Well, I was messing with the time-space continuum such that Jeff would be famous Wilco Jeff Tweedy interacting with the Wilburys.
Everlasting Everything The album closes out with 'Everlasting Everything,' quite an epic song that I've always thought was really beautiful. The verses start out so quiet and thoughtful, but the chorus just swells out into that big, FULL sound of grandeur. The instrumental section at the end is really, really lovely and I think Nels is incorporated better on this track than he is on many other songs on this album. His swirling fills over the drums, synth and the lightest touch of horns sounds wonderful and then everything seems to drop away to leave just the sound of his guitar, thoughtfully floating away into the silence. The lyrics seem to be about how nothing lasts in this world and permanence is a myth, but then Jeff sings: Oh, I know this might sound sad But everything goes both good and the bad It all adds up and you should be glad Everlasting love is all you have Which I've taken to mean that you may die and everything may die, but the love you build while you are here is everlasting. It can last your whole life if you let it and it can last beyond your death too, in the people that you leave behind. In the end, I think it's actually a more optimistic and hopeful song than it may appear at first glance. Jeff himself has it in his head that the fan base hates this song for some reason (though he has mentioned on multiple occasions that songwriter Bill Fay likes this song, which seems to please him). 'Everlasting Everything' has only been played live twice. Nels Cline said, "[that song] is really hard to play live. I could see it slightly rearranged--I think it's such a great song--but songs like that are not exciting songs, and sometimes they get sort of shunted to the back of the bus because they're too slow, too quiet, too depressing." Wilco (The Album) final thoughts My opinion remains the same. I like this album a lot. I think it features really good songwriting and has a kind, loose quality to it that just works. Is it one of the band's masterworks? No, I don't think so. But this is a fine record that I always enjoy playing. I will agree that Nels Cline isn't incorporated as smoothly as he was on Sky Blue Sky (and I didn't used to understand that) but I can see now that this was a direct result of his not being there during the New Zealand sessions and adding his stuff later. That being said, I think Pat Sansone shines throughout and brings a lot to the arrangements and sound of (The Album). I don't give anything on this album an A+, but plenty of As and A-s. My track ranking: 1. You Never Know (A) 2. I'll Fight (A) 3. Deeper Down (A-) 4. Wilco (The Song) (A-) 5. Everlasting Everything (A-) 6. Bull Black Nova (B+) 7. You and I (B+) 8. One Wing (B+) 9. Solitaire (B) 10. Country Disappeared (B-) 11. Sonny Feeling (C) Tomorrow we will cover the bonus track 'Dark Neon.' Wednesday we will jump right in to the next album, 2011's The Whole Love. Use today to cover 'Everlasting Everything' and wrap-up thoughts on (The Album). Thanks everybody!
Everlasting Everything: I was going to be a little more negative about this closing track but, inspired by @Parachute Woman , listened again just now and will concede that it’s inoffensive. A bit too repetitive for me, and I’m not particularly impressed with Cline’s noodling at the end. But...it’s an okay song that fits into that ‘what did it sound like again’ category. This was my first true exploration of this album and it was well worth the deep dive. I came away with the following additions to my Post Jay Wilco playlist: Deeper Down One Wing Country Disappeared I’ll Fight
Once again Parachute Woman gives us a great writeup, both on the song and on t he album. It's impressive how a four-minute song can be as epic as Everlasting Everything. It's a great song to end the album. I really like (The Album). It may not have a song at the level of Impossible Germany, but it's a consistently good set of music (with one obvious exception). It's not a Wilco album I reach for a lot, but it's an album I always enjoy when it's playing.
We’ve often talked here about George Harrison’s influence on Jeff, but Everlasting, Everything is almost the opposite of an All Things Must Pass sentiment: things matter even if they (& we) ultimately die. All things die, but love means even more because of that. And Jeff is ready to forcefully hammer this message down in the chorus. I don’t know how many of his songs tackle the death subject, but I can’t think of any other songwriter doing it just as consistently. I’ll try to make the count and post it here someday… So Everlasting is an obvious follow up to On and On and On. As for me, I like it more, even though the guitar intro and the piano sound so much like A Day in the Life that it could almost be mistaken for an Oasis single. I enjoy the ominous Good, Bad, Ugly Morricone church bell and Nels' birds/insects guitar outro. But the real stand out is the sublime phrase “oh Nothing Could Mean Anything / at all”, with the “at all” rising up and left hanging in the air one time, like an unresolved interrogation, then descending like a sad realization the next. Ultimately, it ends up expressing an appeased spiritual acceptance (not to be mistaken with resignation). At which point all that remains behind Jeff's voice seems to be Glenn’s elemental drumming, stark and steady like a Ringo Ono Band beat… To me, the way Jeff phrases and frames the four different “at all” moments in this song is what makes him an unparalleled songwriter these days.
I think I was wrong in noting that I started slowly pulling away from Wilco after Ghost. In retrospect, Sky Blue Sky still held that same sense of excitement I felt towards a new Wilco album. It was The Album where I started pulling away. Why? The highs weren't as high. The songs that reached me didn't reach me so intensely. My favorite track here is "You Never Know," and that simply feels like a good pop song. The heavier songs ("Bull Black Nova," "One Wing") felt good, not great. A few of the tracks went right by me. Listening to them in this thread has been the first time I've heard them in years, and I feel like I made the right call the first time around. They're not bad songs; I just don't feel compelled to listen to them repeatedly. It's that sense of "well, OK" that permeates my feelings towards Wilco albums going forward. I don't know exactly what that it is? That missing sense of melody Jay routinely brought to the songs when he was around? The sense that the stylistic experimentation that followed when Jeff took more control of the songwriting just wasn't on the same level? A feeling that the rest of the band was never going to be as close to him creatively as Jay was, thus there was a feeling that he was working with accomplished sidemen more so than creative partners? I don't know what it was. But I started sensing that here. Again, I'll listen to everything Wilco does and pull good things from each project. But this is where it truly stopped being a "drop everything and get this" feeling for me when a new Wilco album came out.
"Sonny Feeling" I like the music here a lot, especially the Beach Boys-inspired backing vocals and the fuzz guitar freakout. But the lyrics are just a mess. It appears to be a song about fateful moments, and remembering the show gratitude for life while you can. It's another story song, but this one comes with a moral. But then, what the hell is this? Sonny's got a problem All the mini-mart clerks know She knows nothing of Eminem's Suburban gangster flow OK, so Sonny hasn't heard . . . Eminem. Let's set aside what he's doing referenced in a Wilco song (is it a joke?). Sonny hasn't heard his music. This is somehow a problem for him/her. And it's such a problem that all the mini-mart clerks know about it. Is Sonny the one whose clothes are cut off in the next verse? The kids are still cruel--have they attacked Sonny and sent her to the hospital because . . . she doesn't know Eminem? I haven't seen this one live. Good riddance. I have a recording of it on the Keyspan Park show from 2009 that Wilco released for Haiti hurricane relief. The band performs admirably, but Jeff flubs some of the lyrics.
Everlasting Everything is a perfectly good ending to a perfectly good Wilco album. Not their best by any means, but Wilco The Album has several highlights and shows that even at a low they still make compelling music. Album Rating: 4/5 Songs: Wilco The Song 4/5 Deeper Down 4/5 One Wing 4.5/5 Bull Black Nova 5/5 You and I 3.5 You Never Know 4/5 Country Disappeared 4.5/5 Solitaire 3/5 I'll Fight 4.5/5 Sonny Feeling 2/5 Everlasting Everything 4/5
Like others, I think "Everlasting Everything" is a fine song to conclude a fine album. Nothing terribly exciting here, although I think the outro is great. The chimes from "Wilco (the song)" make a reappearance, but not for any melodic or harmonic line this time. Rather, they just ring out once per "everlasting" and "everything" in the choruses, for emphasis. The group has played this one twice, once on 2009/07/03 at Red Rocks, and once in December 2014 during one of their famous Chicago residencies. I don't have a recording of either, so I've only got the studio recording for this one. I think they should resurrect it when they tour again, and I could hear it as a show opener followed by something upbeat or maybe straight into "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart."
Everlasting Everything - it's a good end to the album, but I am not sensing anything "epic" here. It's pleasant, but doesn't really go anywhere, a little repetitive. From the exercise of listening to all of these songs and discussing them here, my end opinion is that The Album is OK and fair, if kind of vanilla. Nothing offensive to me on The Album, but nothing I reach for either
Everlasting Everything is an amazing closer and suffers only because of its brevity. I’ve always wondered why they didn’t let that instrumental ending just drift on and on with Nels and Glenn playing off of each other. Knowing now how the bed tracks were made in NZ without Nels and Mikael, I have an idea. The structure was set, and the lead guitar just overdubbed. Less chance for spontaneity. The “noodling” is actual Nels doing what he’s so good at... it’s a lot of looping, and often pitch shifted reverse looping too. This is common stuff now (it made Ed Sheeran’s career) but Nels was doing this in the 80s with his friend Bill Frisell. Totally pioneering stuff. If you watch the video below you’ll see how he does it at about 1:00-1:30 using his vintage 16-second delay (what he started with in the 80s), and a Kaos pad (normally a tool for DJs not guitarists). Later in the video he also shows off the Montreal Assembly Count to Five, another insane modern delay looper. These are where all the bird chirping noises come from. I could never play like Nels, but I can’t say what an inspiration he’s been to me (as well as Bill Frisell who is like the smooth jazz brother of Nels). When I saw Wilco on the Ghost tour I had no idea who he was (confession I thought they had hired session man Nils Lofgren!)... I had heard of Cline and the Geraldine Fibbers but couldn’t have told you anything about what their music sounds like. But when I saw this guy with a pedalboard accessible to his hands (you can do that?!?) and this crazy light up pad he waved his fingers over, alternating between playing and knob twiddling so seemlessly? I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. Now that I know who he is, I’m amazed at his unwavering commitment to push, push, push. He’s not afraid to be melodic or chaotic. He’s committed to technical excellence. He uses gear he’s had forever and is always adding new stuff too. Wilco are lucky to have him. On the flip side, I’ve read he was on the verge of retiring from music, having never lived with a steady income always in the fringes of art rock and jazz, and now in his mid-fifties. Wilco gave him an outlet and an audience he had never had. So he’s lucky to have Wilco too. As for the album, it’s a mixed bag. Some great songs and some okay songs. And even the worst (Sonny) I wouldn’t skip if it came on shuffle. But I think Jeff still needed to find his voice writing without collaborators but arranging with a group. Hence the somewhat cluttered mix when they weren’t just laying down the tracks in the Loft like with SBS.
The Album is pretty good. I have four of its 11 songs rated at 4/5 stars, Wilco (The Song), Bull Black Nova, You Never Know, and I'll Fight. I wasn't crazy about it upon release, but came around to it a few years ago. I like it about the same now.
I was lucky to be at the 12/11/2014 show. Tweedy gave it an intro as of one of his favorite songs that just doesn't get a lot of requests from fans. I'm pretty sure he mentioned Bill Fay liked it, as @Parachute Woman alluded to. I like the song. It does seem to be the successor to "On and On and On," which I think is a better song. But this one is still a beautiful song, with beautiful lyrics and sentiment. One thing that irks me a bit about it is it seems to never really get into a groove. As some posters mentioned about earlier songs last week, this one feels "edited" or rushed to me. I think it could've been allowed to breathe and stretch out a bit. Coming of the heels of two other "unoptimized"/could've-been-improved tracks, it ends the album with a feeling that things started off great but ended unremarkably.
I don't think people realize how hard it must be to be a "journeyman" musician not affiliated with any one band or artist. Best-case scenario is a ton of session work that's surely a mixed bag of going through the motions and having amazing experiences. Along with getting contracted for tours with major artists. It's the difference between driving around in vans while doing your own thing and, at the higher end, staying in four-star hotels and flying between shows. (I would guess Wilco is on the touring bus at their level! Albeit I'm sure it's a very nice bus. Light years from touring in a van.) When Jay passed on, Jeff said he was surprised that he wasn't hooked into touring with someone like Jackson Browne. I would have figured, or hoped, he hooked up with someone like Paul Westerberg and played a major creative role as he did with Jeff. I've seen the dance with musician friends as they age. It's no fun packing your gear in the van, trying to get paid, and if you're lucky, having enough overhead for a hotel room instead of sleeping in the van. That got real old for many of them by their 30s and virtually impossibly from their 40s onwards. That said, I wonder if Nels serves as his own guitar tech given how intricate his system is. I could only imagine how intense a job like that would be with his rig, Jeff's rig, and possibly smaller side rigs for the other guys on certain tracks.
After being away on a long (rainy) weekend in the mountains, catching up on some stuff today. Lots of good observations on "Everlasting Everything." I definitely consider this (as several of you have) as the successor to "On and On and On." I also agree that while I like it, its not as good as that earlier song. I spent a bit of time this weekend with this album and also with The Whole Love looking ahead to the rest of this week. The Album is probably a definite "middle of the pack" album for me. I would not say it is my least favorite, but its not one that I listen to a whole lot. I have mentioned before that (to me) it is more of a collection of songs as opposed to a unified album. I am not sure why. I would give it a solid 3/5 stars - maybe 3.5/5 now that I think of it. Looking forward to The Whole Love as it is an interesting record to me in a lot of ways.
Yeah, Tweedy mentions Paul McCartney and Elton John, too, in his memoir (as possible Jay-could-have-played-with candidates). Complimentary...but, to me, a backhanded compliment as Jay was, as you say, a major creative component of Wilco.
Yeah, I’ve been doing the due diligence thing, too. Was shocked to find I’m familiar with exactly one track!
Huh, I didn't read it as backhanded. Didn't Jeff say in the same paragraph or two that Jay could have added a creative spark to just about any band? I think he was just naming touring acts that Jay could have meshed well with, stylistically.
About the album in general, I'm like @Gabe Walters, I think it's perfectly fine. Which in itself is a bit of a letdown. I like almost everything on it (except the two penultimate tracks on each side), my two favorites (I’ll Fight and Deeper Down) being firmly entrenched in my personal Wilco pantheon. The overall feeling is that for the first time, Wilco is a well rounded affair and that’s what's on display : Wilco being content of being Wilco and smoothly preparing for the next tour (the album being almost an afterthought, since they were ready to move on and launch their own label). I think that’s the exact moment when the band ceased to be a devouring obsessive quest for Jeff. So I guess it’s only natural that it ceased to be a devouring obsessive quest for you, or me, or most of us, really. Thankfully, some great, great music (greater that fine) still was – and certainly is – to come.
I could have seen their next show, a few nights later at Wolf Trap in Northern VA, but I decided not to because I was studying for the bar exam and broke as hell, and I had "just" seen them in Feb. 2008. Bright Eyes was the opener, and he annoys me. I saw Wilco again in 2010, but this marked the beginning of a steep decline in the frequency of my show going, as marriage, job changes, moves, and kids would follow in pretty rapid succession. I hope to make it to Red Rocks one day; it looks absolutely spellbinding.
Just an overall wrap-up thought: like Rob Mitchum for Pitchfork, I was disappointed with Sky Blue Sky initially. Tweedy got NELS CLINE and Glenn Kotche in the band, and this is what he has them do? But, just as with my friend who was disappointed that Wilco wasn't proving to be the critics' American Radiohead, Sky Blue Sky grew on me. And then Wilco (the album) came to me with heavy anticipation and I found it a bit of a let down. It wasn't a grand statement or a bold new direction, as every record after their first had been. It was a summation of sounds, their sound, and it could also function as a mission statement: the purpose of Wilco is to make songs, drawn from Jeff Tweedy, embellished by crack musicians but as comfortable as an old pair of pants, songs that feel lived in. Nels isn't going to go into Andrew Hill mode; Mikael isn't going to go too far down the Soma Studios/Tortoise/Chicago art experimental rabbit hole, at least not anymore. He's just as likely to play some lovely piano, and Pat's just as likely to play fuzzed-out guitar windmills as farfisa organ or synthesized strings or horns. But John, whoa, John has really grown and continues to grow as an incredibly harmonically minded bass player, not content to just walk around the root. This band can take what appears to be a simple folk song and do some very musically interesting things with it and, well, that's Wilco. Take it or leave it. You'll either wish they were Uncle Tupelo or Low, The Jayhawks or Yo La Tengo, Radiohead or The Band. But they can do it all, and it'll fold and unfold seamlessly into a mixture that can only be Wilco.
"Everlasting Everything"- Interesting to see this one get so much love. Certainly not an awful way to end the album, but it's rather unremarkable to my ears. Wilco is usually pretty great at ending an album. This song comes up a little short on being that grand finale they shoot for. I don't really care for the "Everlasting Everything" part. I like most of the other vocal parts and John delivers a good bass line, but it never seems to go anywhere. I hardly ever make it this far when listening to the album and I never search this song out on its own. 2.5/5 Wilco The Album- I pretty much feel the same about the album as when we started. I still say it's their weakest album. Something has to be last! I would rather listen to every other album and no song reaches 5/5 and it has possibly the only 1/5 ranking I will give. Jeff was still trying to find his feet with this newer batch of musicians and sobriety. For any other band this may rank among their best, but for Wilco it's a minor record with enough highlights to make it a worthwhile and overall pleasant listening experience. Looking back at my ratings it turns out to be mostly a success. My ranking of the songs: Wilco The Song 4.5/5 Deeper Down 4.5/5 Bull Black Nova 4/5 I'll Fight 4/5 Solitaire 4/5 You Never Know 3.5/5 Country Disappeared 2.5/5 One Wing 2.5/5 Everlasting Everything 2.5/5 You and I 2/5 Sonny Feeling 1/5
A bit more reflection: I understand the meshing stylistically bit but it is either a dismissal or moment of amnesia when it comes to considering Jay as a fellow Rainmaker. What was the percentage again? Over 70% of material from Mermaid on through Yankee has material co-written by Jay. And some of that was offered up on a platter by Jay (the rain-making California Stars, for instance). There’s no way that Elton John or McCartney would allow Jay to present them with a Cars Can’t Escape tape so they could tweak it a bit and then include Jay as a co-writer. He would have made some serious money but have been underutilized in that respect. Anyway, further idle thoughts of no consequence.
