Wilco - Cruel Country

xpost Star Wars is the most overlooked album of their catalog, no question

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.

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 ;)

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)

“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.

^ 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"

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

i feel the songwriting on this one is tweedy's strongest in a long time, that's the big surprise

Love this album. Nice to hear Jeff breaking out of his more recent whispering phase

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

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

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

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.