When You Wake Up Feeling POLL - ILM Artist Poll #115 - WILCO/JEFF TWEEDY (Voting extended until Sunday, Sept 25)

Bennett was clearly just one of those catalysts that made everything and everybody in that band better. Post-Bennett (and pills) Wilco has always been solid, and stable, but for all their various high points I'd be lying if I said I liked any of it nearly as much as that streak of "Being There," Mermaid avenues, "Summerteeth" and "YHF." Imo Wilco actually got weirder and more adventurous post Bennett, but somehow, counterintuitively, less interesting, too.

ghost is born and sky blue sky are as good as any of those records

I like the latter (post-pills), and some of the former (peak-pills) a lot, but I feel like it was the afterglow carrying them forward.

i don't think this is a popular opinion, but i think that nels cline bores me. i realize he is one of the greatest guitar players of all time, has perfect taste and tone and always adds just the right element for the song, all of that. but i keep trying to dig into the cline-era albums and i hit a wall, every time. maybe i'm blaming too much on cline

i think i really like it when i think there's the potential for a band to mess up

I've honestly never liked Nels Cline in any context. Him, Jeff Parker and Reeves Gabrels are three guitar nerd faves that just do nothing for me.

jeff parker rules! i haven't heard gabrels, i don't think. but yeah, in the same way that i read you saying jeff parker does nothing for you and i immediately think "oh no, that's just wrong. jeff parker is wonderful", i'm sure a nels cline diss also just pisses people off, haha

I like a few Parker records, but he's generally not what I like best about them.

xxpost I totally agree with that, which is sort of the confirmation bias/crux of the Bennett situation. Was he the x-factor, or was it him *plus* the fact that they were less perfectionist/more prone to mess up/more "rock and roll"/more messed up themselves? I've seen Wilco a million times, but the best were with Bennett (and shortly afterwards) when the band was loose and ragged and fun and (later) totally intense and fucked up, like they were on the YHF tour. Ghost tour was the last with Leroy Bach and the first with Cline, iirc, and that's when the dynamic really changed, imo.

Looking at that Leno clip, it strikes me as a good trick (if indeed intentional) to name the song the label forced you to write "I Can't Stand It", so that when performed live the bile and resentment can really be amped up.

A la those earlier performances of "Misunderstood," which ended with Tweedy shouting "I'd like to thank you all for NOTHING!!!!" over and over again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_HBJ5sHcJU

should have been followed by a quiet "thank you all for comin out today"

Must be great to have such a vehicle for catharsis. He still spits out those nothings, but it's nowhere near as venomous.

I'd absolutely include Ghost in the golden run from Summerteeth. I think everything culminates with Kicking Television, where Cline is eyewateringly good in places (the extended Ashes of American Flags as exhibit A). I like the post KT stuff, but agree it's steady rather than transcendent.

I tried Sky Blue Sky again multiple times and it still doesn't sound that interesting or engaging apart from a handful of tracks. I actually bought a copy so I'll probably keep trying. It seems to be more appreciated now than it ever was before, so hopefully I'll come around to it as well. (Great album cover regardless, right up there with the one for YHF.)

I bought the Capitol Theater box set back when there was a flash sale (basically the whole run of 2014 shows at that venue). I haven't dived into it yet, but those were supposed to be great shows. I think the whole thing may still be streamable on nugs.

lots of great stuff on sky blue sky - "either way", "you are my face", "impossible germany" of course, "side with the seeds", "on and on and on"... it's all about the vibes and the cool guitar parts. sometimes it's a bit too classic rock bluesy i guess? that doesn't quite capture what's not to my taste about "shake it off" etc. but that's not a huge complaint. and some songs are a little unassuming but it's still very solid, i'd definitely consider it the last of their classic period from being there onward.

wilco (the album) was their first inessential album since a.m., the first time they just coasted - it's not bad or anything but not particularly strong either. only "one wing" and "bull black nova" really stand out to me and even then idk that either is really up with their best

i could see people disliking “hate it here” for its overt beatles cosplay, but he nails the let it be era pretty well on that imo

I love that they launched Sky Blue Sky with a series of Volkswagen ads

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

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

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

gotta say I love Cline for the same reason I love Hendrix, despite hating the "guitar hero" concept - like e.g. Charlie Parker, the technique is always in service to the melodic expression. That "Impossible Germany" solo is absolutely a poem, including the bruised and fried sound of the Jazzmaster and whatever preamp is overloading.

on my provisional ballot, A Ghost is Born has the most individual tracks, so far. i did not expect that at all, going in for the catalog relisten

xp i love "impossible germany" as well, and i am well prepared to eat my words on his contributions to the band. there are no stakes for me, so sometimes i revel in just being completely wrong but honest about how i hear something at first

see also: "Either Way", "Bull Black Nova"
I forgot how good Star Wars is, but I have totally disregarded The Whole Love since it came out.

the whole love has the two incredible career-high bookends and then the rest is just fine

i get why people thought sky blue sky was an uncool, regressive move at the time but it's really really good at what it does even if i don't really care for the most let it be-cosplay moments

The Whole Love is fighting for my 5th spot.

I'd like to thank the 3 people who have voted thus far. Interesting to have the insider view of what's placing, as there are more than a couple tracks that I don't recognize and will have to look up, and I know the band very well aside from the last 2 or so albums. Would it be helpful or a spoiler to provide a list of all tracks that have been voted for at some point? Perhaps after I've received 5 or 7 ballots? Almost like a nominations list without having to do nominations?

Just discovered and am catching up on this thread. I would vote against tipping your hand on voted for tracks, I'll be more excited to be surprised.

I am also compelled to call out

"can't stand it" which is pretty average

as blasphemy. aiui from wikipedia, the band did not write the song at the label's behest, simply remixed it. but if that's true it's weird that there's no other version on the deluxe edition, just a short track of them working out the guitar riff. Whatever the case, though, the song is a jam and will be fighting for space on my ballot.

here's the excerpt from tweedy's autobiography where he describes how "can't stand it happen" came about.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/nov/25/jeff-tweedy-on-songwriting-the-hardest-part-is-getting-started

that doesn't go into it but after they recorded "can't stand it" the label then asked to remix it to improve its hit potential, as described in the wiki article. both parts of the story are included in greg kot's wilco book which the wiki article cites.

"can't stand it" is just fine, it's nothing special, average. not at all bad but not close to a standout or anything

got it, that makes sense. still agree to disagree on its averageness... that riff opening the album, one of the earlier examples of tearing-his-hair-out-in-exasperation tweedy vox... i find the energy infectious. now that i think about it though, every other wilco album from the classic period (being there > sky blue sky) has a murkier, slow build start... there's an alternate universe where that album opens with "she's a jar"

ode to joy is still a weird album that doesn't do much for me, they clearly spent a bunch of time fiddling around in the studio so each track has a really lovely, detailed atmosphere but the songs aren't there at all. they're clearly onto something with the general approach to the arrangements, i just wish tweedy had brought better songs to the table. makes for a contrast with cruel country which is in a fairly similar place in terms of atmosphere (despite not being a studio creation in the same way), but has generally stronger songs & is just a really pleasant listen the whole way through despite rarely being up with their best work (only really "bird without a tail / base of my skull")

I have 2 or 3 songs picked out from every album post-AGIB, but also at least 40 just thru AGIB that deserve to rank.

Upon reflection, my rankings:

Fun Wilco > Wistful Wilco >> Wonky Wilco >>> Morose Wilco >> Detached Wilco

Struggling with “Red Eyed and Blue” > “I Got You (At the End of the Century).” I think of them as a suite on the album, and I am pretty sure that they’ve played them back to back the couple of times that I’ve seen them played live. Together I think of that duo as a high point of Being There, but if taken individually both songs are a little slight to rank highly….

I've made a list of 46 tracks. Two big areas to explore (or re-explore, in a new context): everything post-Sky Blue Sky and the Tupelo/Golden Smog stuff that fits the thread remit. On that last point, with time pretty tight, does anyone care to stan for any Tweedy-led Tupelo/Golden Smog stuff I should know about?

Uncle Tupelo in order of likelihood to make my ballot:
- New Madrid
- Acuff-Rose
- No Sense in Lovin
- Black Eye
- Wait Up
- The Long Cut
- Warfare

Loose Fur in order of likelihood to make my ballot:
- The Ruling Class
- Laminated Cat

We have just four ballots and only seven days to vote! If people need more time, let me know. Know it's a big catalog.

Whoops, realized you said Golden Smog not Loose Fur. Here are my picks for them, though I need to revisit those records myself:

Radio King
Pecan Pie
Please Tell My Brother
Lost Love
Long Time Ago

Thanks Indexed. I'll have a ballot with you by this time next week.

Fatal Wound will be fairly high on my ballot, I think.

(By Uncle Tupelo)

rt

all right i am def gonna try to submit a ballot, so i’m listening to cruel country for the first time rn. imo: whoa

also whenever i listen to early uncle tupelo i think maybe "country-fried replacements" is as good as punk music can get

I’m also putting in a ballot sometime today. I don’t like mine and it’s ok if you want to lose it — it will steer the results toward things everyone knows

wait fuck the deadline is this weekend?

If any of you are like “is Kamera too obvious?”, I don’t know, but it’s definitely on my ballot

I tried Cruel Country again this weekend. A lot of it is a total snooze fest, iibh. And I really liked Ode to Joy! Just could not with "The Empty Condor" or any number of other shapeless acoustic trifles. Reminds me of Sukierae, a similarly bloated album of tune after tune that I can't much discern from the last.

It has its moments: "Many Worlds," which morphs from a slow (very much the operative word for a lot of this album) piano ballad into a pretty rippin' country rock jam on the backs of Nels and Glenn; "A Lifetime to Find" has some life to it; "I am My Mother" and "Country Song Upside-Down" are greatly aided by their relative concision.

oh i thought cruel country was extremely tuneful and the arrangements were super cool, whereas i'm not sure if ode to joy ever snapped together for me

maybe at least we can all agree with some distance that schmilco is incredibly dope and not boring, it's like it restrains itself so much it gets gnarled inside (aka it's star wars inside out)

god the second half of "quarters" is like a miniature "small hours"

i'm taking a real bifurcated path through the catalog, veering between tupelo and late wilco, and omg i forgot how much i love "watch me fall." "watch me fall"!!!!

i listened to still feel gone a lot more in college than i thought i did