Wilco - Sky Blue Sky

zomg

seeing wilco live some months ago was the best show ive seen last year i think.

Daniel, have you seen the ACL performance of IG or heard the live version on the Sky Blue Sky Bonus EP? Nels shines on both of them (as usual).

Live version on the DVD that came with the deluxe version of Sky Blue Sky. Not sure if that answers your question. But yeah, Nels Cline is a monster on the DVD version.

"Impossible Germany" is one of my favorite songs of the year Then again, despite the fact that Wilco is far from my favorite band.

Here's the version of 'Impossible Germany' I saw. So so so so good.

Nels Cline is so fucking ace on this record.

it's year in review time so i have been listening only to 2007 albums. this album has shot into my Top 5, outstanding!

On & On & On is also one of my favorite songs of the year. Those guitars! That keyboard sound! Tweedy's vocals! Incredible.

jaymc otm

*old person voice* this is the best wilco album and it's not close

"walken" is the best wings song i've ever heard

agree with you here, brad. this album is on another level.

I need to try this again. I remember liking most of it well enough but there was some song in the middle that I hated so much it retroactively made the songs before it suck.

another Sky Blue Sky fanatic over here. it is my fav of theirs though i always have to stop and think about it when i look at the Summerteeth tracklist and just see one killer song after another. The clean yet full production on Sky though is some sort of platonic ideal for me

You Are My Face is probably my favorite Wilco song.

Have they ever been polled?

another Sky Blue Sky fanatic over here. it is my fav of theirs though i always have to stop and think about it when i look at the Summerteeth tracklist and just see one killer song after another. The clean yet full production on Sky though is some sort of platonic ideal for me

― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Thursday, January 27, 2022 9:18 PM (fifty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

summerteeth would prob be no. 2 for me, just too many jams

Don't know where I would rank it, but Sky Blue Sky is the last Wilco album with more than one track I can recognize by name.

Josh, have you checked out the Whole Love? not as consistent but has some great ones. If you like noisy angsty YHF/Ghost era Wilco, the opening track Art of Almost is a welcome return, followed by a banger in I Might. The ballads are not as memorable as on the previous few albums, but I swoon big time for the title track

Oh, I have heard them all, except for maybe the last two, or at least the acoustic one? Anyway, they're always great when I'm listening to them, or when the songs are being played live. I just can't remember any of the songs after.

I need to try this again. I remember liking most of it well enough but there was some song in the middle that I hated so much it retroactively made the songs before it suck.

― Cow_Art, Thursday, January 27, 2022 8:12 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

couldn't Shake If Off, eh?

xxp I agree, The Whole Love is a better album than Sky Blue Sky, which is a bit too conservative for my tastes. Having said that, the last studio album I still listen to in its entirety is A Ghost Is Born, and even then that has a few tweaks (edited down the noise on "Less Than You Think" to about 15 seconds rather than 12 minutes, added "Panthers" after the opening track, added "Kicking Television" after "Less Than You Think"). I still have Being There through A Ghost Is Born, but I condensed the rest of their catalog into a compilation I made for myself.

I do wish "The Thanks I Get" had made it on to Sky Blue Sky. That leads off the compilation I made for myself.

I’ll have to revisit this album at some point. It’s hardly unlistenable but at the time it was where I got off the Wilco train, returning around Star Wars.

conservative my ass

nothing conservative about the dope ass playing on this record

i also find the directness of this record absolutely disarming and daring

LOL, well, compared to the what I liked before, and not politically, musically. (Except for "Impossible Germany," that was definitely a keeper.)

(Brad got what I meant, I just added "politically" in case there was any confusion for anyone else)

agreed with the sentiment that the whole love was their last truly great lp. it's not necessary, but try smoking a blunt to "art of almost" and it will likely open up a new dimension for you. "one sunday morning" also a good suggestion for the 'last songs' thread.

i need to properly revisit the extra material from the sky blue sky era.

'Shake It Off' and 'I'm a Wheel' (the middle stinker on Ghost) feature chromatic melodies that seem to highlight the "unacceptable dad rockness" of Wilco. It's something you don't want in your head while trying to enjoy Wilco. They lyrics are also a bit meta about it, which somehow makes the effect worse.

xxxxxxxp I like Star Wars too, that was more in spirit of the Wilco I prefer, but what I love most about Wilco had both the adventurousness and the songcraft, and a large part of Star Wars seemed a bit lacking in the latter.

xxp "One Sunday Morning" is amazing. It's a low-key song, not a jam or improvisation, and it goes on for so long. It has ONE real hook, a very simple and modest melody, and yet it's more than enough to carry the whole thing. It's really impressive the more I think about it.

Remember the tie-in campaign they had with Volkswagen for this record?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4XxEQwHYUY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-MQuf1Prz8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hkPuIkeZCQ

Love the salesman just giving up and rocking out to WILCO in the last ad.

I love Star Wars & Schmilco so much (I'm listening to the latter right now); but I just can't with most anything else by this band (and I have tried it all). Don't know what it is about those two albums - apparently they were recorded at the same time? - but the songwriting & performance/approach sure seem different from the rest of their catalog..

That's so interesting, nothing they have done since Whole Love has clicked with me. I've given each one a listen or two and found them enjoyable but forgettable. tbh I can't wrap my head around that morrisp. But I think it has more to do with me than the music.

I didn't like the last two albums, but they had some good cuts like "If Ever Was a Child," "Cry All Day," "Someone to Lose," "Love Is Everywhere," "Everyone Hides" and "Hold Me Anyway."

Star Wars is up there with their classic run imo, but Schmilco baffles me. I appreciate its relative oddness to most of their more recent fare, but it appears Stars Wars took all the tunes

Omg, the tunes on Schmilco are so good!

Have you given the Loose Fur albums a spin? Might have some of the qualities you’re enjoying in SW and Schmilco

I actually have! (I have them both). I like a few the songs OK, but the vibe as a whole... (I don't think I gel w/Jim O'Rourke too much).

^missed an "of" and a "not" (you decide where)

this is still my favorite album by Wilco and i thought i was the only one who thought that. glad to see Brad and others agree with me. everyone kept saying Ghost was their favorite but to me that album has too many plus ten minute songs on it. i have almost polled this album many times over the years but have put it off, if it doesn't get picked up i will do it this year, not now as we have a pretty big two weeks coming up on ILM.

a poll of this album would be rad and challenging as hell for me. i know most folks look to "impossible germany" as the standout, but man . . . i don't know.

ghost is born has some absolutely amazing songs on it and was my favorite for a long time. getting divorced and falling in love anew was what made me a blue sky convert.

but yeah, some of the long stuff on ghost is a bit silly. i liked "spiders" at the time and wouldn't mind if it popped up on a shuffle or playlist, but it is kind of meh.

Oh god Spiders is the best best best thing they ever did. And even then I remember playing the album version the first time it leaked and going 'what they fuck is going on' after hearing how they had played it before

I revisited Ghost for the first time in a few years and was startled by how … antiseptic it felt

(For the most part anyway)

so precise, and tiring?

"spiders" is one of the best tracks on a ghost is born. the drone on "less than you think" which is the only other long track is indeed self-indulgent nonsense though

i am boring and still think yhf and then summerteeth are their best. they're much more colourful records, losing bennett really seemed hurt their arrangements & having both him & o'rourke around on yhf went a long way to making it what it is.

just revisited sbs and my opinion on it hasn't really changed, the general mood & playing are lovely but around half of the songs are just sort of there, they don't all grab me in the way their best work does. still, the good stuff here is very very good