oh you guys liked it. lol
― imago, Friday, 27 May 2022 11:17 (one year ago) link
ok there's the big obvious epic closing track riding its clichéd chord sequence off into some limp echo of past glories
wait there's 9 tracks left
there's some nice stuff in here when it's not being too obvious, but this has NOT earnt its length!
― imago, Friday, 27 May 2022 11:29 (one year ago) link
i doubt it'll be on my end of year list or anything but i enjoyed it a fair bit more than i expected to & if you cut it down a bit i expect it'd hold up pretty well
― ufo, Friday, 27 May 2022 11:32 (one year ago) link
yeah, I'm going to have to admit through very slightly gritted teeth that it shows the scale of Big Thief's achievement that their new album basically can't be carved apart like that
looking fwd to all your reduxes of this obv
― imago, Friday, 27 May 2022 11:37 (one year ago) link
it's weird tho, something like A Lifetime To Find is pretty straightforward but it weirdly works, I cannot explain the mysteries of Country
― imago, Friday, 27 May 2022 11:44 (one year ago) link
last five tracks of the album is probably the best bit
― imago, Friday, 27 May 2022 11:55 (one year ago) link
xpost Star Wars is the most overlooked album of their catalog, no questiona really good record lost in a sea of mid- (or late-) career mediocrity― alpine static, Friday, May 27, 2022 4:01 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
a really good record lost in a sea of mid- (or late-) career mediocrity
― alpine static, Friday, May 27, 2022 4:01 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
Funny, I'd say the same about The Whole Love. Closest they've come to another Summerteeth.
― Indexed, Friday, 27 May 2022 13:43 (one year ago) link
I'd say TWL isn't a low-key album of theirs - it's not far off A Ghost Is Born in popular perception and as an 'event' album. Plus it has songs where stuff happens ;)
― imago, Friday, 27 May 2022 14:07 (one year ago) link
Agree that The Whole Love is musically a lot more similar to Ghost than to Summerteeth. But I don't think it's an event album or particularly remembered any more than their other stuff from the past 15 years. (It is by me, though - one of my faves)
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Friday, 27 May 2022 17:13 (one year ago) link
“Better than Ode to Joy” is a pretty low bar but so far that’s where I’m at. I think the “return to country” narrative is a little overblown other than a pedal steel here and there. I mean, it’s a Wilco album and it’s not too far removed from Ode to Joy or Schmilco.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Friday, 27 May 2022 21:46 (one year ago) link
^ correct on all counts
catching up:- i like "bird w/o a tail" too ... and the final 5 tracks- big epic closer w/ 9 tracks still to go = "Many Worlds" ... i thought that one was kinda embarrassingly bad, especially the first half- they should try to make a whole album of "A Lifetime to Find" ... which sounds like "the band that made A.M. but is now washed"
― alpine static, Friday, 27 May 2022 22:04 (one year ago) link
the whole love wasn't included in my count of low-key recent wilco albums, only star wars/schmilco/ode to joy. star wars is obviously not mellow like the other two and better for it but it's still pretty low stakes
i think this one's probably better than the whole love though, i only really love the bookends on that (which are career highlights and better than anything here) but the rest doesn't move me much
― ufo, Saturday, 28 May 2022 00:03 (one year ago) link
i feel the songwriting on this one is tweedy's strongest in a long time, that's the big surprise
― ufo, Saturday, 28 May 2022 00:13 (one year ago) link
Love this album. Nice to hear Jeff breaking out of his more recent whispering phase
― PaulTMA, Sunday, 29 May 2022 14:36 (one year ago) link
The Whole Love has some decent material but the slow 'acoustic' numbers are virtually impossible to remember and the superior powerpop songs are fine but reek of diet-Summerteeth
― PaulTMA, Monday, 30 May 2022 01:24 (one year ago) link
Just returned from Solid Sound. I must say that while I had been enjoying Cruel Country, the songs hadn’t struck me as especially indelible. However, seeing them live really made them pop, with distinct and more memorable character instead of kind of a monochrome midtempo dad rock blend. And Bird Without a Tail was an absolute rager, of the Spiders/Impossible Germany tier. I was there with my kids so didn’t get to see quite as much music as I would’ve liked, but two other highlights:- Sun Ra Arkestra’s Marshall Allen presented with a 98th birthday cake in the midst of a raging set- Nels Cline taking an unbelievably raging solo during Japanese Breakfast’s Posing for Cars
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Monday, 30 May 2022 14:57 (one year ago) link
the songs hadn’t struck me as especially indelible
This. Lazy Tweedy on this. If they end up sounding better live, that's even more reason to think he rushed this out too soon
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 2 June 2022 13:10 (one year ago) link
I haven't heard this yet, but that strikes me as a weird assumption. I'd say at least 60% of Wilco's stuff comes more alive on stage.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 2 June 2022 17:37 (one year ago) link