I'm still not altogether what power pop is based on things I have seen people call power pop, which seems to be a terribly broad spectrum of stuff lol
Dawned On Me - Another excellent song and another great video with great background by @Parachute Woman. This song deserves to be cranked and I did and will again soon. Interesting that Jeff handles bass on this one. Nels' twelve string playing is fantastic.
As with the previous album, my favorite track is a straight-ahead pop song. It sounds "effortless," but I doubt it was. You get the feeling he picked up a guitar, started strumming, and it was over 15 minutes later. That's usually a sign to me that it took a lot more work than that.
When I think of power pop I tend to think of Dwight Twilley, Phil Seymour, Bram Tchaikovsky, The Records and bands like that. I reckon it's a big umbrella as that definition has enveloped some more recent bands like Greenberry Woods and Jellyfish.
I like "Dawned on Me" quite a bit, making the album 4-for-4 so far. It is perfect infectious pop, everything from the lyrics to the whistling to the "ahhh" harmony vocals — why doesn't the band do that kind of background harmony vocals on new songs anymore? It's great. I never knew that John doesn't play on this track, but look how much Pat does! My only issue with the song is Nels' solo in the middle. I get that noise is appropriate and interesting sometimes, but in this case it is just screeching nothingness. Anything with melody or tone or rhythm or something would have been significantly better there, and I think it would have fit the song better. My hunch is that it is what Jeff asked him to do, to subvert his straight up pop song. In this case, it's a choice I don't like, and it's just a wasted 10 seconds.
I listened to this album front to back twice in a row driving between my house and rental yesterday. I really liked this song then and it sounds great listening again to it right now via PW's post. This track was by far my favorite on the album. I did think to myself that it sounds like something from Summerteeth. I am a huge fan of lots of things described as power pop but I agree with you. Whenever a band considers itself a power pop band I almost invariably find their music insufferable. The "power pop" stuff that I love are by bands that usually consider themselves rock bands and the power pop label ridiculous. The four Rhino DIY Power Pop comps are pretty wonderful. Various - DIY: Come Out And Play - American Power Pop I (1975-78) Various - DIY: Shake It Up! - American Power Pop II (1978-80) Various - DIY: Teenage Kicks - UK Pop I (1976-79) Various - DIY: Starry Eyes - UK Pop II (1978-79)
I love Dawned On Me. A great Summerteeth style pop gem with a bit of the Wilco 2.0 sonic destruction thrown in for good measure. The highlight of the song for me is the Shepard-Risset glissando... an audio illusion that’s the Musical equivalent of an MC Escher painting. The music just keeps descending forever... I remember seeing the Austin City Limits performance when the album came out and being blown away by how they pulled this off. So cool. As for power pop... fuzzed out riffs over three minute sugary pop tunes. You Really Got Me... My Sharona... and everything after.
I agree that any genre tags (and especially this one) can be a bit tiresome anyway. So I swear I'll try not to say "power pop" again even though I do like my pop songs catchy, full of musical joy, energy, fun, and… power (like the Supergrass song) which Wilco often does so well (again in the song after next !), except not here as far as I'm concerned. BUT something just occurred to me while reading this comment: I remember Jeff doing a cover version of the Black Eyed-Peas Gotta Felling around the time the Whole Love was released. It was meant as a joke, but the result was surprisingly entertaining (and, dare I say, good). And somehow, I wonder if Dawned on Me is not Jeff’s (and Pat’s) deliberate exercise in “mainstream radio pop”, something the Black Eyed Peas almost could’ve covered themselves as a return of favor.
“Dawned on Me.” Another ultra catchy Wilco song. Call it pop, call it power pop, doesn’t really matter what we call it, it is signature Wilco. It’s celebratory and infectious with just enough dissonance thrown in to not give you cavities. 4.5/5
I'm with the majority opinion here, I really like Dawned on Me. And like other times, people have expressed why already. I also agree with Rainy Taxi that the discordant solo doesn't fit the song.
"Dawned On Me"- I broke out the vinyl copy last night and realized how many of these songs are like an updated Summerteeth style. A few songs coming up really blew me away last night. "Dawned On Me"and "Born Alone" are pretty much in the same ballpark. They feel like this albums versions of "I'm Always In Love" and "Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (Again)". Two very catchy pop n roll songs. I mix these songs up and can never remember which is the song I like more until I play them. "Dawned On Me" is great, but I now realize it's the other song I prefer. I am enjoying listening to all these songs on headphones when I write up these reviews. You can pick up so much more that is going on. I like all the little touches on this song with the mellotron making a comeback, some really fun keyboard sounds, ukulele, and glockenspiel. A sensational sunny blast of Wilco pop. I'm a huge fan of this side of their music with the harmonies and the Beach Boy inspired instrumentation and all of the oohs and aahs. This song even comes with a little whistling break! Jeff does a great job on bass, but the personnel also lists John on bass and backing vocals, so maybe Jeff just contributed a little bit? The end of the song sounds like John's bass style. The Popeye video is also fantastic! I think this album may rank higher than I was originally thinking. 4/5
Agree completely on genres and what music fits where. This has especially proliferated from the 90’s on. Dream Pop, Post Pop, Shoegaze, Orchestral Pop, Progressive Pop, Indie, Alt Rock, so forth and so on, ad infinitum. I can’t keep track anymore. Mostly I think it is just self serving Rock Critic talk, the Pitchforkification of the music industry.
I find the term "power pop" infuriating, as so much of it lacks, um, power. I've posted songs in power pop threads and some people are like, "Oh no no no, that's more like hard rock pop or metal pop." "Oh yeah, file it away in your Big Star, because their attack sometimes strikes me as decidedly anemic, too." Sorry, no need to work out my issues in the Wilco thread. "Dawned On Me," now that's great Wilco! 8.6
Power pop is probably my favorite sub-genre of "rock" (maybe alongside country rock/alt country) and this falls into that area a little bit, although it's perhaps a bit light on the "power". This is the song on the album that sounds the most similar to Summerteeth and it does share a few of the same annoying features that a lot of the songs on that album have but, in the end, I do like it quite a bit. It has a warmer, more organic feel to it than those songs do, to my ears at least. The "aaaahhhs" at the end are perfect and make the song for me. The lyrics are nice but the main feature here is the melody. There are some similarities here to "You Never Know" on the last album, but I think that's a much better song than "Dawned On Me". (I really loathe cartoon music videos.)
It is, although so is "punk" and "Americana". Don't even get me started on "indie", which isn't even an actual genre of music! Albums like Cheap Trick's Heaven Tonight, Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend, Velvet Crush's Teenage Symphonies To God, and Tommy Keene's Songs From The Film are four solid entry points to a working definition of "power pop". The first two Big Star albums are foundations of power pop as well. I've been meaning to do a SHF post sometime on my 100 favorite power pop albums.
Scratch that... mixed two songs up in my head... The Shepard-Risset Glissando is on Born Alone! Dawned On Me is still good in my books!
Wow, I've fallen behind after an incredibly busy week at work. The Whole Love, to me, is Wilco's overlooked masterpiece. It's their Abbey Road in scope, scale, production, eccentricity, song craft, and sheer pop glory. It might not be my favorite Wilco, but it's right up there in my esteem. "Art of Almost" - when I listened to the album leak, and this was the first song, I actually turned to my wife and said something like, "Oh thank God. They're back." In hindsight, this was like Wilco saying, "You want the American Radiohead? We can do it, here's proof, but we're so much more than that. Buckle in." I didn't have a chance to see the band in 2011--can't remember why--but I saw them on 2012-07-18, at Wolf Trap with Lee Ranaldo opening. "Art of Almost" followed "Misunderstood" to open the show, and I was blown away. I wasn't planning on going to the show, actually--I had just started a new job in DC two weeks before and I'd been pretty broke during the job transition--but I logged on to the Wolf Trap site a day or two before the show and pulled three front row seats that must've just been released. You can't pass that up. I took a buddy whose girlfriend was a big Wilco fan, and made sure she got a setlist after the show. I didn't know it at the time, but I wouldn't see Wilco again for five years, until 2017-06-09, also at Wolf Trap. They did "Art of Almost" at that show, too. Why hasn't this been played since 2017? I would love to see it every night. "I Might" was played next after "Art of Almost" that night. I remember Jeff saying that the lyrics were random nonsense, just placeholders meant to occupy syllables until he could right something more meaningful, but then he ended up really liking them, so they stayed. This is the only time I've seen this one, but then that's 1/3 shows since its debut, so the sample size is getting pretty meaningless. Another one I could hear any time and enjoy. "Sunloathe," never, really? Reading the lyrics, I guess yeah, it's kind of a bummer. And it's a lush studio production that might be hard to translate live. "Dawned on Me" - another fun one, and I got it that night in 2012, the penultimate song of the main set, slotted in between "Candyfloss" and "A Shot in the Arm," where it worked very well. This one has stayed in the live book, and good for it.
Black Moon Jeff Tweedy: vocals, acoustic guitar Nels Cline: lap steel Pat Sansone: electric guitar, vocals, percussion Mikael Jorgensen: keyboards, synthesizers, 'oh' sample John Stirratt: bass Glenn Kotche: drums, percussion Nick Photinos: cello Matt Albert: violin, viola An incredibly beautiful and soothing track. Wilco has used strings at various points throughout their career but the violin was often used as a fiddle--meaning that it was used in an Americana or country way. Here, we have a string-section that comes from somewhere else--the ethereal and hazy half-moon dawn, with the strings lush and sweet (fully taking over the song towards the end, weeping). They pair beautifully with Nels' use of the lap steel and the result is a track that I think is just incredibly touching. The lyric is simple but evocative, crying out for connection. 'Are you awake now too?' It's a very early morning song for me.The video I found has images that I think capture how the song feels. This one is touched by media for me too, because it was used on the show House when the main character Wilson tells House he has cancer. Very sad and that's linked in my mind. That show always had great musical choices.
This starts like a mix between Uncle Tupelo’s Black Eye and the Who’s Behind Blue Eyes then becomes a lesson in atmosphere and arrangement, with Peter Gabriel-like percussions (recalling the sublime Blood of Eden, from Us) and cinematic eery strings. Along with Rising Red Lung, Black Moon sets the stage for the next phase of Jeff’s writing and method : drone-like sleepy folk songs, with an emphasis on mood over melody. One could say the infamous “samey” songwriting style of the solo (and family) albums starts here. As for me, I love it. On the Whole Love, the three slowest songs (the third being Sunloathe) are all extremely sophisticated production numbers, with stunning arrangements, extraordinary intricate playing by the rhythm section, and sublime all-instrumental melodic and emotional breaks, that recall their companionship with Jim O’Rourke, Jeff relying on the band to add colors, drama and relief to his black & white low-key canvas. On the Whole Love, the more a track starts like a deceptively simple folk song, the more it’s likely to be a headphone journey for us to enjoy and immerse ourselves in. Sandwiched between two catchy pop “singles”, Black Moon can easily be overlooked as a kind of interlude. But whenever the mood is right, this is heavenly stuff.
As @Fortuleo has noted above, this draws directly from Black Eye, a song from two generations in the past (in Tweedy-speak). And I like it. Black Moon is the pinnacle of this New Wilco album for me. Well done.
The Whole Love I’ve got some catching up to do. Giving this album some initial listens right now, and I must say this is a bit of a shift from (The Album). I’ll do some more listening and then go back and read the track by track comments. The artwork has caught my eye though, and I must point out that it reminds me of an old Pink Floyd compilation called Relics that was quite comment in record stores when I was in high school: Essentially, it’s a diagram of a strange fantastical machine. The Whole Love appears to be a more abstracted version of a similar device, even though I’m fairly certain the two pieces of artwork have nothing to do with each other.
