Wilco: Album by Album

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Parachute Woman, May 11, 2020.

  1. palisantrancho

    palisantrancho Forum Resident

    "Message From Mid-Bar"- Has some interesting parts, but sounds more like it could be a part of Sky Blue Sky than Whole Love. I'm trying to detect the Lennon, but I don't hear it. Not a bad song, but it was a good choice to leave it off the album.

    "Sometimes It Happens"- This was added to the vinyl copy, but I am still not very familiar with it. I guess over the years I mostly play this album on my computer stereo or my car iPod. This song isn't on my digital formats. I'm not sure why they decided to include it on the vinyl. I prefer the album ending with "One Sunday Morning". Although, I also stated that I think "Whole Love" would have worked as the closing song. This wouldn't be out of place on the album, but I would put in a different place like maybe track 8 after "Open Mind". At first listen I was surprised @Fortuleo loved this song so much, but after a few repeat listens it is revealing itself to be a very pleasant song, like a 70s summer breeze. The vibe slightly reminded me of the excellent song LSD (Lake Shore Drive) by Aliotta, Haynes, Jeremiah in 1972. I have driven that stretch of road many times with that song playing. I wonder if Wilco ever did a cover version? If not, they should!

    "Speak Into The Rose"- This one is cool. I'm always down for these instrumental experiments. Totally sound like a Loose Fur track.

    "I Love My Label"- The Wilco version has nothing on the original by Nick Lowe, but it's a fun cover song. It makes perfect sense. If you listen to the original from 1978 it sounds a lot like Wilco. We have already mentioned the Elvis Costello influences many times, now it's time for Nick to get his due.

    I haven't heard any of the alternate versions of the songs on the album. I do really like One True Vine and would have posted "Every Step", but @jalexander already took care of that. Jeff laying down some funky groove! So great!
     
    Last edited: Sep 28, 2020
  2. Gabe Walters

    Gabe Walters Forum Resident

    I had a copy of the "I Might" 7" b/w "I Love My Label," but I sold it after I got Alpha Mike Foxtrot. "I Love My Label" is the only The Whole Love-era non-album track to appear on that comp, which I think is a mistake. There are no liner notes from Jeff on this one.

    Don't forget the band's iTunes Session, which is available on the iTunes Store or streaming on Apple Music. This was a live-in-the-studio recording done December 11, 2011 at The Loft. This version of "Cruel to Be Kind" appears to be the one from the Record Store Day 7" with Nick Lowe. Track list:

    1. Dawned on Me
    2. Born Alone
    3. I Might
    4. Black Moon
    5. Whole Love
    6. War on War
    7. Passenger Side
    8. Cruel to Be Kind (feat. Nick Lowe)

    "Speak into the Rose" features another motorik beat, like "Spiders (kidsmoke)." Good enough for me to pull the trigger on the 10" on Discogs last night. Man, I should've bought this years ago.

    "Message from Mid-Bar" feels a bit disjointed to me, and I don't think it's just the alternating time signature on the acoustic guitar figure. It's like there's a groove trying to break through, but the band is committed to weird thing happening, so they suppress it. "I hate you less than the rest / We're all swine / But You're all mine" is pretty great, though. Apparently this one takes some lyrical inspiration from "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division. Jeff is smart enough to know the reference and play with it. Looks like they've done this one twice, during the 2014 Chicago residency.

    As near as I can tell, "Sometimes It Happens" has never been performed live. It's good, but not great. I might have slotted it onto the Speak Into the Rose 10" rather than tag it onto the vinyl (and iTunes special edition, I think) after "One Sunday Morning," which really should be the last word on the record.

    The alternates and demos? I can take 'em or leave 'em.
     
  3. Fortuleo

    Fortuleo Used to be a Forum Resident

    I definitely picked up the Bennett musical vibe but never realized how the lyrics could apply to their relationship, nor the fact it was released just after Jay's death. Thanks for making that point !
    Yes, you should try again, it's a wonderful, wonderful song, that has nothing to do to the original version.
    On the vinyl, the addition of Sometimes it Happens after One Sunday Morning is nothing short of extraordinary. I know, I know, most tend to think that OSM is such a great closer that nothing can come after it. I agree but I’ll argue that Sometimes it Happens does not take its place as the closer. It works like a song playing over the end credits, once the film is over. The last scene (OSD) left you speechless, moved you to tears, then the screen goes black and the credit song starts, accompanying your thoughts and your emotions while you put on your coat and proceed towards the exit (except the song is so great that you can’t help but stay in the theater corridors to listen to it all the way through). As such, it does not take anything away from the last scene/closer. It becomes the soundtrack of your thoughts and feelings about what that last scene (and the whole movie) meant to you. And really, Sometimes it Happens is the perfect song for that.
     
  4. jalexander

    jalexander Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    Fade is probably my favourite YLT album, and that’s not to denigrate their amazing catalogue. Low and YLT are my benchmark for late career artists continuing to push for vital new material.
    forgot about that session, especially Cruel to Be Kind.

     
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  5. GlenCurtis

    GlenCurtis Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pullman, Wa
    "The Whole Love", Deluxe Material:

    --"I love my Label" is a pretty decent cover, and maybe a bit of a statement song given Wilco's Label history. But what band couldn't you say this of? 4/5
    --"Message from Mid-Bar" is an interesting exercise. It is one of those songs in the tradition of physical aspects of the guitar being beckoned as metaphorical fodder for song. For me, the lonesome slide mid song is a bar too far. 3.5/5
    --"Speak into the Rose" is just plain good fun. The Spaghetti Western of Spiders perhaps. Probably a good call not putting it on the album, but glad we have it. 4/5.
    --"Black Moon (Alt)" This just feels naked without the strings, and not in a good way. Point taken off for indecent exposure. 3/5
    --Every time I listen to "Sometimes it Happens," for the first minute or so, I feel like I'm in a slowed down cover of Steve Forbert's "Streets of This Town." This does not bother me one bit. It also has a mid 70's MOR Nashiville vibe which I also don't mind. If Jeff ever makes a pure Nashville record "Sometimes it Happens" should be on it.
     
  6. GlenCurtis

    GlenCurtis Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pullman, Wa
    Agree, Fade is awesome, and also probably my favorite from their distinguished catalogue
     
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  7. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    I hear it from ‘Then I told you...and you agreed, some days I despise everyone I see.’ Just that verse.
     
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  8. frightwigwam

    frightwigwam Talented Amateur

    Location:
    Oregon
    I suppose that the band relegated “Speak Into The Rose” to the EP/Bonus Disc because it’s like “Son of Spiders” and Jeff never wrote lyrics for it, but I would like it in the middle of the album, in place of “Open Mind.” It would add some interesting texture, and act as a midway interlude & bookend counterpart to “Art of Almost” for the first half.

    “Mid-Bar” has some interesting texture, too, but I can understand if the band didn’t feel like it was quite successful.

    The rest of the bonus/outtake material doesn’t impress me much. If they had to add “Sometimes It Happens” because they needed filler to make a double-LP, they should’ve moved it ahead of “One Sunday Morning”; they were already shuffling “Whole Love” to balance the second disc program, anyway. Just tacking another track to the end like an afterthought seems careless. But, since I don’t own the vinyl, I guess that’s not my problem.
     
  9. robcar

    robcar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    "I Love My Label" is a good song and Wilco's version is quite nice.

    "Message From Mid-Bar" has pretty good lyrics but I'm less moved by the music. I suppose this is about as close as Tweedy comes to social-political songwriting (I wish he'd do more in that vein). It was properly a bonus track.

    "Speak Into The Rose" is sort of cool. Seems like a studio jam that was more or less made up on the spot.

    "Black Moon (Alternate)" is lovely and serves as a nice counterpoint to the album version. The strings are missed but in some ways I prefer this simpler approach.

    "Sometimes It Happens" is just fantastic. This one should have been on the album. Love the lyrics, the melody, the arrangement....it all works together to form an exceptional song. It does have a benedictory feel to it and it could have been a good album closer, although I'm not sure that anything should follow OSM.

    "I Might (Demo)" is good for a demo but the album version is the definitive one.

    "Art Of Almost (Alternate)" is an interesting (slightly) altered look at the song but I prefer the album version.
     
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  10. robcar

    robcar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    That's high praise considering the presence of Painful and I Can Feel The Heart Beating As One. I'll have to give it some more time.
     
  11. jalexander

    jalexander Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    Yep. And those two are my 3rd and 4th faves, and I don’t have a negative word to utter about either. And Then Nothing... is my second fave, though, so my tastes do lean towards mellow YLT.
     
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  12. HenryH

    HenryH Miserable Git

    "Rising Red Lung"

    For me, this is a cool little track. I like the moody, relaxed vibe. And once again, the band provides that wonderful sonic backdrop. Even though Jeff's lyric doesn't quite sink in by its abstractness, from my standpoint anyway, it's still a fascinating bit of prose.


    "Whole Love"

    Certainly a song that is right in the band's wheelhouse. It seems to have a touch of everything about it that is "Wilco"; a bit of pop, a dash of alt-country, a splatter of quirkiness, and a down-home groove, all brought together by a band that continues to explore its musical palette. A commendable title tack.
     
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  13. HenryH

    HenryH Miserable Git

    "One Sunday Morning"

    Jeff steps out into folk epic territory. Powerful in its simplicity, mesmerizing by its tone and atmosphere. The band resist the temptation to wring things out as an outro, instead following through with some more tasty, intricate playing. This song just floats along.

    A contender for favourite song on the album


    ___________________________

    The Whole Love comes across as a record in which this band allows itself to delve into the art of sonic exploration. In some ways it reminds me of the type of direction they took with THF. And as much as I like their previous couple of albums, those have a relatively cool, laid back quality about them...not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just that this particular album has a little more of a spark running throughout these tracks. Overall, this one rank under the "Damn Fine Record" category.
     
  14. HenryH

    HenryH Miserable Git

    "I Love My Label"

    An enjoyable take on this song. There's that jaunty, tongue-in-cheek delivery along with a bit of retro rock sensibility. The band sounds quite good here.


    "Message From Mid-Bar"

    This one stands out for me. The verses have a kind of countrified "Whiter Shade Of Pale" thing going on, as well as having an off-kilter progression overall. Not a standout, but still an interesting tune.


    "Speak Into The Rose"

    Cool excursion into some quirky little jam. I tend to enjoy hearing stuff like this, it shows off another interesting side of the band. A solid piece.


    "Black Moon (Alt)"

    Not a real departure, but just as compelling as the album track.
     
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  15. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    As I laid out in the table of contents of what I generally wanted to cover in this thread in the top post (and we've done more than was featured there), this thread will be covering Jeff Tweedy's primary solo works. Not every project he's ever worked on--which is a lot--but the major projects. Today we begin discussion on the first of these we will be covering on a song-by-song basis.

    Sukierae
    [​IMG]

    Released: September 23, 2014

    Sukierae was released in between The Whole Love and Star Wars and is credited to the band Tweedy. It is a collaboration between Jeff Tweedy and his son Spencer, who at the time of the making of this album would have been about 18. Jeff plays a variety of instruments on the album including guitar, bass, keyboards, electric sitar and mellotron. Spencer plays all drums and percussion. The only other musicians on the album are Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of the band Lucius on backing vocals and Scott McCaughey on keyboards. The album was produced by Jeff and he describes it as very much a family affair, born of a difficult emotional time.

    Jeff's wife Susie had found out that she had a tumor growing in her chest and they spent several months with Susie getting a lot of tests as the doctors tried to diagnose her. Eventually, she was diagnosed with cancer and had to go through chemotherapy, surgery and radiation. It was an extremely trying time for the whole family. Sukierae became a project that helped them deal with things. In his book Jeff writes, "For months and months we went back and forth, to and from the hospital. She had so many treatments and procedures and tests and scans sometimes it was hard for her not to wonder if it was worth it to put her body through so much. In the midst of it all, we made a record--Spencer, Sammy, Susie and I together. It was our project. Spencer and I played the instruments, but more than any other record I've ever made, it became something the whole family stayed focused on. It needed all of us to keep it going. We would listen to the songs together hearing arrangements grow and take shape, and it was a warm place for us all to disappear. It became a healthy outlet for our fear and anxiety and sadness. We called the album Sukierae, which was a family joke. When Susie was a kid, she had a crush on Peter Noone, the lead singer of Herman's Hermits. She read in some teen magazine that his sister was named Suki, so she started asking all of her friends to start calling her Suki. Just in case she ran into Noone, they'd have that icebreaker--'Your sister's name is Suki? That's my name!"--and then they'd fall in love and get married. It was the perfect love story. We added 'Rae' because it's her middle name and 'Sukierae' is what a handful of her closest friends ended up calling her and still do, to this day," (Let's Go So We Can Get Back, 246-247).

    The process for making the album was deliberately different from the process for making a Wilco album. Jeff wanted it to feel looser, less overdubbed and closer to his demos. They also decided to release the project as a double album with 20 songs. Jeff said, "I’ve just made a double album, Sukierae, which has two distinct discs. I understand in this day and age there might not be many people who will listen to it that way, but it doesn’t matter – because I want to listen that way. I’m not a curmudgeon, a luddite or anti-modern technology doomsayer. I just want to listen to the album and have a feeling that one part, has ended, and now I can take a little breather before I listen to the second part. Or I can listen to the second part another time. It’s a double record on vinyl, so there are three breaks like that. I wanted it to have different identities artistically and the album format allows me to do that."

    Additional musicians were added to a touring band (Jim Elkington on guitar, Darin Gray on bass, Liam Cunningham on guitar and keyboards) and Tweedy toured in support of the album. The album was well-received, getting four stars from Rolling Stone who said that Jeff Tweedy was one of the most 'emotionally fluent' American songwriters.

    As there are 20 songs on this album and it is technically a side project, I am going to follow the same format I used for Mermaid Avenue Vol. II and cover two tracks per day. We'll start with the first two today:

    Please Don't Let Me Be So Understood


    With a title that pays homage to the classic 'Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood,' the Tweedy album opens with this brief (1:33) garage crunch stomp rocker. When I first got this album, this track made me think the whole album was going to be more punk-inspired and snarly than Wilco albums. That didn't end up really being the case, but there are moments like this on the album that play around with a tougher sound. It's really more of a fragment than a song, but I like the energy and I think it works as an introduction to the album. Twenty tracks is a lot of information to take in, but Jeff and Spencer did clearly take pains to make the album reasonably diverse in sound.
     
  16. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    And the second track, which is really more of a 'song.'

    High as Hello


    'High as Hello' is a dreamy, drifting kind of song with that gentle Jeff Tweedy vocal delivery sound that is so indicative of his work in this past decade. The song is also a great indicator of what you'll be getting from Spencer Tweedy on this album. I think Spencer is a really good drummer who is already developing a signature sound. His playing can be kind of busy (as in the chorus breaks on this song) but it works, lifting up these mid-tempo tracks into something a little more agitated and expressive. I also like the fact that he doesn't use the cymbals that much. I'm kind of the same as Peter Gabriel--I get annoyed with a lot of cymbals (especially a lot of crash). They can work when played by a master (Stewart Copeland) but so many drummers just bash away on the cymbals and it drives me nuts. Spencer lays off of them and plays a deeper, thumpier kind of drum style. It somehow adds to the homespun feeling of the whole album for me. There's good guitar on this track as well. It's an enjoyable song. Sukierae isn't my favorite album in the world, but I do like it and I look forward to going through it at a slower pace than regular listening, to help me focus on each track in turn.
     
  17. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    And my final post for introducing this album: here is the four-song set that the live version of Tweedy did for KEXP in March of 2015. It's a nice chance to see Spencer in action.

     
  18. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product

    Behind again ....

    The Whole Love is an excellent album.
    There is nothing I dislike on it, and a few stand out tracks that I enjoy a lot.
    I kind of get the impression that some folks leave the band after YHF and A Ghost is Born, but for me Sky Blue Sky and the Whole Love are albums I enjoy more than those two.
     
  19. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product

    Sukierae isn't one I have heard. My wife has them all, but I just went with the Wilco albums.
    It will be interesting to check this out
     
  20. Rockford & Roll

    Rockford & Roll Forum Resident

    Location:
    Midway, KY
    I'm late to the party as well. Just summing up The Whole Love - it rounds out another Wilco trilogy for me. I like it somewhat better than The Album but Sky Blue Sky is my favorite of those three.

    I am truly looking forward to learning more about the Tweedy record. I never picked it up and was into different music at the time. I came back 'round for Star Wars but that's another story too. You guys rawk!
     
  21. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Way behind, couldn't keep up with The Whole Love and will probably not keep up here. Have listened to a few of the tracks lately and it stands up really well, agree with @Rockford & Roll , superior to W(TA),but probably not quite as good as SBS, but it is close.

    Can't believe some Wilco fans here don't know Sukierae.

    Sukeriae is a masterpiece, it is Jeff's White album or Exile on Main St with a much more personal slant. I would say that it is the last great Jeff Tweedy album, although I pretty much enjoy everything released since to some degree or another. Incredibly diverse collection of songs, takes a few listens but worms itself into your mind. Sometimes I think it could be the best thing he has ever done, a controversial opinion for sure, but as the years go by, it means more and more to me.
     
  22. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    I’ll be hearing this for the first time, too. I saw the length; 71 minutes! and nearly had a heart attack so will go along with the daily-two-songs regimen.
     
  23. slop101

    slop101 Guitar Geek

    Location:
    So. Cal.
    My internal timeline is so messed up, I could've swore Sukierae came out after Star Wars/Schmilco. Probably confusing it with Warm/Warmer, which I thought came out before Ode, but I think it was after?
    I'm so confused.

    As for Sukierae... I liked it, especially that first song, but I never really listened to it much after the first couple spins. Nothing in it really grabbed me.
     
  24. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Needs more than 2 spins for sure.
     
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  25. Fortuleo

    Fortuleo Used to be a Forum Resident

    At this point in my experience of the Wilcodom, I can say I was as much a fan of the band as I was of Jeff’s. I thought he was brilliant as a solo performer, most songs being even better in their “troubadour Jeff” incarnation as they were in their more bombastic band treatment. So I was all in for a Tweedy solo project, whatever form it’d take.

    In the meantime, I did buy and enjoy his productions for all the artists @jalexander duly compiled for us all last night, especially Mavis’ One True Vine, because it was clear he was more than a mere producer on it, he was the “visionary” behind the record’s (stupendous) sound. This will be my initial comment on Sukierae : the sound. For all its iPhone hype, this is a fabulous sounding record on vinyl, in spite of – or thanks to – its lo-fi credentials : iPhone demos, one drummer, one guy on bass & guitars, some background vocals here & there, what they can achieve with so little is just fantastic sound-wise.
    As for the songs, I like most, but only a few of them left me with a durable impression. It’s more the album as a whole that I see as an artistic proposition, an album that has a very specific flavor. It is presented as a “collection of songs” but I would more accurately call it a “collection of moods”.

    The opening is a fun Who/Frank Black punkish rave-up, sounding like a Teenager of the Year snippet, where the declaration of intent is clear : this will almost be a “demo” record (fine by me !) but also one where Jeff will give us mid-life updates of most of his old themes. For instance, it can’t be missed that this track is an update (and response) to Being There’s Misunderstood. He's achieved his dreams, he’s a dad rocker now, and he finds himself boring because he’s so well accepted as a rock&roll luminary, that Uncut or Rolling Stone will give him 4 and 5 stars reviews no matter what he’ll put out. So in frustration, he comes back to his “Nothing… Nothing… Nothing…” voice for the "Boring ! Boring ! Boring !" finale (but only 3 times, not 36). Very effective.
     
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