"Wait For Love" is quite good. It has a beautiful, wistful melody and the backing vocals add a nice touch. I'll dock a few points for the whistling solo. "Low Key" is one that seems more naturally suited for Wilco. I think I'd probably have preferred a Wilco version of this one; I find Spencer Tweedy's drumming distracting and not a good fit for the song. Still, it has a nice melody and some sweet little instrumental touches. I don't rate it super highly, but it's certainly good.
Low Key could've been a Wilco tune, yes (and Low Key Wilco sounds good !) but it's also one of the defining songs of the Tweedy sound, with the fuzz bass/flabby drums rhythm section (I just love this flabby word!), and the Lucius singers doing their best to emulate John Stirratt Aa-aaaahh’s before going for more classic oooh oooh’s girls group backing vocals. I agree with @jalexander ’s comment above saying the White album comparison does not hold that well : the sound and overall aesthetics are too consistent to be compared to the all over the place four voices trip (or more than four, if you count the various McCartney voices) of the Beatles. Anyway, yep, LK's very good and the video's great, with Jeff & Spencer doing their own version of Ghost World (in addition to the cameos listed above, I wonder if the moustache man at 2'58 could be Jim O'Rourke?) Anyway, the excellent Nick Offerman directed it and it is a lot of fun but still not the best Offerman/Tweedy collaboration, this honor going to the songs they wrote and performed together for the audio version of an Offerman book about… woodworking, called Good Clean Fun. (this is real, I swear I couldn't make up something like this if I tried; I even bought the audio book to hear them !). These songs must be the weirdest curios Tweedy stray tracks of them all ! Will they get a day of scrutiny in this thread ? I don't think @Parachute Woman will ever allow such a thing .
More cameos from the "Low Key" video that have yet to be mentioned: John Hodgman ("I'm a PC" guy and erstwhile Solid Sound emcee) as the record company exec, Andy Richter (shacking up with Conan O'Brien), Chance the Rapper, Sammy Tweedy. The man who hands over the first banana does look like Jim O'Rourke. There are lots of others here I can't place.
You can’t like the flabby... I meant it as a criticism! No reclaiming my crotchety negativity and turning it around for good!
The next two: Pigeons Genesis has a pretty great song called Pigeons. (Yes, @Zeki I will reference Genesis! ). That's what I always think of when I listen to this song, and how I'd rather be listening to that Pigeons. Jeff's Pigeons unfortunately doesn't do a whole lot for me. I like the chorus well enough (and the idea of us all being 'dandelions' is a good image--of everyone eventually just being the white fluff that blows away on the breeze) but the song feels unfinished to me and just drifts into a long section with hard strummed guitar and some feedbacky sounds in the background. And I don't like the opening verses. Well, I don't like the way Jeff sings them. It's that really intentionally muffled, mumbly way he sings sometimes that feels a little bit affected to me. Spencer isn't on this track, so it's really a Jeff Tweedy song. This is a weak spot on the album for me. Not terrible, but not super amazing either.
Slow Love 'Slow Love' is 'Tweedys do dream pop!' The lengthy opening drone section with the washed out chanted vocals buried way back in the mix wouldn't be out of place on a Beach House album. Or even a modern alternative album by someone like Arctic Monkeys. This feels really contemporary. The main part of the song is touched by those beautiful female vocals again (oh, how they swirl and chime in the second half of the song!) and a really hypnotic feeling in the drums. This one is all about the vibe and the atmosphere. The lyrics seem an honest reflection of love for Susie and an impressionistic portrait of their falling in love, but the vocals are pretty low and I had to actually read along with the lyrics to figure out some of what Jeff was singing. This isn't really a 'singer-songwriter' type song like Pigeons. It's a band song with a cool sound. I like it.
Not the greatest Tweedy day, I'm afraid… I’m all in favor of fingerpicking Jeff. And I don’t have anything against the infamous “samey” style that has proven to be so divisive among Wilco fans. I always found this criticism quite unfair. It is not illogical that some of Jeff’s most introspective songs should be whispered and slow, and moody, and dreamlike, and aiming for a kind of subconscious zone. Some of them sound like they’ve been written at night, trying not to wake up the household, and it often gives them a very distinctive charm and enveloping grace. Having said that, Pigeons is too sleepy even for me, too mumbling, like a poem (great "Your heart's in your mind and your mind's in the way" line) that hasn’t been properly set to music yet. Slow Love never quite registered with me either, I tend to forget how it goes, or that it even exists. At this point of his recent records (the middle of Side 2), Jeff often indulges his meandering impulses, threatening to lose the plot. My guess is that the two songs are meant to go together. Pigeons leaves you in a dreamy state, and then Slow Love is the dream itself, an astral flight during your sleep, a bit like in Birdy, the Alan Parker film with a Peter Gabriel score.
Just first listens to both of today's songs, but neither has done much for me I'm with @Fortuleo on these two
Yep, I’ve liked all six songs so far but these are a bit of a grind for me. I like whispery Jeff ballads and his more atmospheric tunes, but both of these really go nowhere. The best part is the bass on Slow Love. Otherwise, I’m usually skipping these two.
Pigeons is simple and beautiful, love the words, love the vocal and love the fingerpicking. Slow Love is more unsettling, maybe the song doesn't quite live up to the interesting arrangement, but I like it.
I like both of these tracks. Pigeons has some great guitar work and I love the line "they're everywhere just like religion". Slow Love is one of the albums highlights to me. What a cool trippy atmosphere, love the bass and those reverb drenched backing vocals really make the song unique.
"Pigeons"- Some nice guitar, but I understand how some may find it pretty forgettable. Jeff is in mumble mode. I don't think it's a bad song, but it sort of feels unfinished. This is also a song that didn't immediately make a strong impression, but the more times I hear it, the more I want to hear it again. I listened several times on headphones this morning and found it to be soothing and the perfect song for this foggy Friday morning. 4/5 "Slow Love"- I really like the bass and drum groove on this. I think it pairs well with the last song and together they make more sense. Like a soft and mellow interlude before we get to another set of pop oriented tunes. These are the types of songs that might not feel strong enough for a single album, but they can be the same songs that tie together a double album to create a sprawling masterpiece. 4/5
"Pigeons" would be a lot better, I think, if Tweedy had sung it properly rather than sort of talk-mumbling it. This one is merely okay but could have been a least a bit better. The best part of "Pigeons", not coincidentally, is the droning instrumental section where Jeff stops singing. "Slow Love" is a title that makes me think this is going to be the "sexy" song on the album. Then I remembered that we're talking about Jeff Tweedy, not Prince. This is easily my least favorite track thus far on Sukierae. Where's the melody? About the only thing I like here is the distant, echoey female backing vocal, which calls to mind Yo La Tengo a little bit.
"This song sounds like a cult chant. And that's exactly what it is. We're starting a cult. And you're welcome to join. You have to like chili dogs. And, that's it. That's all you have to do. Like chili dogs, that's it. And then sing along, and the song goes, 'Slow love is the only love.' Okay? And I'll sing it, and I'll show you how to sing it, and then you'll sing it back, and it'll sound like a cult. And then, at the end of it, we sing, 'No love is the only love.' That's too tricky?! Really? You really can't do that? They're the same number of syllables. Everybody thinks that that's a negative statement, it's not a negative statement. Okay? It's not. 'No love is the only love.' No love is the ONLY love. Right? No? Alright, whatever. Sing whatever the **** you want. It's a pretty liberal cult. You can make up your own words, if you want. I would prefer you sing the correct ones. I'm not gonna sing it. I'm just gonna sing 'No love is the only love' the whole time now. It's basically saying, ah, whatever. Does anybody have a chili dog?" Jeff Tweedy, 2014/06/22, Lincoln Theatre, Washington, DC, next door to the famous Ben's Chili Bowl.
Count me as part of the cult, I guess. The “Slow Love” vocal melody has been floating around in my head all day. I also like that march feel, and the instrumental intro which sounds like a callback to YHF. I don’t necessarily like that low murmuring shoegaze vocal when Jeff does it for a whole album, but here it sounds cool.
Today we have the last two songs on the first disc (or the last two songs on side two if we're talking vinyl). We're at the halfway point, anyway. Nobody Dies Anymore This is one of the most touching songs on the album for me and a classic piece of Jeff Tweedy songwriting. There is nothing fancy at all in the arrangement (the female backing vocals are subtle but really add something again). It's just a midtempo acoustic-style ballad, but it is imbued with such powerful emotions. This is beautiful storytelling from Jeff with some wonderful lyrics all circling around the ideas of death, loss, grief and family--the major touchstones of this project. I could quote many of the stanzas in this song and point out their power and beauty, but I'll just stick with the final verse: Love every song that I know You ask me well how so Strange I can't defend I love how every song ends That hits me right in the heart, and the idea that Jeff wrote it when there was a very real possibility that his beloved wife was going to die...it chokes me up, to be honest. Lovely melody as well. This is classic Tweedy in my eyes.
I'll Sing It I think they should have ended the disc on 'Nobody Dies Anymore,' which is beautiful and deeply poignant. Instead, they decided to end on 'I'll Sing It' which is more in the garage rock vein but with some interesting touches. The 'yeah yeah yeah' backing vocals have a nagging quality that weirdly reminds me almost of Bollywood music! Jeff is also credited with playing electric sitar and cassette on this song, which has a few dissonant breaks, as well as a good guitar solo. I don't think this is really that great of a song but they added some elements that at least make it novel and memorable, such as the Bollywood vocals breaking down at the end like a cassette is out of phase and getting eaten. I vote for 'okay' on this track. I'm enjoying going track by track on this album. It is giving me a deeper appreciation of the variety in the songs.
Thread guide Introduction and Uncle Tupelo Mar 1995 AM I Must Be High Casino Queen Box Full Of Letters Shouldn't Be Ashamed Pick Up The Change I Thought I Held You That's Not The Issue It's Just That Simple - live Should've Been In Love - live 1995 Passenger Side - live 1996 Dash 7 - live 2010 Blue Eyed Soul Too Far Apart Outtakes Oct 1996 Being There Misunderstood Far Far Away Monday Outtasite (outta mind) Forget The Flowers Red Eyed and Blue I Got You What's The World Got In Store Hotel Arizona Say You Miss Me Sunken Treasure Someday Soon Outta Mind (Outtasite) Someone Else's Song Kingpin (Was I) In Your Dreams Why Would You Wanna Live The Lonely 1 Dreamer In My Dreams Blasting Fonda (outtake?) Live 1996 - televised version Snow Job 97 June 1998 Mermaid Ave (with Billy Bragg) California Stars Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key Birds And Ships Hoodoo Voodoo She Came Along to Me At My Window Sad And Lonely Ingrid Bergman Christ For President I Guess I Planted One By One Eisler On The Go Hesitating Beauty Another Man's Done Gone The Unwelcome Guest March 1999 Summerteeth I Can't Stand It She's A Jar A Shot In The Arm We're Just Friends I'm Always In Love Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (Again) Pieholden Suite How To Fight Lonliness Via Chicago ELT My Darling When You Wake Up Feeling Old Summer Teeth In A Future Age Candyfloss Interview 1999 May 2000 Mermaid Ave vol 2 Airline To Heaven My Flying Saucer Feed Of Man Hot Rod Hotel I Was Born Secret Of The Sea Stetson Kennedy Remembering the Mountain Bed Blood Of The Lamb Against Th' Law All You Fascists Joe Dimaggio Done It Again Meanest Man Black Wind Blowing Someday, Some Morning, Sometime Mermaid Ave vol 3 Loose Fur Laminated Cat Sept 2001 Yankee Hotel Foxtrot I Am Trying To Break Your Heart Kamera Radio Cure War On War Jesus Etc Ashes Of American Flags Heavy Metal Drummer I'm The Man Who Loves You - live b-side Pot Kettle Black Poor Places Reservations b-side The Good Part Blasting Fonda The Minus 5 2003 More Like The Moon ep Camera Handshake drugs Woodgrain A Magazine Called Sunset Bob Dylan's 49th Beard More Like The Moon June 2004 A Ghost Is Born (inc. Kicking Tv versions) At Least That's What You Said Hell Is Chrome Spiders Muzzle Of Bees Hummingbird Handshake Drugs Wishful thinking Company In My Back I'm A Wheel Theologians Less Than You Think The Late Greats Nov 2005 Kicking Television + some b-sides and oddities March 2006 Loose Fur Born Again In The USA May 2007 Sky Blue Sky Either Way You Are My Face Impossible Germany Sky Blue Sky Side With The Seeds Shake It Off Please Be Patient With Me Hate It Here Leave Me (Like You Found Me) Walken What Light On and On And On Extra Tracks Tweedy Interview The Sun Came Out - 7 Worlds Collide June 2009 Wilco (The Album ) Wilco (The Song) Deeper Down One Wing Bull Black Nova You And I You Never Know Country Disappeared Solitaire I'll Fight Sonny Feeling Everlasting Everything Dark Neon Sept 2001 The Whole Love Art Of Almost I Might Sunloathe Dawned On Me Black Moon Born Alone Open Mind Capitol City Standing O Rising Red Lung The Whole Love One Sunday Morning I Love My Label + extras Sometimes It Happens Sept 2014 Tweedy Sukierae Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood High As Hello World Away Diamond Light pt1 Wait For Love Low Key Pigeons Slow Love Nobody Dies Anymore I'll Sing It
Is it the You Can’t Always Get What You Want opening riff at the start of Nobody Dies Anymore? Is there something meaningful there ? Ok, maybe not… Anyway, it's a fantastic track, memorable, intense, obstinate, extremely powerful. It may be the tweediest song on Sukierae, the one that I would think of to describe the overall aesthetics of the record : sparse guitar, bass & drums arrangement, catchy 5 notes melody, emphasis on the words and sentiment, excellent chorus bringing the message (and music) home with great subdued backing vocals. It also foreshadows a lot of Jeff’s subsequent work. With its slow minimalist march drums and repetitive circular (and equally minimalistic) melody, this could easily be mistaken for an Ode to Joy song, albeit with a kind of late 90’s lo-fi approach, somewhere between Beck’s Mutations and Elliott Smith’s Either/Or. I’ll Sing It shares that 90’s lo-fi vibe with the previous one. I seem to remember that the cassette sound comes from a Being There era demo. Was it the same song ? Listening to it on headphones this morning, I really enjoyed the “Yeah Yeah Yeah” vocal hook and the Who-like guitar chords. To be more precise, it has the flavor of a Townshend demo or a Who Came First song, even the “flabby” busy drum part recalls some of Pete’s clumsy (but charming) attempts at emulating Keith Moon on his own.
"Nobody Dies Anymore"- The type of song Jeff seems able to write in his sleep, stripped back and minimal with a nice melody and great lyrics. It's another beauty on this magnificent album. I love the line and how he sings "Nobody dies anymore, No badge knock on a dark front door, Some things still change". 4.5/5 I found this article with Jeff talking about it. The song that sticks with me is "Nobody Dies Anymore." I'm a big lyrics guy, always obsessing over every line. And there is a lot going on in that song. There are some really strange coincidences that happened in the lyrics of that song. There was a lyric way before we had ever found any sign...we knew there was something wrong with her chest scan, but we didn't know there was anything wrong with her bones. And that lyric, "It won't take long to find a broken back bone," that's actually how we found malignancy in her spine, from a collapsed vertebrae. It's so weird, you know, little coincidences. And I always have to remind myself that the world would be much weirder without coincidence. (laughs) But, the initial title was inspired by attending a lecture by this scientist who was basically claiming that the first person to live 1,000 years old is alive today. And what struck me most about his presentation was that he appeared to be more afraid of death than even you or I. (laughs) And I thought that there was a great deal to contemplate about that. Before you have people living to be 1,000, you might want to feed the people that are here. The song just kind of grew out of that notion, "what would a world be like with nobody dying anymore," and it's just a composite of a lot of different angles that I thought I could take writing that song -- and I ended up just combining them, you know? At one point there's a verse that's mostly about witnessing street-corner vigils that there are so many of in Chicago every summer for gunned-down teenagers, and how depressing and sad that is. In some ways, "I'm going where nobody dies anymore," a lot of that is sort of an old spiritual concept, where you're going to heaven where nobody dies anymore or something. But mostly, it was just an ode to the notion that I think it's good that songs end, I think it's good that people end. (laughs) It's really unavoidable. (laughing) It's not something you get to choose. Of all those things wrapped up in the song, I don't know if there's any concrete or coherent element to any of it except it's a confusing topic, and the song was built around not trying to resolve any of that confusion. The rest of the article is here Speakers in Code: Interview | Jeff Tweedy: "I don't ever feel committed to one emotion for very long." "I'll Sing It"- I love the garage rock stylings that has one foot in the 60s and one in the 90s. This is another song that would have been a good fit for Star Wars. Spencer brings some interesting drums fills to bring the roll to Jeff's rock. A great song to play extra loud. On headphones you can clearly hear the part with the old cassette recording. A really fun song that presses all the right buttons. 4.5/5
Great read @palisantrancho and it highlights why Nobody Dies is a top song for me across all of Jeff’s catalogue. I’m partial to his meditations on life and death and this one always struck me as rather impressionistic. The interview confirms that... it’s a series of fragments that don’t have to fit together perfectly but convey an overall mood. The music is wonderful too, especially the backing vocals. I always listen to this one digitally (I bought the CD at Amoeba on a trip to LA, and debated buying a used vinyl copy they had in stock... I couldn’t justify the space in my carry-on luggage!), so always thought Nobody Dies was the conclusion to disc 1. I’ll Sing It is a weak spot for me, even more so if it’s the closer to Disc 1 rather than the opener to Disc 2. Nothing particularly wrong with it, just kind of a messy sprawling mid-paced rock tune that doesn’t go anywhere. It needs the fun sonic effects at the end to make it interesting. And in this case the backing vocals just make the song messier without adding great value. So far I think 7/10 of our songs are solid.
Nobody Dies Anymore > another good track, sounds a little similar to "...And Then you Cut it in Half" from Warmer. I'll Sing It > Jeff takes a very common chord structure and turns it into a really cool track, and once again those backing vocals are great!
