CD Odyssey Disc 809: Wilco

I have the day off today! Given that I finished all my Christmas shopping last week I’m looking forward to a relaxing day. I’m going to paint, and I might start a new novel that’s been floating around in my head for a little while now. But first, this review!

Disc 809 is….A Ghost is Born

Artist: Wilco

Year of Release: 2004

What’s up with the Cover? A cracked egg. The actual cover of this album is supposed to be the same egg, uncracked, but it is printed on a cardboard dustcover. I find those CD dustcovers a bother so I took them all off and stored them in a box somewhere. Rather than dig them out I’ll give you the post-ghost birth egg. At least I’ll assume it hatched a ghost; if it had been a bird it would be a lot messier.

How I Came To Know It: This was just me poking around Wilco’s back catalogue after I had discovered “A.M.”

How It Stacks Up:  I have four Wilco albums. “A Ghost is Born” is my least favourite of those four, but it was surprisingly close between it and “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.” As this is the last Wilco album I currently own up for review, here’s a recap:

1. A.M.: 4 stars (reviewed way back at Disc 84)
2. Being There: 4 stars (reviewed back at Disc 358)
3. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: 3 stars (reviewed back at Disc 755)
4. A Ghost is Born: 3 stars (reviewed right here)

Ratings: 3 stars

Having stuck with Wilco through “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,” “A Ghost is Born” was the album that ended my journey through Wilco’s discography when I first heard it. Listening to it again with fresh ears I think I was too harsh in my initial assessment.

The experimentation begun on “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” continues on “A Ghost is Born” and once again they get things started with one of the album’s least accessible songs. “At Least That’s What You Said” is half ambient dirge and half feedback-infused noodling and doesn’t get this record off on good footing. At least that’s what I say.

I sometimes feel like the independent-minded Wilco wants to drive away the casual listener, like a prof who only wants students in his class as excited about his subject area as he is.

The effort to do so continues on the next track, “Hell is Chrome” but – surprise twist! – it fails. “Hell is Chrome” is the kind of quiet and slow building track usually reserved for side two, thrust to the front of the record as if to scream, “love me for who I am now or just stop listening!” Fortunately, this song is a beautiful sleeper, where the lightly played piano and Jeff Tweedy’s half-whispered confessional are a perfect match. The song had me thinking about what all those bald weirdos from “Mad Max: Fury Road” would listen to. Not while they were out murdering folks and driving their cars around the desert, obviously. I mean after that, when they come down from the metallic paint they’ve been eating and get all introspective and morose contemplating the state of their post-apocalyptic world. I wonder if the film writer knew the song…?

But I digress.

Back to the record, which has a few other high points worth mentioned. “Handshake Drugs” is grounded in a very cool bass line which Wilco artfully doesn’t over-exploit as they tell the story of wandering through a city late at night and high as hell.

“Wishful Thinking” is a love song, tinged with a self-awareness that makes it slightly less romantic but infinitely more honest. The song takes a while to get going, but the way the tune steps down as Tweedy sings “’cause what would love be without wishful thinking?” makes the wait worthwhile.

In many ways “A Ghost is Born” is ahead of its time, and has a lot in common with more recent indie rock, the way it strings together imagery that is loosely connected but lacks a complete narrative. Sometimes I liked this approach but I also found some of the lyrics lazy and directionless.

Musically, the melodies are cleverly constructed for the most part, but there are songs that take way too long to do way too little. “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” is over ten minutes long and while it has a funky beat and catchy guitar riff but both appear infrequently amid the detritus of feedback and aimless noodling). There just isn’t enough going on to justify it going on the way it does.

“Less Than You Think” is exactly what its title promises, and not in a good way. This monstrosity is 15 minutes long and feels like 20. There is two and a half minutes of what I would call a song, followed by 10 minutes of ambient sound, occasional droning slowly building to a crescendo of…radio static? Then a final 2-3 minutes as the radio static fades away as pointlessly as it began.

I was so mad at being forced to listen to this damned song (see “The Rules” in the sidebar) that not even the album’s final track – a light-spirited ditty about undiscovered bands called “The Late Greats” – could fully pull me from my funk.

“A Ghost is Born” is a 67 minute album and it needs to be about 45, but there is enough good stuff here that it is still an album worth keeping. If you love “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” (as many do) you’ll probably love this record as well.

Best tracks:  Hell is Chrome, Handshake Drugs, Wishful Thinking, Theologians

CD Odyssey Disc 755: Wilco

I’ve torn myself away from Wimbledon to bring you this next review. The sacrifices I make for you, dear reader, the sacrifices I make...

Disc 755 is….Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Artist: Wilco

Year of Release: 2002

What’s up with the Cover? Skyscrapers? There is not enough going on with this cover for me to like or hate it. The background colour would be fine if you were painting your living room, I suppose.

How I Came To Know It: I really liked “A.M” (reviewed way back at Disc 84) and I read that “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” was their best album, so I bought it next.

How It Stacks Up: I have four Wilco albums, not counting Jeff Tweedy’s many other projects. Of those four albums, “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” is third. Sorry, Wilco fans.

Ratings: 3 stars

Highly creative and experimental bands like Wilco can go one of two directions once they have enough money to do what they want. They can explore new sounds while maintaining the pretty compositions that made them great to begin with (think Beck), or they can decide to just do a bunch of weird crap that makes them feel clever (think Radiohead). “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” is a bit of both.

The best example of this is the first song, “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” which could have been a heart-wrenching four minute break up song, but is instead a seven minute monstrosity. The melody once the song gets going is quite pretty, but it is buried in strange droning, and ill-placed chimes that sound like someone’s microwave popcorn went off during the recording session. It is a promising song that descends into a droning puddle of self-absorption. Competing piano chords introduced halfway seem designed to balance off against the harmony of the hook but succeed only in making the whole thing disjointed. This song is the musical equivalent of taking months to sculpt a beautiful statue only to have some drunkard pee on it.

Few other songs on the album manage to be both great and awful in equal measure, although when this album is in full Radiohead form like on the appropriately titled “Radio Cure” it is truly maddening. It is like having some guy at a party idly noodling on his guitar, and refusing to just play a damn song.

In other places, like on “Kamera” or “War on War” the songs are free and easy. They aren’t that exciting on their own, but they have a nice rhythm to them that makes you want to slap your knee and tap your foot, so points for that.

Although it takes a while to warm up, mid-way in the band finds its groove with some fine tracks, the first and best of which is “Jesus, etc.” which captures the new atmospheric production the band has been fumbling for, but without sacrificing the exceptional songwriting. The chorus of this song felt like an apology for the album’s excesses:

“Tall buildings shake

Voices escape singing sad sad songs

Tuned to chords strung down your cheeks

Bitter melodies turning your orbit around.”

I love the oddly placed rhymes and reliance on assonance in this verse that comes alive under front-man Tweedy’s unique phrasing.

“Jesus, etc.” launches a pretty solid run on “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” with the depressing “Ashes of American Flags,” the light-hearted nostalgia of “Heavy Metal Drummer” and the ‘soul music on Quaaludes’ feel of “I’m the Man Who Loves You.” These songs all have little flaws – the first two fade into annoying sound experiments similar to the album’s opening track and the third needs one less hit of Quaaludes, but they form a nice grouping and have quality songwriting holding them up.

Near the end of the album, “Pot Kettle Black” and “Poor Places” feel a lot more like the earlier Wilco sound that I prefer. “Poor Places” has a combination of yearning and intellectual discovery that always makes me think of first-year university. Even the odd bits of disjointed rag time piano in “Poor Places” can’t keep me from liking this song and its too-clever lyrics like:

“There’s bourbon on the breath

Of the singer you love so much

He takes all his words from the books

You don’t read anway.”

Rap artists borrow famous riffs to make hits, and we writers quote other writers to impress girls. I regret nothing.

The final track, “Reservations” certainly gave me some. It is another seven minute monstrosity with a tail on it longer than a snake, and equally hard to love. The album only has 11 songs and 51 minutes of playing time, but because of mood-crap like “Reservations” it still feels too long. If I wanted to listen to this kind of atmospheric blubbering, I’d put on a tape of whale songs to help me sleep.

Based on the strong songwriting foundation of “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” I gave it three stars, but that is the critic in me speaking more than the fan. The good stuff on this album is like a Tiramisu cake, sweet, but excessively layered with a bunch of stuff that is too rich for me to enjoy. I just want to scrape off the delicious icing and leave the rest of it for the waiter to discover under my napkin as I’m putting on my coat.

Best tracks: Jesus etc., I’m the Man Who Loves You, Poor Places

CD Odyssey Disc 684: Billy Bragg and Wilco

I’m not feeling 100 per cent. I won’t say I’m sick, but I’m light on energy reserves. My plan at this point is to ignore it until it goes away. You’d be surprised how often this works.

Disc 684 is…. Mermaid Avenue

Artist: Billy Bragg and Wilco

Year of Release: 1998

What’s up with the Cover?  I am going to guess this is a picture of Woody Guthrie’s Coney Island home on Mermaid Avenue, since that’s what the album is named after, and would therefore make for a fitting cover. Unless it is one of those ironic hipster moments, where the picture doesn’t mean anything. I just can’t see Billy Bragg and Wilco doing that to Woody, though.

How I Came To Know It: I once again don’t remember. I think someone sent me the song “Way Over Yonder In a Minor Key” and that caused me to fall down the Youtube hole and into the embrace of “Mermaid Avenue.”

How It Stacks Up:  I have four Wilco albums and six Billy Bragg albums, but only two albums featuring both of them; this one and “Mermaid Avenue Vol. II” (reviewed back at Disc 537). Of the two, Volume 1 (this one) is best.

Rating: 4 stars

One day Woody Guthrie’s daughter Nora took a bunch of her father’s unrecorded lyrics to Billy Bragg and Wilco and asked them “can you do something with these?” “Hell, yes!” they presumably replied, and made this record.

Guthrie didn’t write his music down, just the words, so Wilco and Bragg were able to bring their own prodigious talents to the equation. As a result, “Mermaid Avenue” is thrice blessed.

I can’t think of a better fit for this project than Billy Bragg, whose own brand of socially conscious protest rock makes him a natural inheritor of Guthrie’s work. Guthrie’s down-home folksy charm rings through on the songs Bragg takes lead on.

Unsurprisingly, “Mermaid Avenue” has some socialist gems that Bragg gives voice to, including “Christ for President” and the union anthem “I Guess I Planted.” These are good tracks, but Bragg’s got nothing to prove on this front, and I preferred him taking on Guthrie’s whimsical side. Drunken adventures abound on “Walt Whitman’s Niece” and “Ingrid Bergman” has Guthrie reminding latter-day audiences just what a sexual icon she was in the day. The song has Guthrie hoping for a few minutes alone with Ingrid on Mount Stromboli, convinced her beauty would cause the mountain to erupt.

The best of all is the song that got me into this album, “Way Over Yonder In a Minor Key.” This is a song that gives you a glimpse into misadventure in the forties (Guthrie wrote the lyrics in 1946). It also reminds us that even the ugly boy gets the pretty girl if he can sing and write songs – as long as he’s willing to brave her mom’s willow switch later. Bragg’s treatment is the perfect mix of playful and pastoral.

Jeff Tweedy and Wilco bring a whole other dimension to the music. This is early in Wilco’s career, and they are still firmly in their folksy/blue-eyed soul phase. While very unlike Bragg’s approach, it is the perfect counterbalance. Where Bragg’s songs are deep and boisterous, Wilco’s are bright and jangly. Standouts include the laid back “California Stars” and the mournful “At My Window Sad and Lonely.”

Although mostly just doing backup vocals, it was also nice to hear Natalie Merchant get in on the action, taking lead vocals on the strongly traditional “Birds and Ships.”

This record is a fitting legacy for Woody Guthrie and the great folk artists he’s inspired for decades since he wrote these songs. There is no better example on “Mermaid Avenue” than the rolling folk song “The Unwelcome Guest” which is about an outlaw that steals from the rich and gives to the poor. The song is typical fare for Bragg and Guthrie, which puts message above character in the end by converting the song’s title character into a movement:

“Yes, they’ll catch me napping one day and they’ll kill me

And then I’ll be gone but that won’t be my end

For my guns and my saddle will always be filled

By unwelcome travelers and other brave men.”

The song is the last on the record, which lets it linger in your ears and echo through the ages. It shows that both Bragg and Wilco understand that they are standing on the shoulders of a folk music giant, even as they pull him back into the consciousness of a whole new generation.

I saw Bragg in concert very recently, and he was still singing songs off of “Mermaid Avenue” and still talking about the experience of recording it. It was clear that he was deeply touched by the opportunity. “Mermaid Avenue” shows that both he and Wilco made the best of it.

Best tracks: California Stars, Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key, Birds and Ships, At My Window Sad and Lonely, Ingrid Bergman, The Unwelcome Guest

CD Odyssey Disc 646: Various Artists

I’ve bought a lot of music lately (more than usual) and along the way discovered a few new (to me) bands I highly recommend. This week’s love affair is with Imelda May, an Irish rockabilly artist who is as talented as she is beautiful. I’ve been listening to her 2010 “Mayhem” album every day this week – often twice a day.

That’s this week’s recommendation, although not this week’s review. The review, as ever, was determined randomly because damn it that’s just more fun.

Disc 646 is….Return of the Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons

Artist: Various

Year of Release: 1999

What’s up with the Cover? It’s Gram Parson’s suit or at least an artistic rendition of it. Gram used to wear a white rockabilly suit that looked like this.

Here is Gram in happier times wearing the jacket the cover is based on. Way to rock the ladies on your lapels, Gram. Where the hell is that detail on the cover?

How I Came To Know It: I was looking for some Gram Parsons one day and the record store dudes cleverly had this stored in his section. When I saw that not only was Parsons stalwart Emmylou Harris featured, but also Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams and a whole bunch of my other favourite artists, I bought it without hesitation.

How It Stacks Up:  While it isn’t exactly a best of, as a collection of covers it can’t really stack up against Gram Parsons doing his own stuff.

Rating:  This is also a bit of a gray area. It isn’t a ‘best of’ per se, so I’ve decided to go ahead and give it a grade. That grade is…3 stars, but almost 4

Every now and then a rare artist comes along who just has a knack for writing great songs. Gram Parsons was one of those, and his untimely death in 1973 denied us of his talent all too early. Fortunately he wrote a bunch of tracks before he was gone, and on “Return of the Grievous Angel” a bunch of fairly well known artists pay tribute to him.

If you are going to do a tribute record of a songwriter of Gram Parson’s stature you better get artists with sufficient presence and ability to do his memory proud. “Return” has a pretty impressive lineup that includes the Cowboy Junkies, Beck, Steve Earle, Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, Lucinda Williams, Wilco and of course Parson collaborator and confidante Emmylou Harris.

Their work – and that of the other artists on the album – is strong, and while I don’t really care for the Cowboy Junkies treatment of “Ooh Las Vegas” it was at least the most innovative. I similarly didn’t like Elvis Costello trying to add his jazzy flavour to “Sleepless Nights.” Costello sings it as earnestly as he can and you can tell the love is there, but he’s just not suited for this kind of music, despite how much he wants to be.

For the most part, the artists do Parsons ‘straight up’ with very similar arrangements and treatments as he originally used. They are all very good (it is hard to screw up a Gram Parsons song) but in some places I found myself preferring the original. In the case of Beck and Emmylou’s duet on “Sin City” not only prefer the original Flying Burrito Brothers version, but the Emmylou solo version from 1975’s “Elite Hotel” as well.

There are more than a few standouts. Emmylou gets Gram Parsons like few do, and her gentle treatment of “She” alongside Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders is a great way to start the record. On “Juanita” her background vocals elevate Sheryl Crow beautifully as well and make a song I often gloss over in Parson’s collection standout even more.

Evan Dando and Julianna Hatfield do a great version of “$1,000 Wedding” which has some pretty guitar work, and although I’ve not always been a Whiskeytown fan, their version of “A Song For You” has the perfect mix of desperation and energy the song calls for.

I would have preferred Steve Earle sing “High Fashion Queen” solo, as Chris Hillman’s voice is just too forgettable taking alternating verses. Fortunately David Crosby wisely takes a back seat on his duet of “Return of the Grievous Angel” with Lucinda Williams. Williams is just as much a tortured genius as Parsons and her angst and sandpapery voice add a whole new level to the song.

I would have liked the album to end with Gillian Welch’s treatment of “Hickory Wind” which has a threadbare arrangement that lets her pure bluegrass vocals cut through like the warm summer wind she sings about. I couldn’t imagine a better end.

That is, until we hear the Rolling Creekdippers sing “In My Hour of Darkness.” This song closes a Gram Parson’s collection as fittingly as Tennyson compilations always end with “Crossing the Bar.” In “Crossing the Bar” the poet imagines a heavenly journey ahead, whereas Parsons’ lyrics see only the darkness and unknown. It is the right way to end a tribute album for someone who left us too soon.

“In My Hour of Darkness” is a song about loss on a record that not only makes you contemplate the great artistic loss of Gram parsons, but also those who are gone from our own lives. It is gracefully delivered and deeply affecting but as I sat listening to the Rolling Creekdippers sing it, there was a small part of me that couldn’t help but want to hear Gram’s voice instead. For that reason, I’ll hold this review to three stars by the narrowest of margins.

Best tracks:   She, $1000 Wedding, Juanita, Return of the Grievous Angel, A Song For You, Hickory Wind, In My Hour of Darkness

CD Odyssey Disc 537: Billy Bragg and Wilco

Sometimes the random element to what I review can be a bit disappointing.  For example, to introduce you to this next album – a collaboration of two great artists inspired by a third - it would have been easier to have done their first album together, rather than Volume II.

But hey, that’s the way the random cookie crumbles.  So here’s Volume II – it’s still good.

Disc 537 is…. Mermaid Avenue Vol. II

Artist: Billy Bragg and Wilco

Year of Release: 2000

What’s up with the Cover?  I’m guessing the background of this shot is Mermaid Avenue, around the time of Woody Guthrie, however who cares about that when you have a cute kitty in the foreground!  In recent years I’ve come to love the tuxedo cat, but there’s a lot to be said for the tabby. 

How I Came To Know It:  I had found out about the amazing first “Mermaid Avenue” album just a few years ago, and then learned there was a sequel.  Without delay I sought it out and added it to my collection.  If one album of this music was good, I reasoned, then two must be better.  

How It Stacks Up:  Turns out I was right, and “Mermaid Avenue Vol. II” is a strong record as well, but overall the first “Mermaid Avenue” is stronger, so I have to rank this one second.

Rating:  3 stars but almost 4

On his 1997 song “Christmas in Washington” Steve Earle pines:

“Come back Woody Guthrie

Come back to us now

Tear your eyes from paradise

And rise again somehow.”

A year later, Steve’s wish would symbolically come true, when Guthrie’s daughter Nora met up with Billy Bragg and Wilco and gave them a myriad of song lyrics her father had penned but never recorded.  If there had ever been music to go with these lyrics, they were lost to the mists of time, but with the help of Bragg and Wilco, they were brought to life and with them, Guthrie rose again somehow.

The “Mermaid Avenue” project was such a success (artistically at least) that two years later Bragg and Wilco did another whole second album of them.  That album, not terribly inventively, is called “Mermaid Avenue, Vol. II” again after the street in Coney Island, Brooklyn that Guthrie lived on.  Whatever its title, it is a worthy successor to a contemporary folk classic.

As with the first record, Billy Bragg and Jeff Tweedy of Wilco alternate taking lead vocals and they both bring something beautiful to Guthrie’s original thoughts.  Bragg’s protest folk styles are a more natural fit for Guthrie’s lyrics, but Jeff Tweedy frontman and the rest of Wilco are equally good.  In fact, the indie rock style of Wilco gives a nice counterbalance to Bragg’s more traditional approach.  The ghost of Guthrie is everpresent, and the three artistic voices form a nice triangle, each corner equally propping up the record’s feel.

Given Earle’s prayer for the return of Guthrie, the opening track, “Airline to Heaven” is a fitting start, as Guthrie muses about one day going to heaven.  The words were penned in 1939, but like every song on the record it is as fresh and relevant today as any song.

I enjoyed hearing, “My Flying Saucer” as the next track, a true 1950s whimsical approach to the topic at a time when flying saucers were just becoming a fad.  I’ve always wanted to do a ‘flying saucer’ playlist which would feature the song, plus Blue Rodeo’s “Cynthia”, Blue Oyster Cult’s “Sole Survivor” the Carpenters’ “Calling Occupants” and Tool’s “Rosetta Stoned”  I’m sure I could find a few more once I put my mind to it.  But I digress…

Back to “Mermaid Avenue (Vol. II).”  Not surprisingly some of the most resonant songs are those that speak to social justice issues, something that all parties to the music understand.  “Hot Rod Hotel” is the song about a porter/night clerk at a hotel and all the menial tasks he is forced to perform to put food on the table, until one day he rebels when asked to clean up a particularly horrible room.  The song sounds like it will end sad and defeated, but it actually is a working class triumph:

“The lammy tried to make me clean up that crappy mess

Or else he’d fire me off my job and let me starve to death

I laid aside my polish rag and downed my dusting pan

And I’ve not seen the old Hot Rod nor that old town since then.”

This song is a timely reminder that no matter where we find ourselves on the corporate ladder, we can always choose dignity and honour if faced with acquiescing to the unreasonable.

Not all the songs are as compelling as this, unfortunately.  “I Was Born” sounds like a transcription of a toddler trying to remember when she was born, and the guest vocals of Natalie Merchant plays that up to the further detriment of the song.  “Blood of the Lamb” has a pretty gospel feel to it, but it is just a bit too preachy for my tastes (note:  good gospel never feels actually preachy).  Finally, “Joe Di Maggio Done It Again” would be a fun song if you were a baseball fan, but I am not.

These misses are more about my personal preferences, however, rather than being inherently bad songs, and even so they are the exceptions that prove the rule.

The rule here makes a heartfelt record that misses very few beats.  There is political commentary aplenty, including calling out fascists, and supporting a write-in third party candidate due to disgust with all the people approved on the ballot.

The album also features gentle love songs like “Remember the Mountain Bed” rich with verses dripping with sexy autumnal glory:

“Do you still sing of the mountain bed we made of limbs and leaves

Do you still sigh there near the sky where the holly berry bleeds

You laughed as I covered you over with leaves, face, breast, hips and thighs

You smiled when I said the leaves were just the color of your eyes.”

Whew!  Is it getting hot in here?

                          
Er…anyway, many of the themes on “Mermaid Avenue Vol. II” are twenty or thirty years before their time, and Bragg and Wilco ensure they fit for the modern ear without ever losing the protest folk charm of Guthrie himself.  This album is a worthy successor to a project that was inspired by Guthrie's own 'Airline to Heaven', and a little honest hope from some talented folks still down here waiting in this earthly terminal for their turn to be remembered.

Best tracks:  Airline to Heaven, Hot Rod Hotel, Stetson Kennedy, Remember the Mountain Bed, All You Fascists, Black Wind Blowing, Someday Some Morning Sometime

CD Odyssey Disc 358: Wilco

Although I'm allowed to insert new albums into the review process, I rarely do. The truth is, I prefer rolling randomly, and I get to listen to new albums on my own time anyway.

That said, the next album is a new album (to me) but I did not select it; the fates still rolled it randomly.

Disc 358 is...Being There


Artist: Wilco

Year of Release: 1996

What’s Up With The Cover?: Not much. A hand holds the neck of a guitar. I like the simplicity of this album cover, but it is hardly interesting beyond that.

How I Came To Know It: I was recently at a Christmas party for Sheila's work and I ended up meeting a fellow music enthusiast, Greg W. We had a few good conversations about music. He is a big Wilco fan, and after hearing which albums I already owned, and what I liked about them, he recommended "Being There" as my next purchase. He was exactly right.

How It Stacks Up: I now have four Wilco albums. "Being There" is one of my favourites. I'll say it is second only to 1995's "A.M" (reviewed way back at Disc 84).

Rating: 4 stars.

"Being There" was a lesson for me that the best way to find good records is to get recommendations from other music lovers. After falling in love with "A.M." I had purchased "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and "A Ghost Is Born" pretty quickly thereafter. These two didn't grab me the way I had hoped they would, as Wilco expanded into a more atmospheric detached sound, and away from their southern roots rock sound.

Enter the aforementioned Greg W., who advised that if I liked "A.M." that "Being There" had a similar sound. I think he also warned it was a 'break up album' but I can't be sure, since I had had a few beers by that point. That wouldn't have put me off in any event, as often nasty break ups result in quality art. Thank you artists the world over for suffering so we critics can have a better time of it.

Whether Wilco mastermind Jeff Tweedy was in fact miserable or not (apparently he'd just had a child, but I expect that was a joyful occasion), the quality of "Being There" plays like he was. Many of the songs are about relationships breaking down, and specifically the anguish of knowing you are growing apart from someone, but not losing the love you hold for them. The opening track, "Misunderstood" quickly highlights the theme:

"There's something there that you can't find
Honest when you're tellin' a lie
You're hurt but you don't know why
You love her but you don't know why."

The opening song on Disc 2 (yes, it is a two disc album), "Sunken Treasure" is just as depressing, more so, as Tweedy sings "I am so out of tune with you" in a way that turns minor keys into miniature emotional Armaggedons.

While the theme is held tightly together, the music shows exceptional range. Up tempo indie rock anthems like "I Got You (At The End Of The Century)" fit in effortlessly beside sparsely arranged songs like "Red Eyed and Blue", which feature only piano, acoustic guitar and Jeff Tweedy's earnest singing. Tweedy's voice would've made him a star of indie, southern rock or country. On "Being There" he wisely chooses to be all three.

Wilco is definitely a band for music geeks like me. They like to showcase their many influences, and have clearly mastered traditional forms before they put their own unique style on them. This record is a lesson in how to pay homage to what has come before, and still innovate. Even Picasso painted traditionally before he moved on to cubism. Wilco has the same solid foundations.

What's more, they seem genuinely humble about their roots. On "Someone Else's Song" Tweedy sings:

"I can't tell you anything you don't already know.
I keep on trying, I should just let it go.
I keep on singing, you're eyes they just roll.
It sounds like someone else's song from a long time ago.
You already know the story and the chords are just the same.
You already know I love you, and I sound like what's-his-name.
But you can't stop me, I want you to know.
I know it sounds like someone else's song from along time ago."

The song itself sounds like two musical greats, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams, if they could somehow be combined. The vaguel out of tune Cash guitar mixed with the plaintive Williams vocals. I love the combination, but not nearly as much as I love a band willing to set ego aside and admit that like all artists, they borrow from those they admire. So it should be - even Neil Young has admitted in interviews that he borrowed from Pearl Jam.

I was disappointed this was a double album, which is so hard to pull off. Between the two albums, there are 19 songs, and despite the consistently high quality, I think I could weed (tweed?) it down by four or five tracks if I put my mind to it, particularly off of disc two. It is rare a band needs a double album, and while "Being There" comes close to pulling it off, I set the bar high on this front.

Another minor beef, is their refusal to capitalize song titles. Capital letters exist for a reason, Mr. Tweedy. You wouldn't try that if Mrs. Tweedy were here - standing over you threateningly, with a chicken in each hand and a look on her face that would melt plastic. She's already angry enough over that debacle with the meat pie machine, and now this whole lower case thing. Wait a minute - I think I've got my Mr. Tweedys mixed up.

OK, back to the album. In addition to being beloved by music geeks like me, Wilco are also critical darlings, and this phenomenon can be very annoying over time. Fawning articles about these guys are pasted all over the internet. They're a band that it is 'cool' to like, which is something that usually drives me in the other direction. I couldn't do that after listening to "Being There" for the last five days, though. The truth is this is a great record, and well worth the praise it receives.

Best tracks: Misunderstood, Monday, Forget The Flowers, Red Eyed and Blue, I Got You (At The End Of The Century), What's The World Got In Store, Say You Miss Me, Sunken Treasure, Someone Else's Song

CD Odyssey Disc 84: Wilco

I knew if I stuck it out long enough, the dice would reward me!

Disc 84 is...A.M.

Artist: Wilco

Year of Release: 1995

How I Came To Know It: I had Wilco recommended to me by a spouse at one of Sheila's office parties about three or four years ago. I didn't go for it right away, but after reading some reviews, I thought I'd give them a try. I bought this album first, because I found it on sale cheap.

How It Stacks Up: I have three Wilco albums now, and narrowly put a fourth back on the shelf during a CD buying rampage last weekend. Of those three, I like "A.M." the best.

Rating: 4 stars.

I really didn't know what to expect when I bought this album, other than the fact that Wilco seem to be critical darlings. Usually this deters me from pursuing it any further. I'm glad I pushed through my usual contrariness and bought this record.

Style-wise "A.M." is first and foremost a basic rock and roll record, but that description alone would sell them short. Yes, the arrangements are pretty simple and straightforward, but within that sound they find all sorts of little ways to sound fresh and innovative.

In this way, they remind me of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. They also have that southern rock sound that I get from Tom Petty. Later Wilco records get a lot more expiremental, and I like those as well, but "A.M." definitely has a special place in my heart for doing more with less.

While definitely rock music, Wilco also works in a lot of country and folk instruments - I'm pretty sure that at various points they use the banjo and the steel guitar. In fact I'm certain - since I cheated and looked in the liner notes. While there I found the album also features the fiddle and dobro in a couple of places.

Jeff Tweedy's vocals have a great honesty to them. This makes his lyrics, which are often intensely personal and introspective, really believeable and lets me react to the record on a strong emotional level.

There are a couple of good break up songs, particularly "Box Full of Letters", which aptly expresses the frustration of...not being able to express yourself:

"Got a box full of letters,
Think you might like to read
Some things that you might like to see,
But they're all addressed to me

Wish I had a lotta answers,
'Cause that's the way it should be
For all these questions,
Being directed at me

I just can't find the time
To write my mind
The way I want it to read"

As a writer, maybe this is why I emotionally connect to this song. Or maybe it is the dreaded division of the music collection that comes later:

"I got a lot of your records,
In a separate stack
Some things that I might like to hear,
But I guess I'll give 'em back"

The horror! The horror!

Other highlights include "Casino Queen" which successfully captures the over-stimulated environment of gambling establishments. Combined with the story of someone losing their license to a DUI in "Passenger Side", "A.M." features two songs that manage to be both a party and a cautionary tale.

The only out of place track comes in the very mellow hollow-sounding "Dash 7". This song is a mood piece about a flight, and while it seems out of place on this album it very much presages the interesting direction Wilco's sound is headed for on later albums. Even though it is a little out of place, it is great to have this survey marker on what's coming.

In the second to last track, "Blue Eyed Soul", Wilco asks us:

"Can you keep it simple, can you make the snare crack?
"Can you let it out without holding back?"

By this point in the record, I found myself answering with a resounding "yes!"

Best tracks: Casino Queen, Box Full of Letters, Shouldn't Be Ashamed, Pick Up the Change, Blue Eyed Soul, most of the others.