynical gestures I've ever heard in my life in any field of artistic effort - generally I'd be with everybody on "only cover songs you, in some way, love" but "I Got A Feeling" is a toxin

1) As I noted above, I think, Tweedy's performance of that song was a punchline to a convoluted in-joke involving the fake twitter feed of Rahm Emanuel.

http://chicagoist.com/2011/09/07/mayoremanuel.php#photo-1

Columbia College professor Dan Sinker saw that the situation -- and the politician -- was ripe for satire, and he started the @mayoremanuel twitter account. That turned into a book, as so many internet trends do nowadays, and last night at the Hideout, Sinker and friends celebrated the release of The F***ing Epic Quest of @MayorEmanuel, with special guest Wilco's Jeff Tweedy. Tweedy appears in the @mayoremanuel storyline around the time he played a fundraiser concert for the real Rahm Emanuel.
"Tweedy's being pissy because he doesn't want to play any Black Eyed Peas songs. What the fuck? People love that shit." - @mayoremanuel, Jan. 30, 2011 -

2) "I Got a Feeling" is not a good song by just about any standard other than simply being popular. It's unctuous.

oh whew, yeah for a while there I thought you guys were all referring to The Beatles, and I'm like, what? Tweedy and fans mocking The Beatles!? but yeah some googling reveals he covered some Black Eyed Peas song called "I Gotta Feeling". Yeah fuck them.

Hey, it's "I Gotta Feeling", which takes it from rational grammar into the realm of magic. I think it's the Eames Chair of pop music.

Wish this album were called The Whole Lot of Love.

I think "I Gotta Feeling" is one of the greatest pop songs of the past decade. I don't love it quite as much as "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart," but I'd take it over any Wilco song after that. In any event, I agree with thinveneer above: if your sole purpose in covering a song is to show how superior you are to it--least of all to a roomful of people who already agree with you--that's pathetic. Pretty sure the Beatles were smarter than that.

Would love to know what's so cynical about "I Gotta Feeling."

wilco sucks

don't really care, but you know, the radiohead principle

I think "I Gotta Feeling" is one of the greatest pop songs of the past decade.

you really honestly think that? I mean dude I am not trying to beef or get into some stupid "YOU LIKE IT BUT I THINK IT SUCKS" thing but just...from a song perspective...that song is terrible! lyrically it's just the most transparent "let's get this played at arenas, arena money is awesome" move - it's like somebody writing a song called "America Loves the Packers" during a playoff run or something, only worse - the chord changes bring zero rhythmically to the table and melodically they're boilerplate recycled eurotrance, there literally isn't one generic trance dude who couldn't have actually put an emotional arc into those changes at least - lyrically it's a total zero - it's like - I guess you can say fairly "if you're into it, the vibe is great" but as a pop song, it is terrible. A badly written, brainless tune. There are good brainless tunes. This isn't one.

i ranked it the 8th greatest pop song of the past decade, so i got clemenza's back on this one: al ship's top 50 pop singles of the 00s -- which is your favorite? (other than SUBG)

Of course that's what I think--if I didn't, then why would I say I would? It was #1 on my year-end that year, and I think it's as great a pop song as "You! Me! Dancing!" or "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" or "Wedding Bell Blues" or fifty zillion other pop songs I love. I mean, I'm hardly the only person to think so--it was #1 for 14 consecutive weeks that summer, and I think even critics generally liked it (top 20 on that year's Pazz & Jop). Before "I Gotta Feeling," I hated most of the Black-Eyed Peas I knew. As far as it being cynical goes, I have no idea where you get that; it came out in the summer of 2009, so it seems clear enough to me that the African-American who wrote it might still be fairly ecstatic over the election of the first African-American president ever--I don't hear cynicism at all, just plain old joy. Lyrically, it is what it is; the lyrics work just fine in the context of the song, and "Mazal tov" is an inspired touch.

All of which is neither here nor there to my original point. If you hate it, fine, pop music's very subjective. But if you hate it, covering it in front of a roomful of people who also hate it so you can bask in each other's superior taste is, to me, pathetic.

IGAF definitely sounds like an ur-pop song

it has a virality

That should read: "most of the Black-Eyed Peas music I knew"; the Black-Eyed Peas themselves, I didn't really have an opinion.

It's no "Surfin' Bird," I'll say that.

I don't see how anyone could play that song on acoustic guitar and sell it. Not Jeff Tweedy, and probably not will.i.am.

Clemenza, where do you stand on "My Humps?"

clemenza don't sweat it -- underrated basically believes that songs with less than totally thought out and articulate lyrics are impossible to enjoy on any level (unless it's metal, then it's all good)

I would probably love "I Gotta Feeling" if it were literally inarticulate, like, totally unintelligible.

the lyrics to IGAF are very charming

clemenza don't sweat it -- underrated basically believes that songs with less than totally thought out and articulate lyrics are impossible to enjoy on any level

no he doesn't. he likes amy grant!

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110813221644/twilightsaga/images/d/dd/Jacob_edward_lmfao_hating_is_bad.jpg

clemenza don't sweat it -- underrated basically believes that songs with less than totally thought out and articulate lyrics are impossible to enjoy on any level (unless it's metal, then it's all good)

yeah I think your delusional idea of what I actually think about stuff is clashing with reality here - "I Gotta Feeling" is just a shitty song is all, my collection's full of pop, metal, CCR, rap & plenty of other stuff with dumb lyrics

i'm not being 'delusional' i'm just taunting you for making the same boring uptight argument here that you just made about "pump up the jam" like a week ago

lol fair enough

but like...I was repping for "pump up the volume" on that thread...not exactly a triumph of lyrical effort

sounds like Tweedy found a way to get high again but is not able to really articulate it through his lyrics.

"My Humps" made me cringe. Before "I Gotta Feeling," the only BEP-related stuff I liked were a couple of Fergie's solo singles; since then, I thought "Check It Out" was great, and I can't think of anything else. But to get it back to Wilco, I've seen both their films, and I came away from the second one really liking Jeff Tweedy as a person. The clip above seems beneath him to me, although I'll grant that there was some (yes, convoluted--I don't quite get it) in-joke context.

I don't require that shit be brainy, free 'n' easy is great. the lyrics to "I Gotta Feeling" aren't not-smart-but-who-cares; they're aggressively stupid. they make me want to apologize to people for having to hear them.

I feel stressed out
I wanna let it go
Lets go way out spaced out
and losing all control

Jesus Christ at least make the verbs agree before you cash that check you total fucking nihilists, is my opinion

CCR has dumb lyrics? Now them's fightin' words...

I Gotta Feeing : pop songs :: flag pin : patriotism imo

I swear I don't see what's so aggressively stupid about the lyrics you quote. "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart," literally one of my dozen favourite songs ever the past few years, contains the following:

I want to hold you in the Bible-black predawn
You're quite a quiet domino, bury me now
Take off your Band-Aid because I don't believe in touchdowns
What was I thinking when I said hello?

I can certainly see where someone might find those lyrics aggressively stupid; for me, they're fine (even though I haven't a clue what they mean, or if they mean anything). Lyrics are lyrics; they either work in the context of the song or they don't, but they rarely make or break a song for me.

ha dude you won't catch me repping for Tweedy's lyrics anywhere ever, don't get me wrong here I'm not arguing for Wilco I'm just saying I Gotta Feeling is terrible

IGAF lyrics are so bad they're good

you just have to admire their chutzpah

it's like pointing out that the top of mt. everest is freezing. yeah so what? people still wanna climb it!

wilco, otoh, there's no saving wilco. dud forever

underrated when you blew a gasket about me saying that eminem isn't a good hook writer wasn't that on some '50 million elvis fans can't be wrong' shit? is BEP exempt from your faith in the wisdom of the masses?

Lyrics are lyrics; they either work in the context of the song or they don't, but they rarely make or break a song for me.

I can 100% groove with this until they do something like right-there-in-front-of-you verb tense shit or (my personal least favorite thing ever) forcing a stress onto an unstressed syllable to make a rhyme (exceptions about; "Suddenly" does not really work well as a rhyme if the next line is "it has happened to me" but I will cut anybody who speaks ill of "Suddenly," an all-time jam). Or until they're like

Lets paint the town
We’ll shut it down
Let’s burn the roof
and then we’ll do it again

really? "and then we'll do it again"? you didn't have the extra minute to maybe bust out something even a tiny bit fresher than "and then we'll do it again"? oooooohh hate it

xp "I Gotta Feeling" is a good hook that doesn't make it a good song yo

one thing more benign about Wilco than "I Gotta Feeling" tho is I basically will never have to hear Wilco unless I choose to. "I Gotta Feeling" though...that shit, I will hear. Often. Until I die. And it will suck every time.

the best part about graduating college was never having to listen to wilco again

"Let's burn the roof/and then we'll do it again"--I'd never thought about how completely nonsensical that is. I like the song even more now!

lol clemenza that made me smile really big

The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

Let’s burn the roof
and then we’ll do it again.

They've been casting about for the next politics thread title; I think "Let's Burn the Roof (And Then We'll Do It Again)" just might work.

Ha, I am so glad Clemenza posted those lyrics -- I was just about to come on here and post something similar, but not in defense of Black Eyed Peas, but in confusion over all the posters that dog the last two Wilco albums upthread. I just listened to 'Wilco (The Album)' again for the first time in like a year, and yeah I think the new one is probably better than it. Still undecided where the new one stacks up against SBS

But like, the last 4 albums Tweedy gets better at lyrics. That's why I laugh at the early Wilco partisans who derided the previous two albums. Give me the oblique, married man, late John Lennon stylings of the last few records over embarassing, precious crap like "the ashtray says you were up all night" or "I am trying to break your heart". could never get into this band until Tweedy grew up (and it also certainly helped when he hired guys that play their instruments at the top of their game like Sansone, Kotche, and Cline)

guys everybody read dayo's post out loud and really give it your most sincere reading and you will have a deeply transcendent moment

"I Gotta Feeling" is a good hook that doesn't make it a good song yo

wouldn't be the first time i liked a song for having a good hook and little else (althoguh i disagree with you about the production being generic, i think it's pretty distinctive personally)

btw i did listen to the new wilco on spotify, since i usually feel a pang of 'nels cline is on this, i should probably check this out' when they put out a new album and then never do hear it. first track and last track are cool, don't know about much in between.

guys everybody read dayo's post out loud and really give it your most sincere reading and you will have a deeply transcendent moment

i used to do this with donna summer lyrics.

yeah also dayo, whoever the hell you are, you've been SB'd. I suggest every other reader do so as well to the mouthbreather. I mean Jesus Christ please stop wasting everyone's time bro

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

If we burn the roof, can we do it again?

A monk saw a turtle in the garden of Daizui's monastery and asked the teacher, "All beings cover their bones with flesh and skin. Why does this being cover its flesh and skin with bones?" Master Daizui took off one of his sandals and covered the turtle with it. "Let's burn the roof," Master Daizui said. "And we'll do it again," replied the monk.

stormy dayo brings quality lols to every thread he participates in so do not hate, thank you

When Eshun, the Zen nun, was past sixty and about to leave this world, she asked some monks to pile up wood in the yard.

Seating herself firmly in the center of the funeral pyre, she had itset fire around the edges.

"O nun!" shouted one monk, "is it hot in there?"

"Such a matter would concern only a stupid person like yourself", answered Eshun.

The roof burned, and then they did it again.

Daiju visited the master Baso in China. Baso asked: "What do you seek?"

"Enlightenment," replied Daiju.

"You have your own treasure house. Why do you search outside?" Baso asked.

Daiju inquired: "Where is my treasure house?"

Baso answered: "What you are asking is your treasure house."

Daiju was enlightened! Ever after he urged his friends: "Let's burn the roof and then we'll do it again."

oh I'll hate, and with vigor. dude seems like a pg-rated ade langston with a slight custos bent to boot. fucking clown

I was gonna try to bring in some Bhagavad-Gita but dayo is the master

that is actually the best compliment anybody has ever paid me

Coincidentally listening to Uncle Tupelo's Anodyne tonight - isn't it STILL weird that Jeff Tweedy ended up the guy that more people heard his music from those two in their first band? I never saw that one coming and I dug what both were doing and saw Uncle Tupelo three times. That said, the last record I got from either was Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. (Although I hung out and did a bunch of a recording with a guy that was a total Wilco fanboy and I got a CDR burn of the one with the egg on the cover.)

but wait -- dorks LOVE Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but they think the last two Wilco albums were "boring" ??

are you clowns for real? You miss the innocence of the heavy metal drummer so much that you can't work with and appreciate Tweedy growing old? and singing like a guy that has two kids and sits in underwear in the morning? That's what he is. I mean, I dig the old stuff too, but dude....

the other hilarious thing is how that -- I'd guess you'd call it now -"mid period" Wilco is considered "experimental"?

What, the sound of a clock chiming is "experimental"?? I've never ever ever gotten the idea that this fucking great rock band was in ANY sense "experimental". Maybe Wilco is 'experimental' if you normally listen to Tracy Chapman or something.

Anyway, love Wilco, and new alb is fantastic

The "and we'll do it again" is what people on the dance floor feel at that point in the song when the song repeats itself.

Why "I Gotta Feeling" works so well:
1. The intro gives people enough time to recognize the song and get on the dance floor. And yet the drumbeat doesn't kick in for a while, so if it takes 30 seconds to set down your drink and grab someone and run to the dance floor, you get there without having missed anything.

2. The aspiration of the song is not to have "the time of my life" but the instinct that tonight is going to be a "good night" -- something within reach. [n.b. Why this is the quintessential dorm-room primping song.]

3. The lyrics are almost Springsteen-like in the aim to reach transcendence through just going out and spending a little money at a club.

4. Unlike Celebration, the song has lead vocals for both a man and a woman.

5. The song works like a suspension bridge--it's basically the same song repeated twice, which--as you may have already seen first-hand at a wedding reception or 40th birthday party, as I have--leaves the dancers actually exhausted in a post-coital way.

6. The days of the week make it a hit with the under-six set.

7. What bugs me about the Tweedy cover is that he takes a shit on the song but he doesn't perform it as composed -- as if all the repetition is lazy songwriting rather than carefully executed dance music to give the dancer enough time to get to the dance floor and then have peaks and valleys for the next four minutes.

8. The song works because it takes the impossible expectations of holy occasions--weddings, bar mitzvahs--and makes the dancers feel that they actually are achieving the transcendence that the event is supposed to give them. It gives the dancer at the special occasion the feeling that in fact transcendence is attainable, that tonight is going to be a good night after all, and that, finally, that is enough. It doesn't have to be a transcendental wedding--it becomes one through simply being good. A good night.

9. You know that scene in Miami Vice where Jamie Foxx is fucking his lover/co-worker and he pretends to orgasm but then he makes it clear he was pretending and goes at it double-time? That's what happens in this song, after the breather in the middle: and thus it aspires to surprise and then fully satisfy and exhaust those who choose to dance to it.

10. it communicates exactly what it means, and yet it makes no rational sense; and while it is “wrong” in the everyday world, the three worlds of this title simply cannot be reduced even to nouns, verbs, and prepositions. Gramatically, the Black Eyed Peas have created an impossible compound. It is only what it is. A prime number. In other words, a spell. L'Chaim.

This thread is giving me great joy all of a sudden. I can't wait to see clemenza deploy this argument -- "I mean, I'm hardly the only person to think so--it was #1 for 14 consecutive weeks" in defense of some shitty, shitty movies.

Also, Stormy OTM about the last two records.

I merely brought up the #1 business because of aerosmith's "you really honestly think that?", like I was trying to pull something over him by defending some song that nobody else in the world loved. Pretty sure I never resort to a populist argument to defend the work itself, i.e. millions like it = therefore it's good. My point was that millions like it = why do you seem so surprised that I might like it too?

Poor Wilco. That's what you get for making fun of "I Gotta Feeling," Jeff Tweedy--your thread gets hijacked.

(By the way, I love Eazy's lengthy defense of the song, especially "The days of the week make it a hit with the under-six set"--just like the Jackson 5's "ABC." I hope I'm not being reeled in by an ingenious parody...)

I will say, as a parent of two kids (like Jeff Tweedy!) I've found that small children are overwhelmingly drawn to music that is simplistic and repetitive, and that the better they can understand the lyrics, the more they like it. Hence, little kids (in my experience) don't like rap, terribly, or metal or stuff that's hard to follow. But they do like modern country and piffle like BEP, which is the pop equivalent to a t-ball stand. No one strikes out.

Chuck Eddy would do a better job of taking up this argument than I can, but I'd take issue with the idea that "I Gotta Feeling" is simplistic. I understand your basic point, though. (No kids of my own, but I spend six hours a day with 25 of them.)

when I worked with kids I was a lot more sympathetic to songs like this because I could see them enjoying them, and what's more infectious than that. I do recall with pleasure though a discussion of Pink's "Get This Party Started" that involved exploration of the imperative mood & whether the consequent on not getting the party started was the threat of physical violence toward the listener/addressee

clemenza I got love for IGAF but comparing it to ABC is SB-territory

(Not a parody--I've just spent some time under the hood with IGAF, figuring out how that engine hums!)

(And apologies for the big hijack. I streamed The Whole Love on NPR earlier this week. I liked not knowing when one track ended and the next began.)

Haha, fair enough, clemenza - I misread you and thought you were resorting to "if millions of ppl like it it must be good." Didn't seem like your kind of argument.

Honestly, though, it's a terrible terrible song. Putting it in a category with "Wedding Bell Blues" is definitely smdh territory.

Good--I'm sometimes not sure when I'm on ILM. I'm an aging homebody with three left feet, so I really like your stuff about dancing.

I love "I Gotta Feeling" more than "ABC," more even than "I Want You Back." True story. (But not more than "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" or "Wedding Bell Blues.")

last night when i got IGF stuck in my head because of this thread i remembered fergie's "i know we'll have a ball" section and was like oh damn this song totally has more than one hook, it's so well constructed, fuck what those guys were saying

I'm totally sympathetic, per aero's example, to what kids like and why they like it. But as with food, I find the quality of what they like, generally speaking, directly disproportional to how much they like it. For example, the shittier the microwave pizza, the more the kids like it, no doubt due to all the extra fat, salt and stuff, and lack of complexity. Labor for a couple of days on an awesome dough, homemade sauce and fresh seasonings/toppings, and you'll have a barely touched dinner. I've exposed my kids to all manner of music, from "Music for Airports" through Iron Maiden, but I know what's made the biggest impression on my older one is the mix my friend made for her aerobics workout, which she used to play in the car driving my daughter back from gymnastics.

For example, the shittier the microwave pizza, the more the kids like it, no doubt due to all the extra fat, salt and stuff, and lack of complexity.

"I Gotta Feeling" is the equivalent of a homemade pizza then, with all the strange, wonderful things you'd add.

Josh: I hope you can appreciate that the idea that Iron Maiden is more complex than "I Gotta Feeling" is as baffling to someone like me as the appeal of "I Gotta Feeling" is to you. The older I get, the more I realize that arguing taste is a dead end.

Not arguing tastes, as such. Just noting how my own personal tastes are not aligned with that of many six-year olds I've met.

Not saying Iron Maiden or "Music for Airports" are better than BEP in this case. Just that there's too much abstract stuff going on for little brains to grasp. Not complex as a complement, just literally less repetition, more parts. Sometimes to their detriment. Kids can't process that shit. Again, that's not a diss. It just seems to be true from my perspective.

By the way, you guys ever heard "Bananaphone?" It's a jam.

And come on, "I Gotta Feeling," like it or not, is totally microwave pizza. Sometimes microwave pizza hits the spot. Especially if you're little and don't like food of different colors touching one another.

;)

one sunday morning is really lovely

also standing o sounds vaguely like a supergrass song??

This album is bookended by two of their best ever songs imo. So much so that so far it's hard to get past them and listen properly to the rest.

Funny that they recently covered Nick Lowe, because some of the poppier stuff in the middle reminded me a bit of him. But the skronky guitar reminds me a lot of the Pixies.

I finished listening to this for the first time (I'm not a big Wilco fan but I like a few of their songs)

I'm going to say Dud - I could barely keep my ears open. But I can easily picture a bunch of Kaputt fans loving this

hmm, how is kaputt similar to this?

musical scale/note selection. less than inspiring vocals. soft rock opus type stuff

nah.

first track and last track are cool, don't know about much in between.

This.

I wonder how anyone can call this soft rock. The guitar playing is more scuzzed and abrasive than the band has been in years, and while the rhythm section is similarly more slick, I don't see how anyone can listen to Kotche/Stirratt and not be impressed.

I noticed some very talented playing but nothing grooved with me. "Soft rock" wasn't meant to be a bad thing. Some tracks weren't soft rock in a traditional sense but they still made me sleepy.

last track is quite good, but also too repetitive.

just listened to this for the first time. i really liked it, seemed much better than their last album. i love Sky Blue Sky so it has a ways to go to be better than that for me.

The autopilot of W(TA) really lowered the bar to ankle level, so new one's a huge relief.

Saw them in Nashville for work. Very different sets each night, but Art of Almost and One Sunday Morning both nights, both sounding great. And I'm not really a big guitar solo guy but Nels Cline's solo during Impossible Germany was ridiculous. This line-up is so tight now.

Heard "I Might" on the radio yesterday--excellent. The backing track has such an unusual '60s feel.

Finally bought this today after much dithering - really adore the opening track, predictably, but wish the stuff in the middle, as elegant and well played and composed as it is, was a bit more akin to it. The songwriting of the middl stretch is growing on me, though.

http://ph.cdn.photos.upi.com/slideshow/lbox/885f0d8037a935c26de5e192763b7d5e/La-Russa.jpg

Jeff Tweedy retired today!

and i know that i won't be the last, cold captain tied to the mast

Saw most of the minor league park set last night. I suspect I'm in the minority, but I really wish Nels would just sit a couple of songs out. Or that someone would tell him that it's OK no to constantly noodle-noodle over everything.

Haven't seen them recently, but I think I'm pretty much ready to vehemently disagree with you there.

How was that for a venue? It seemed like a fun show idea.

It was OK. Ticket window seemed a bit overwhelmed, and traffic was predictably slow getting in, but the vibe was nice even if the band's bro contingent was in beyond full effect. Posters sucked, surprisingly.

I just don't like Nels in this context. Don't like his tone, don't like his solos, don't like "Impossible Germany" ...

They can do better than this:

http://c961031.r31.cf2.rackcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/07.08.12-Geneva-Nate-Duval-350x466.jpg

Yes they can, decent idea with horrible execution. Heh, I love "Impossible Germany" and his tone.

does tweedy play much lead these days? i kinda dug it when he started stretching out on guitar in the pre-Nels days.

I just don't like Nels in this context. Don't like his tone, don't like his solos, don't like "Impossible Germany" ...

lol that's prob my favorite Wilco song

It might be my favorite Wilco song ... title.

Not a lot of Jeff skronk, though I dig it when he does.

this album is really good, which is surprising as ive never really liked any of their post-YHF stuff which i found boring and meandering. this is the wilco sound i missed listening to.

It's because they started doing power pop again. They were good at that. Wish they would do more of it

I wish they will do more of One Sunday Morning.

^^^this

i wish Jim O'rourke will rejoin them

This is their best album since YHF.

It's because they started doing power pop again

its not just power pop though, the mellow songs really hit the spot. "whole love" and "one sunday morning" make a great ending to the album.

if someone told me this was their favorite wilco record i'd be like yeah that's legit

the title track is SO good

it's my favorite post-YHF one at least

Not my favourite Wilco record, but the bookends are probably my two favourite Wilco songs. I don't think they could ever top One Sunday Morning

They're the well-publicised tracks though. I wonder how the tracks in between hold up

the bookend epics are fantastic yeah, some of their very best. the rest is a step in the right direction generally - it's nice to hear them in a more power-pop mood again - but a bit inconsistent.

just realised what "born alone" reminds me of is the horse race music from ocarina of time of all things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am6FTMRa_M4

my second favorite wilco album. besides the consensus highlights, i've always really liked "black moon." eerie david crosby-esque mood on that one. really good.

This is probably my favorite album from their current/latter day line-up. It really feels underrated. I already said this in another thread, but xxxp "One Sunday Morning" is indeed amazing, and the more I think about it, the more impressive it seems: a low-key song (not a jam or improvisation) that goes on for twelve minutes. It has ONE real hook, a very simple and modest melody, and yet it's more than enough to carry the whole thing.

Still can't remember how the four gentle songs that appear every other song in the middle go, despite being at a show where a fight broke out during Red Rising Lung

DAD FIGHT!

recent expanded issue adds demos and radio sessions. i love this album.