If you want a good country-tinged show, 023 (Austin) is a good one. They had a fiddle player for several songs. They also covered the Stones Dead Flowers, and Jeff closed with The Lonely 1. 046 from Indianapolis is a good document of that 20th anniversary/Alpha Mike Foxtrot tour where they played a bunch of songs they hadn't played in a while. I haven't heard too many of the other ones, but the Solid Sound and Winterlude (December Chicago shows) have some nice setlists.
Pretty sure it is Jeff's original vocals just slowed down/pitch-shifted isn't it? Must admit I had reservations (about so many things), but this is weirdly compelling!
We come to the last song on Warm: How Will I Find You? The album concludes with this track which, at over six minutes, feels almost like a mantra to me. The lyrics consist of Jeff simply repeating three phrases over and over again: How will I find you? I don't know You will know Just from my own perspective, this seems to be a final statement on death and the afterlife. This may not be what Jeff intended in these lyrics, but that is what I hear. How (and are) we reunited with our loved ones in death? The fact that the lyrics are so minimalist and simply ask the question repeatedly, while also asserting that he doesn't know and that he has no answers, fits in very well with the themes of the album and how we all grapple with these big questions about our existence and what happens to us after we die. Jeff said that so much of mental health is about being able to handle these uncertainties of life. The arrangement builds subtly throughout, becoming more strident as things move along. Drums on this song are by our friend Glenn Kotche, which gives this song a feel that very strongly predicts the sound of Ode to Joy. Jeff's guitar playing is good, including a ramshackle solo at the end that captures those feelings of uncertainty and lack of assurance perfectly to my ears. This isn't my favorite song on the album, or even close to it, but it's an interesting track and a fascinating note to end the album on. The lack of resolution is pointed. Warm Final Album Thoughts We are going to go straight into Warmer tomorrow and these two albums are very much a pair, but I do also think that they both are individual statements as well and I want to reflect on each of them as such. Warm is an exceptional album, in my opinion. Going through it song by song has only made this clearer to me. I have stated repeatedly that I am a fan of the 'recent' Jeff Tweedy songwriting style. I love the work of Wilco and solo Jeff all through the career, but the albums of the past few years tug at my heartstrings in a very real way. I think this is an incredibly adult and deeply moving meditation on grief, family and identity. It seems like we are expected to fully be 'ourselves' by the time we are about eighteen years of age. The fact that you are supposed to know what you want to do with the rest of your life at that time is indicative of that. But on Warm (and all of these recent albums), Jeff Tweedy has demonstrated that defining yourself, your values and your own heart is an ongoing, lifelong process. The songs on this album feature beautiful melodies, intimate arrangements and some of the most truly stirring and stunning lyrics that Jeff has yet penned. I continue to feel somewhat hurt when people dismiss this amazing work out of hand, but I also know that an album like Warm is always best when you engage with it fully. Going track by track was an excellent way to focus on each song, and emotion, in turn. The songwriting here is monumental. I'm very excited to see how our exploration of Warmer compares. Track Ranking: 01. Having Been is No Way to be (A+) 02. I Know What It's Like (A) 03. How Hard It Is for a Desert to Die (A) 04. Warm (When the Sun Has Died) (A) 05. Don't Forget (A) 06. From Far Away (A) 07. Some Birds (A) 08. Bombs Above (A-) 09. The Red Brick (A-) 10. How Will I Find You? (B+) 11. Let's Go Rain (B)
Warm General Thoughts (Wrap-up): I enjoyed this album a lot and put this up with If All I Was Was Black. Or almost up there. I’m not putting together a Jeff Tweedy playlist but, if I was, these songs would make the cut: Some Birds Don’t Forget I Know What It’s Like Having Been Is No Way To Be Warm (When The Sun Has Died) If Warmer is at this level I’ll be very satisfied.
The guy’s lost, he’s in a daze/haze/maze, he’s trying to find his footings in the unknown. The lyrics+soundscape give me this existential image of a guy with blinded eyes, wandering in an unknown place, in search for direction and solace. Wandering souls, a bit like in the ending of the Terrence Malick film Tree of Life. So it’s another piece with spiritual (if not religious) undertones. My intuition is this song has been written with the purpose of being the closer. It’s not really a "song" but a mood piece, almost ambient. The whole idea is to make the listener feel that the narrator’s lost and helpless, you’d think he’s gonna let go… but he won’t. The longer the track is, the more the mantra-like lyrics are repeated, the stronger the singer’s resolve becomes. Little by little, it becomes clear he won’t let go, he regains strength, he rebuilds hope, the Neil Young beat becomes louder, more potent, more assertive, maybe he won’t find what he’s looking for, but he will be found. The piece is well constructed, very eloquent, thematically a good fit to close the record. I may think it’s a bit too intellectual, or too deliberate, more a “gesture” than a song, and for my part, I think the combo Red Brick/Warm would’ve been a greater closer. But it’s still consistent and interesting. The whole question is once again about who's the “you” that he’s trying to find. Is it the loved one? A spiritual presence? I’m inclined to say it’s both. So maybe you're right, @parachutelady, maybe it's the afterlife…But I can't help but thinking that, as often with Jeff, "you" is also certainly us, the listener, the fans, to which he dedicated the whole WARM project. How will he find us? He doesn’t know. But hopefully we will find him… I think it’s a very liberating gesture on his part – him, Jeff Tweedy, the ever contrarian artist – to make peace with not being in control. From now on, he’ll do the searching (the music) and we’ll do the finding. We are the fans, after all. We'll know how to find him.
It's hard to review this one. A few weeks ago, when I've started listening to WARM this was immediately my favorite track. As I was very impressed by the drum sound (Heart Of Gold 2.0). Today it sounds more ordinary, I still like it but the initial excitement is gone.
I played WARM a lot when it came out, and it completely holds up now. For me it's a great early morning album.
Album ends on a bit of a clunker - should have ended on previous track, but that would have made for a very short album! This track underlines the ongoing issues with me: meandering, mostly tuneless, bland vocals, like an off track on Time Fades Away. Not even some cool "Cowgirls in the Sand" riffing towards the end redeems it for me. But that doesn't detract from the top-shelf tracks on the album. That split will go on being the issue with me, probably for the rest of his and the band's albums, unless he throws down the gauntlet and puts out a life-altering album, which he's capable of. I think the same of Paul Westerberg ... and am still waiting. He's even abandoned the basement for the time being. I can contrast this with the Summerteeth reissue that came out this past week. I was excited to get this, thinking, wow, Summerteeth, here we go! But really, it's just the album itself, some interesting demos (that differ from the ones circulating for years that most of us have) and a good live show. I wouldn't say I was underwhelmed so much as having a case of the Deluxe Reissue Blues. It later occurred to me that I was responding to the excitement of anticipating and hearing Summerteeth for the first time back in the 90s. A standard issue feeling for me and new Wilco albums up through about Sky Blue Sky. Part of it is getting older and not sensing that feeling of discovery. But I was in my early 30s when the first Wilco album came out and had been making musical discoveries and breaking new ground for roughly 20 years by that point. But I also think part of it is, he or the band rarely rock anymore: the missing element. It matters. Even lightly-rocking tunes like "Kamera" and "Heavy Metal Drummer" ... fantastic tracks. But that level of rock is about as hard as they get now! I don't mind he and the band losing that element so much - it's just that I'm not really into hearing what sounds like a dirge in its place. But I keep listening for the stuff that still matters to me, and it's surely there.
I too think this is about death and the afterlife, but I really love @Fortuleo's idea that it is Jeff trying to find us, his listeners. This is another great atmospheric track with the backwards guitar and I like the kind of skronky solo at the end. I have loved WARM since it first came out, and re-listening to these tracks one by one and reading everyone's thoughts, it still holds up for me. I think what I have responded to most with this record is the relative directness of it. I talked about it with "I Know What It's Like", that it feels like Jeff is talking directly to me (and us). While Jeff has always had a dialogue with his listeners, "I know what it's like to not feel love" is much different than "I am an American aquarium drinker". I like plenty of songs that have oblique lyrics, but I find myself connecting more with the music than the lyrics on songs like that. I want to quote something that Jeff said in his memoir regarding WARM because it certainly hits the target on my feelings about it: Most recently, in the summer of 2018, I finished a solo record, my first of all new material. Writing this book has made those songs some of the most direct, personal, and autobiographical that I've ever written. For a while now, the primary way I've kept my songwriting feeling honest to me is to imagine I'm singing only to myself, pretending no one else is listening. But the songs that have grown out of writing this book are different because I've been thinking about what exactly I would like to say to someone. What I would like to say to you. I've imagined you sitting across from me, interested in what I might have to say. Now I have a whole batch of songs like that, too. Maybe the first songs I've ever written with the intention of telling someone something I want them to know about myself. Things I want you to hear.
"How Will I Find You?"- I suspected that many would comment on this sounding like another Neil Young influenced tune. I believe the last song would have been the perfect album closer, but I don't mind this one. Jeff's vocal sounds a little marble mouthed, but I like the music once the drums kick in and the electric guitar at the end is cool. He could have stretched out some of the shorter songs on the album and dropped this, or shortened this song and put it before the last two songs. This is a very minor complaint. It also works well enough for the album closer. It's just not the strongest ending he could have had with this batch of songs. I also think Warm/Warmer should have been a double album like Sukierae, but I'll get into that more after we go through Warmer. 3.5/5 This album greatly benefited from going song by song and giving each song lots of time and attention. I always somewhat dismissed this album as being a bit boring and not something I was very interested in. The album cover, "Let's Go Rain", and the slow acoustic approach must have dimmed my excitement when it was released. I was pretty sure I would gain lots of love and respect for this album by spending more time with it. It was long overdue! I'm not quite sure yet how it stacks up against his other solo albums, but I will soon find out. My song rankings goes something like this: 1. The Red Brick 5/5 2. Warm (When the Sun Has Died) 5/5 3. Having Been Is No Way To Be 5/5 4. Some Birds 4/5 5. From Far Away 4/5 6. How Hard Is It For A Desert To Die 4/5 7. I Know What It's Like 4/5 8. Don't Forget 3.5/5 9. Bombs Above 3.5/5 10. How Will I Find You? 3.5/5 11. Let's Go Rain 2/5 Some of these songs continue to grow on me. I'm really enjoying "I Know What It's Like" this morning, and bumped that from my original 3.5/5 to a 4/5. All in all this is a great record and now I need to find a copy for my turntable. Looking forward to Warmer!
Man, I missed a whole bunch in here! But I can't come back just to lament the vocals on "How Will I Find You," can I? Obviously, they're terrible. I like all other elements of the song a lot though. It is undeniably Neil Young, in a very good way. Solid ending track. If I could go back on some of the things I missed ever so briefly... "Let's Go Rain" is pretty bad, an instantly skippable track. The music is good, but the lyrics and melody are really annoying. I'm glad other people mentioned how "From Far Away" sounds like the most "Wilco" track here. I agree. It has a lot of interesting flourishes on it. It's also interesting how he, just this year, released a solo track for a soundtrack titled "At a Distance," a song I really like by the way. It mines similar themes. "Having Been is No Way to Be" is such a showstopper. One of the best-written tracks Jeff Tweedy has ever done. I think it's a career greatest hit. The album version is very good, though I find myself wondering what it would have been in the hands of Wilco. On the one hand, the minimal accompaniment plays up the focus on the lyrics. On the other hand, I think some Wilco depth could have made it even more epic. The moving on from his addiction vs. his musical past was an interesting debate. I've personally always thought it was just about his addiction and unhealthy life choices. I don't associate the song with anything about his music tastes or progress. Overall, I think Warm holds up as a really good album. I think it has a bit more character than Warmer, coming up next, which has equally brilliant songwriting but less individual-track greatness.
About the album as a whole - At first, I listened to WARM prior to reading Let's Go. I knew he had a book out as well, but didn't suspect they were supposed to complete each other. I felt it was a wonderful little collection of songs, with beautiful highlights, good personal Tweedy stuff, continuing on the Sukierae path. - Then I read Let's Go, and was able to understand the multimedia autobiography concept. Most songs started to make more sense, and I was quite impressed that his first proper "solo" LP was devised that way. The highlights got higher and the "collection of songs" impression all but vanished, it really was a remarkable companion piece to the book. - Then I got WARMER, and things got a bit blurred. I thought "ok, so maybe he wrote a hundred personal songs and just selected the best 20 and separated in two, almost randomly ; maybe one could replace the other ?" It's not that I disliked WARMER (quite the opposite), but the "collection of songs" impression (be them autobiographical) came back. - And then came this thread… and I got into WARM like never before. The way all the guitars soundscaping create a feeling of distance, psychoanalytical impressions, reminiscences, blurry dream states and how this unifying sonic palette allows the songs to complete each other, I never knew… The way the sequencing is composed, how Jeff uses little musical quotations to make his points and create meaning, his expert way of building bridges with some of his heroes or with songs from his own past… all of that I never realized before. Of course, I knew I Know What It's Like recalled A.M, but I never realized (until a week ago) that it was deliberate quotation of I Must Be High, adding indirect depth, meaning and importance to the song's theme. Same with the She's a Jar melody on Some Birds, or the Beatles hooks in that same song. I guess I just never listened closely enough. I enjoyed it but the care and artistry he put in it got lost on me. So it's really been a huge discovery for me. It's still not exactly Plastic Ono Band or Tonight's the Night (its two parent records), because it doesn't have the immediate "mama don't gooooo" scream of the former or the cathartic rock'n'roll desperation of the latter, but as a conceptual piece, this combo book+record stands as a unique achievement in the rock canon, and a unique experience for us fans to appreciate. - An yes, like @palisantrancho, I can't wait to start the deeper WARMER exploration tomorrow, and see how it completes the picture…
"How Will I Find You?" is something of an underwhelming closer to the album, but I think it does work in that role. The vocals are not great here and that detracts from the emotional resonance of the song, at least for me. The guitar solo on the fade is very Young-ian. The song does send us out on a peaceful, comforting note. Overall, I'm very impressed with Warm. While Tweedy has always written from a very personal place (perhaps not so much on Star Wars), the songs on this album are extremely personal. This is an album that I think will continue to grow on me and find a cherished place in my collection as the years pass on. I'm not rating the non-Wilco releases we're covering, but, if I were, this would probably be midway up the list, which is impressive considering the quality of the albums in the top half.
On a side note, or should I say blue note, Nels released a super groovy jazz album today. Here is a little review. The Nels Cline Singers: Share The Wealth album review @ All About Jazz Loving this song. Hints of Herbie and Miles in the late 60s and early 70s. Nicely done Nels!
On Apple Music, Jeff said: "I never know where to put longer songs on an album, except either first or last. I was trying to imagine what someone like my father, who believed in an afterlife, would be thinking while looking for my mom, who died before him. If there’s really something like a Heaven the way that most people picture it, this seemed like a really sad and lonely thought.” He's said earlier on the album that he doesn't believe in Heaven, but one of his ideas of a heaven is just being at home with his wife while she sleeps. Everything is fine, then. Nothing else really needs to be happening. So, he imagines his father seeking the same kind of solace in the afterlife, but kind of wandering in a fog, sad and bewildered. It's interesting that he thinks of it in that way; his mind doesn't picture the reunion with loved ones as an easily attained leisure. It may even be a lonely, frustrating, impossible pursuit. And that's how we end, here! I really wish that I could have a better appreciation of this album. I am trying; it's even giving me some anxiety, not being part of the group of enthusiastic fans. In isolation, most of the songs have something interesting going on; the lyrics are usually thoughtful and worth some attention. But the whole feels like less than the sum of its parts. "Some Birds" is a solid B+ Wilco single, but the rest kind of runs together in an unassuming, low-key, murmuring blur. I would need to be in a very specific mood to really fall in love with this album, but if I'm not feeling it in this Year of COVID, then when? I'm afraid that it just may not be the album for me. I can accept that Jeff was aiming for a particular mood with this project--and, as I recall, Warmer is more of the same--but I hope that it's not a permanent direction in his career.
I don’t get this at all. Why would reuniting in Heaven, which is something that is expressed at funerals all the time, be a sad and lonely thought? This is the first time I’ve ever heard someone with the idea that there’s some frustratingly difficult search/hurdle involved in reuniting with a loved one in heaven! (It wouldn’t be heaven , then, would it? )
I guess he's acknowledging that most people like to imagine reunions in heaven, but he just doesn't see it. Yet, if he doesn't believe in an afterlife, and he's just trying to imagine a scene as an exercise, why the pessimistic vision of this fruitless search? Why not say, "death is the end; there is no more consciousness beyond that"? Maybe he's really thinking about the difficulty in finding love and peace here on Earth. It says something about him, anyway.
Yeah. I’m not interested in this particular exercise. I don’t think he needs to worry about something he doesn’t believe in. On to Warmer!
How Will I Find You... another closing track meditation in family and mortality in a long tradition. This one stands tall among Everlasting, Magnetized, etc. The lyric is an interesting juxtaposition to the previous track’s declaration “I don’t believe in heaven”. And the mumbling vocal works for me. A bit like a ghost voice from the grave. I’ll note the guitars highlight Jeff’s modernism. Most of this album was recorded with a 50s Fender Princeton amp and a 50s Fender Esquire guitar as I recall. All very bare bones, basic (but collectible) stuff. Yet, the background guitar is treated with some kind of granular delay, one of the most au courant effects. I love how he blends new and old. Overall Warm is top tier Tweedy for me. I’ve loved it since release. Spoiler alert: I like Warmer even more.
All I can say is that I love or like WARM, alternating from day to day. Yesterday it felt like I've had an overdose of it, while today in the early morning dew the melody of Warm (When The Sun Has Died) happily kept resonating in my head. It's a special record, for sure.
WARMER Released: April 13, 2019 (vinyl); July 12, 2019 (digital) Warmer was recorded at the same time as Warm and initially released as a Record Store Day exclusive at RSD 2019. It was later made widely available digitally, and on CD. (I've got it in the 2-CD package with Warm). Coming hot on the heels of the previous album and given a title and artwork that made it clear that the two were indeed a pair, Warmer runs only a little over 32 minutes in total with only one track topping four minutes. This sequel album was received with kindness by fans and critics. Pitchfork opened their review stating, "Pity the companion album, the quick follow-up record that an artist swears is just as good as the predecessor it was simultaneously recorded with, despite giving it a fraction of the promotional push." However, the review seemed to side with the underdog and called the album "as revealing and beguiling as the first batch." Rolling Stone was similarly positive, comparing it to Radiohead's Amnesiac (itself a quick follow-up to Kid A) and wrote, "he never comes off as pretentious or self-indulgent, because he’s always reaching out for connection and consolation rather than spinning off into no-one-gets-me disaffection." I had to wait to hear Warmer because I have never once in my life participated in Record Store Day and I don't even really collect vinyl. When I finally did get it, I found that it was another album full of heartfelt and intimate songs, again blending the real weepers with a few songs that lift the tempo up a bit. I'm not sure I'm ready to vote on the Warm vs. Warmer question. I will see how I feel after this album is given the same track by track scrutiny as the first. I do like this album cover a lot less. The cover of Warm is okay, but this one is just poor in my opinion. Orphan The album opens with another song that directly comments on the deaths of his parents. The tempo chugs along at a nice clip and the slide-style guitar works very well on this album. The opening strains of it are a great introduction to Warmer. The lyrics are once again moving and full of amazing poetry. Each of his parents gets a beautiful metaphor. For his mother: "I feel for her like a missing tooth" (your tongue constantly poking at what is not there, looking for it and expecting it to be there). For his father: "I watched until he was an empty room" (all that's left after they go). I am also struck by the lyric "Let them love me again," which is an interesting choice. It isn't just that he's missing being able to see them and give them his love. He misses the love they bestowed on him. If we're lucky and we have good parents, no one will ever love us like they do. 'Orphan' is a good song and a strong choice to open the album.
A horrible album cover. My instinct is to flee but, as I signed up for the duration, I’ll give it a go.
