Wilco's boring new record
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Over production sucks
I totally agree on the Some people are slow to change observation and some down right hate it (ignorant they be) but there is a FINE LINE in production of musical direction. Bands that are excellent both in the studio & live are few and far between tobesure.NoDepression wrote:
Ok , now my training will come to light . I am a recording engineer and I hear the colors that are being painted in this record , like someone mentioned above , with each new listen , a new texture takes shape . The album is so well recorded , I just enjoying listening to the production work . To me , it's pure genius . I think the problem we're having here is everybody is looking for "Being there"(great album) , but that would put our sweet genre back into the US record cess pool of crap by being formalic and predictable . These guy's , Jay included, change with each release , and that's what attracts me to them in the first place . Some people are slow to change , and can't handle it well . Something must be right , the disc is #1 on Amazon.com in sales .
A band can often "discover" the wonders of texturizing and layering their songs to the point of OVER producing (usually once flush with cash the pattern seems).
Suddenly you're out in the sweaty night suckin' on a cold one waiting to hear your band come alive at a show when these paired down songs - simpler varitions just don"t sound right? Where's the this? or where's the that?
If the production is subtle enough not to remove the core structure of hook and melody then that's a job well done but if it IS the core structure and the band is unable to reproduce the same emotions live; then what you have is an over produced studio band and that just plain fucking sucks.
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Ok , now my training will come to light . I am a recording engineer and I hear the colors that are being painted in this record , like someone mentioned above , with each new listen , a new texture takes shape . The album is so well recorded , I just enjoying listening to the production work . To me , it's pure genius . I think the problem we're having here is everybody is looking for "Being there"(great album) , but that would put our sweet genre back into the US record cess pool of crap by being formalic and predictable . These guy's , Jay included, change with each release , and that's what attracts me to them in the first place . Some people are slow to change , and can't handle it well . Something must be right , the disc is #1 on Amazon.com in sales .montana wrote:" think it's great work, but I also listen/produce electronic music "
So do I, and that 15 minute trrack is brutal. An amateur could do much, much better.
This is too bad. I haven't been blow away by a recoird since The Flaming Lips " Yoshimi battles the pink robots" and becks "sea change".
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...
I really like the new Wilco. I like the moody, feedbacky(not a word) stuff.
Brian Wilsons new solo album is really good too, Im a big Beach Boys fan!
Brian Wilsons new solo album is really good too, Im a big Beach Boys fan!
from allmusic.com:
It's hard not to wonder if Wilco's breakthrough 2002 release, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, would have been such a critical success and so eagerly embraced by the indie rock community if it hadn't become such a cause célèbre thanks to the band being unceremoniously dropped by Reprise Records, and then signed by Nonesuch after the album had become a hot item on the Internet. Much of the critical reaction to the album, while almost uniformly enthusiastic (and rightly so), had an odd undertow that suggested the writers were not especially familiar with Wilco's body of work, registering a frequent sense of surprise that an "alt-country" band would make such an adventurous album while ignoring the creative shape-shifting that had been so much a part of Jeff Tweedy and company's approach on Being There and Summer Teeth. The irony is that 2004's A Ghost Is Born, the eagerly awaited follow-up to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, is also the Wilco album with the strongest stylistic link to its immediate predecessor, as if their new fans are being given a moment to catch up. A Ghost Is Born hardly sounds like a retread of YHF, but the languid, ghostly song structures, the periodic forays into dissonance, and the pained, hesitant vocals from Jeff Tweedy that were so much a part of that album also take center stage here. But while much of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot had a cool and slightly removed feeling, A Ghost Is Born is considerably warmer and more organic; the extended instrumental breaks in several of the songs (two cuts are over ten minutes long) sound more like a group in full flight than the Pro Tools-assembled structures of YHF. And while Wilco's former secret weapon, Jay Bennett, is now out of the picture, the rest of the group (especially multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach, keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen, and guitarist/co-producer Jim O'Rourke) fill the gaps with admirable grace and strength. If A Ghost Is Born has a flaw, it's in the songwriting; while this album is a "grower" if there ever was one, revealing more of its unexpected complexities with each spin, there are no songs here as immediately engaging as "War On War," "Heavy Metal Drummer," or "I'm the Man Who Loves You" from YHF, and while "Hummingbirds," "Handshake Drugs," and "Wishful Thinking" are tuneful and charming, they lack the resonance and emotional impact of Tweedy's strongest work. And the album's most purely enjoyable tune, the witty "The Late Greats," closes out the disc after the 15-minute drone dirge of "Less Than You Think," dramatically blunting its effectiveness. A Ghost Is Born confirms what old fans and recent converts already know — that Wilco is one of America's most interesting and imaginative bands — and it's brave and compelling listening. But if you're expecting another genre-defying masterpiece, well, maybe we'll get one of those next time.
It's hard not to wonder if Wilco's breakthrough 2002 release, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, would have been such a critical success and so eagerly embraced by the indie rock community if it hadn't become such a cause célèbre thanks to the band being unceremoniously dropped by Reprise Records, and then signed by Nonesuch after the album had become a hot item on the Internet. Much of the critical reaction to the album, while almost uniformly enthusiastic (and rightly so), had an odd undertow that suggested the writers were not especially familiar with Wilco's body of work, registering a frequent sense of surprise that an "alt-country" band would make such an adventurous album while ignoring the creative shape-shifting that had been so much a part of Jeff Tweedy and company's approach on Being There and Summer Teeth. The irony is that 2004's A Ghost Is Born, the eagerly awaited follow-up to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, is also the Wilco album with the strongest stylistic link to its immediate predecessor, as if their new fans are being given a moment to catch up. A Ghost Is Born hardly sounds like a retread of YHF, but the languid, ghostly song structures, the periodic forays into dissonance, and the pained, hesitant vocals from Jeff Tweedy that were so much a part of that album also take center stage here. But while much of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot had a cool and slightly removed feeling, A Ghost Is Born is considerably warmer and more organic; the extended instrumental breaks in several of the songs (two cuts are over ten minutes long) sound more like a group in full flight than the Pro Tools-assembled structures of YHF. And while Wilco's former secret weapon, Jay Bennett, is now out of the picture, the rest of the group (especially multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach, keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen, and guitarist/co-producer Jim O'Rourke) fill the gaps with admirable grace and strength. If A Ghost Is Born has a flaw, it's in the songwriting; while this album is a "grower" if there ever was one, revealing more of its unexpected complexities with each spin, there are no songs here as immediately engaging as "War On War," "Heavy Metal Drummer," or "I'm the Man Who Loves You" from YHF, and while "Hummingbirds," "Handshake Drugs," and "Wishful Thinking" are tuneful and charming, they lack the resonance and emotional impact of Tweedy's strongest work. And the album's most purely enjoyable tune, the witty "The Late Greats," closes out the disc after the 15-minute drone dirge of "Less Than You Think," dramatically blunting its effectiveness. A Ghost Is Born confirms what old fans and recent converts already know — that Wilco is one of America's most interesting and imaginative bands — and it's brave and compelling listening. But if you're expecting another genre-defying masterpiece, well, maybe we'll get one of those next time.
At Least That'sWhat You Said
I think that I have mentioned before that At Least That's What You said is my current favorite song, I just love the sadness at the beginning and then the huge guitar. I really dig most of what I have heard on it.
I don't think I know any Sonic Youth songs by name, but have heard a lot of them and was always best with the loud noisy guitar sounds they got, I love that. I love beautiful guitar work be it acoustic, noise, Joe Stariani, whatever., I just dig it.
Speaking of awesome noisy guitars, on a side note, related to Jay/Wilco/Son Volt, I bought UT's March for a friend recently and was giving them a little history about it. I find it ironic that Peter Buck, a really awesome guitars, great at making a lot of cool electric guitar noise, produced UT's mostly all acoustic album.
Anyway, I am rambling.
I don't think I know any Sonic Youth songs by name, but have heard a lot of them and was always best with the loud noisy guitar sounds they got, I love that. I love beautiful guitar work be it acoustic, noise, Joe Stariani, whatever., I just dig it.
Speaking of awesome noisy guitars, on a side note, related to Jay/Wilco/Son Volt, I bought UT's March for a friend recently and was giving them a little history about it. I find it ironic that Peter Buck, a really awesome guitars, great at making a lot of cool electric guitar noise, produced UT's mostly all acoustic album.
Anyway, I am rambling.
I actually enjoyed the new record the longer songs, didn't really bother me, then again i listen to alot of different types of people like this including sonic youth etc...anyway i thought it was a good album..jay bennett's departure didn't affect anything for me..jeff tweedy with a solo career would be enough for me lol..
Hey - there's some decent live Wilco at www.glidemagazine.com
montana...I feel the same way. It has been a while since I have been blown away by a disc. That is, until I picked up Nicolai Dunger's 'Soul Rush'. I don't know much about him besides that he worked with Calexico. The disc is a mix of everything good in life--great lyrics, great singing/playing, great melodies. Very cool disc indeed.
drugs certainly have played a big part in some of the absolute best records of all time...vicotin or not, this one should be flushed down the toliet. 2 or 3 songs are keepers, even the wilco faithful prob would rather hear YHF or even Summerteeth, the rest is useless and doesn't provoke a single emotion -lyrically or musically.
i don't even see this as an "experimental" album- i gotta call it what it is...crap.
funny reading hte Wilco HQ letter the other day, if they put alot of money into this one I think they'll end losing big on this one...
i'm a fan for years, but our heroes can't come through all the time...
i don't even see this as an "experimental" album- i gotta call it what it is...crap.
funny reading hte Wilco HQ letter the other day, if they put alot of money into this one I think they'll end losing big on this one...
i'm a fan for years, but our heroes can't come through all the time...
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I was a dissapointed after I listened to the leaked copy several months ago. But like Terrior Blues it takes a few spins and then it grows and grows, now I think it is the best thing I've heard in a long time. Its a challenging listen the first time out especially for hardened country rock types (me) but it really is beautiful. I've read many reviews and none are negative except pitchfork and they don't like anybody, especially Jay and Jeff. Its soon to be thought of as the great record of 2004, you'll see.
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