Wilco — Schmilco (2016)

ha yeah, you can give up on wilco. it's ok! i think those (and their contributions to that guthrie project) are their best. aside from wilco (the band) i think i've found things to like on all of the subsequent records.

Summerteeth thru AGIB is my favorite run. SBS was so disappointing at the time, but sounds a lot better now considering what came after...

SBS seemed kinda purposely low-ambition at the time, which made it seem a little less interesting, but i think there are plenty of good songs/performances there ... i mean, i think the problem with the current lineup is that they're kind of capable of doing *anything* in the rock realm, and it feels like the vibe gets spread a little thin because of it. if that makes sense.

AGIB thru to wilco the album is the boring stuff. everything else is great

xp yes, i think that's totally otm. i appreciate SBS now because it's very focused in a particular mode, just like AGIB. i wish they would go full bore again, whatever the direction.

I think Being There is getting totally underrated now IMO it's as good as YHF and AGIB easily

AM is super charming but it's clearly a lot of songs he probably had cooking in the last days of Tupelo and saved them, kinda like Grant Hart's first solo jawn

yeah i love being there for the most part, though i always get a kinda classic rock cosplay vibe from it. but they pull it off for the most part.

The Whole Love's opener and closer might be their two best songs IMO

I've found something to like on every album, but Being There (bolstered by the shows they played around that time) is probably still my fave, followed by Summerteeth and YHF (whose tour is one of the most memorable by anyone I've ever seen, so weird and intense, a combination of those grey area days before the album came out yet when everyone knew the words and was singing along anyway; when Jeff was clearly in a bad place; and later post 9/11, when everyone was in a bad place). They're part of the air here, so I don't put the albums on that often.

Still don't really like much of AGIB, I think, but SBS is a great suddenly sober album. "Bull Black Nova" is the most slept on epic of the post SBS era.

I saw Glenn at the Bristol Renaissance Faire a few weeks ago.

They were superb when I saw them play Dublin a couple of months ago. great band, they got everything. a bit weird and psychy, a bit country, a bit pop

wilco has been garbage ever since jay bennett was fired

Summerteeth is such an amazingly textured album, with real happy high points and real unhappy low ones, I really don't think they'll ever top it. Everything since has just been ok

Summerteeth is my favorite too. I like YHF, especially zeroing in a few particular songs, but I've never truly connected with the record as a whole. I bristle whenever that album gets held up as The Masterpiece of their discography.

Lol imagine being the kind of person who buys a record called schmilco

imagine
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51SiMuZFNmL.jpg

Schmi'm a schmuccessful schmusician

doesn't matter what kinds of records they put out they're a BEAST live

yeah just saw them and they were really great

i have also fallen out of love with Wilco because of their last few albums. i will give this one a try though.

Got this in the mail today and giving it listen #1 as I type. It's a really mellow album and I think my initial impressions of it voiced upthread were, generally speaking, fairly accurate. Right off, because of its quieter atmosphere, I'm reminded of Sky Blue Sky, but without the bells and whistles.

Sky Blue Sky without the bells and whistles? :O

Yeah, there's not really any keyboards on Schmilco and certainly no Jim O'Rourke string arrangements.

After a few more listens, I am totally into this album.

not really feeling this too much but I'd take it over the blandness of the W(TA) era any day. Star Wars was excellent

weirdly obsessed with this record. the other side of the stars wars coin, a more muted palette as a stage for achieving the bizarre and perverse mood that carries across both

predictably i now think wilco never fell off, and the only records that tread water are a.m. and wilco

"common sense" is truly from hell

a song that could score being devoured by locusts

my mother says i'm great
and it always makes me sad
i don't think she's being nice
i really think she believes that

have you read his book, Brad? it's good ... but i am a big fan, not just of his music, but of Jeff in general.

lots of good stuff in there about his parents and his relationships with them.

i haven't! might have to

It’s Schmilco tiiiiiiime