Rock, Metal

Wilco – A Ghost Is Born (2004)

2009-10-12T22:22:02Z

Wilco – A Ghost Is Born (2004)


01 - At Least That's What You Said 
02 - Hell Is Chrome 
03 - Spiders 
04 - Muzzle of Bees 
05 - Hummingbird 
06 - Handshake Drugs 
07 - Wishful Thinking 
08 - Company in My Back 
09 - I'm a Wheel 
10 - Theologians 
11 - Less Than You Think 
12 - The Late Greats

Acoustic Guitar – Jeff Tweedy, Jim O'Rourke, John Stirratt, Leroy Bach
Backing Vocals – John Stirratt
Bass – Jim O'Rourke, John Stirratt, Leroy Bach
Double Bass – Jeff Tweedy 
Drums – Glenn Kotche
Dulcimer [Hammered] – Glenn Kotche 
Electric Guitar – Jeff Tweedy, Jim O'Rourke, John Stirratt, Leroy Bach
Keyboards [Rock-si-chord] – Mikael Jorgensen
Keyboards [Stylophone] – Mikael Jorgensen 
Loops – Glenn Kotche, Jeff Tweedy, Jim O'Rourke, John Stirratt, Leroy Bach
Organ – Leroy Bach, Mikael Jorgensen
Organ [Hammond] – Jim O'Rourke, Leroy Bach 
Percussion – Glenn Kotche 
Piano – Jim O'Rourke, John Stirratt, Leroy Bach, Mikael Jorgensen
Synthesizer – Glenn Kotche, Jeff Tweedy, Jim O'Rourke, John Stirratt, Leroy Bach, Mikael Jorgensen
Vibraphone – Leroy Bach
Vocals – Jeff Tweedy

While Wilco's follow up to the plaudit-winning Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is, on all levels, a worthy successor, it may leave many of the band's newer fans a little non-plussed. For, while YHF was a case study in electronic intricacy, A Ghost Is Born has far more to do with the broader picture. As with its predecessor, the album comes with a tale or two of woe and disruption (more line-up changes and Jeff Tweedy's spell in rehab), but overall this is far more downhome stuff - witty and lighter on its feet.

While certain tracks on YHF only revealed their glories in the quiet moments where small sounds shifted and unravelled in front of your ears, Ghost attempts to give you a more focussed audio verite. This could explain why, on the two tracks that extend beyond the five minute mark, they really stretch out, for nigh on quarter of an hour each. It's as though Tweedy and pals have shifted their faith from craftsmanship to the power of repetition. ''Spiders'' can't help but remind you of the motorik experimentation of Neu! crossed with the freeform guitar of Tom Verlaine.

In fact it's guitars that are the album's touchstone. Tweedy, describing his style herein as: 'inspired amateurism' is being typically modest. His Neil Young-like tone and frenzied fretboard manglings make the perfect subversive backdrop to the traditional song formats the band work within. One can only guess at how good this will sound when combined with new member Nels Cline's even further-out extemporisations.

The band never forget their Americana roots, however. A song like ''Muzzle Of Bees'' can still remind one of wide open spaces (but still undercut with brooding electric menace) and, when it comes to tracks like ''Hummingbird'' and ''Company In My Back'', there's no denying that Tweedy still has an almost Beatlesque eye for a tune.

Overall this isn't really a step on from YHF; more of a step back and to the side as the band (and producer Jim O'Rourke) try to capture their live sound in a studio setting. Yet lest this be seen as being a bad thing, remind yourself of how good they were back in the days of Being There. Tweedy and co. are just doing what comes naturally, in a natural way again. Long may they continue... ---Chris Jones, BBC Review

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Wilco – The Whole Love (2011)

2011-09-10T18:44:22Z

Wilco – The Whole Love (2011)


1-1 – Art of Almost
1-2 – I Might
1-3 – Sunloathe
1-4 – Dawned On Me
1-5 – Black Moon
1-6 – Born Alone
1-7 – Open Mind				play
1-8 – Capitol City
1-9 – Standing O
1-10 – Rising Red Lung		play
1-11 – Whole Love
1-12 – One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend)

2-1 	I Love My Label
2-2 	Message From Mid-Bar
2-3 	Speak Into The Rose
2-4 	Black Moon (Alt)

Bass, Piano, Vocals – John
Cello – Nick Photinos
Drums, Percussion, Cimbalom – Glenn
Electric Guitar, Loops – Nels
Mellotron, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Piano, Tambourine, Vocals – Patrick
Slide Guitar – Nels
Synthesizer, Twelve-String Guitar, Lap Steel Guitar, Dobro, Loops  Keyboards – Mikael
Violin, Viola – Matt Albert
Vocals, Acoustic Guitar – Jeff

Since 1994 Wilco have proved themselves one of the most reliable and enjoyable bands to occupy the upper tier of indie-rock hierarchy, though recent LPs Sky Blue Sky (2007) and Wilco (The Album) (2009) might have dented their reputation somewhat as one of the most exciting. Although not bad albums by any stretch of the imagination, they rarely displayed the depth of imagination and beauty present across the group’s back catalogue, exemplified on 2002’s stunning Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

It’s pleasing to be able to report, then, that the band seems both relaxed and reinvigorated on The Whole Love, which is equally at home spinning into stormy electric guitar crescendos as it is offering up deft acoustic numbers. The current line-up has been in place since 2004, multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone notably receiving a production credit here, while renowned guitarist Nels Cline’s contribution feels more vital to proceedings than ever before.

But it is on the strength of Jeff Tweedy’s songwriting that the band ultimately succeeds, and here he seems ready and willing to embrace some of the complexities and strangeness that have made their best work so enthralling. Art of Almost makes for a terrific, though slightly misleading opening gambit; Tweedy has noted its position in the tracklisting stems from not having any idea what people will make of it. A dark, hypnotic groove boasting programmed beats, sweeping strings and a deep low end before a thunderous wig-out to finish, it will doubtless (and not for the first time) earn the band many Radiohead comparisons. Yet with Tweedy’s forlorn, husky pipes at its fore it remains indubitably a product of the Chicago sextet: one that confidently sketches out new territory for the group while sounding almost purpose-built to reward repeated listens.

Lead single I Might furnishes its chugging, catchy hooks with another expressive vocal from Tweedy, who whoops, sighs and hollers his way through the song in playful, free-associative style, while Open Mind is one of the most straightforwardly gorgeous ballads he’s ever written, of a heartbreaking melody and yearning, unrequited lyric so intuitive you wonder it hasn’t always existed (likewise the exuberant, sunny chorus of Dawned on Me). With the closing One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend) the band gracefully unwinds over 12 minutes of twinkling, ruminative acoustica, thus bringing to an end their most adventurous, confident and engaging record in years. ---James Skinner, BBC Review

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Wilco – Wilco (2009)

2010-12-07T19:39:46Z

Wilco – Wilco (2009)


01 Wilco the Song
02 Deeper Down             play
03 One Wing
04 Bull Black Nova
05 You and I
06 You Never Know
07 Country Disappeared
08 Solitaire               play
09 I'll Fight
10 Sunny Feeling
11 Everlasting

Personnel
* Jeff Tweedy - vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, 12-string electric guitar
* John Stirratt - bass, electric guitar, background vocals
* Nels Cline - electric guitar, lap steel, electric "shorty" 12-string, loops, electric 12-string guitar,
 slide guitar
* Pat Sansone - Wurlitzer electric piano, harpsichord, Fender Rhodes, Mellotron, dulcimer, celeste,
 acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, field organ, Hammond organ, tambourine, pump organ,
 Optigan organ, background vocals
* Mikael Jorgensen - piano, bowed piano, synthesizer, Hammond organ, background vocals
* Glenn Kotche - drums, percussion, chimes, cimbalom, gunpowder
* Jason Tobias - slide cimbalom
* Leslie Feist - vocals
* Neil Finn - background vocals
* Dave Max Crawford – trumpet

For a band that could easily lay claim to the title 'the best live act in the world', Wilco's eighth album is a remarkably studio-bound confection. But fear not, this is by no means an overwrought, over-involved piece of sonic navel-gazing. After years bouncing between country rock, experimental noise and visceral rock pyrotechnics Wilco (The Album) sees the band balance Jeff Tweedy's writer-at-his-peak poise with some of their most charming pop rock ensemble playing.

By Tweedy's own admission, the album saw the six-piece using their collective (and not inconsiderable) chops to achieve something a little more 'crafted'. Partly recorded in Neil Finn's Auckland studio, it also seems that an element of the Kiwi star's Beatle-aping tendencies have rubbed off.

Second track Deep Down, with its ocean floor metaphors and sound effects could almost be their Yellow Submarine; while the most poptastic song on offer, You Never Know, not only features some of their sweetest close harmonies but also cheekily references George Harrison's My Sweet Lord.

But this is still unmistakably a Wilco album. Tweedy's voice beautifully covers all bases from intimate despair (especially when paired with Feist on the aching You And I) to breast-beating intensity. And for fans of the wilder, avant garde Wilco there's still Nels Cline's paint-stripping attack on the ascending maelstrom of Black Bull Nova; supposedly told from the point of view of a murderer.

It's a paradoxical mixture of warm and dour. Two songs seem to chronicle fraying relationships (You And I and One Wing). But the country drift of Solitaire details a return from the existential wilderness, possibly due to Tweedy's victory over addiction. He wants us to know how much he cares. And as with Sky Blue Sky's On And On And On, everything is sealed with a life-affirming ode to the transience of life, Everlasting.

So while Jeff may sing ''I don't care anymore'' the truth is obviously otherwise. As Wilco (The Album) flutters away on the birdcall beauty of Cline's loops, you feel like you've shared a special moment: one that you can always return to. As they say on the opening Wilco The Song, ''Wilco will love you." Best live band? How about plain old best band in the world right now? ---Chris Jones

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