Welcome to Dissected, where we disassemble a band’s catalogue in the abstract. It’s exact science by way of a few beers.
Wilco loves us, baby. Sure, they’ve been through more crew changes than the cast of E.R., but the band has always had one guy there at the forefront. Every circle needs a center, and that center is Jeff Tweedy. He and his various bandmates have tackled everything from alt-country to Krautrock, surf pop to adult contemporary. There have been some ups and downs along the way, and we won’t shine over those bumps in the road during these proceedings. To paraphrase Bill Maher: Remember, Wilco isn’t your boyfriend.
Fortunately, the band’s good points far outweigh the bad, and here is certainly a celebration of their accomplishments over the past 15-plus years. So, in light of the release of their forthcoming eighth studio LP, The Whole Love, join us in breaking down the previous seven (And yes, we left out the Mermaid Avenue records; boy, you guys are too demanding).
-Justin Gerber
Senior Staff Writer
A.M. (1995)
The Line-Up: Drummer Ken Coomer, guitarist Brian Henneman, multi-instrumentalist Max Johnston, John Stirratt, Tweedy.
Remaining Members from Uncle Tupelo’s Final Line-Up: Everyone but Henneman.
Number of Tunes on the Album Solely Written By Jeff Tweedy Using An Improper Fraction: 12/13.
Music’s Resemblance to Uncle Tupelo via the Usage of Percentiles: 99%. This album is the very definition of alt-country: Electric guitar pop with a side of slide guitar, banjos, mandolin, violins, acoustic strumming and Tweedy at his twangiest.
Number of John Stirratt Country Ballads Using the English Language: One. “It’s Just That Simple”. Also the only song with Tweedy-less vocals.
The Most Underrated Song (Probably) in the Band’s Catalogue (Right?): “Dash 7” (arguably).
Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Dani California” is to Tom Petty’s “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” as: “Too Far Apart” is to Tom Petty’s “You Don’t Know How It Feels”.
Song with the Most Blatant Use of Cowbell: One. “Casino Queen” then forces alcohol down your throat at an alarming pace, causing you to blackout and wake up the following morning with someone you didn’t expect to sleep with only inches away from you. The sound of that confounded cowbell remains clanging in your mind for weeks after.
Album Title Ranking: #5.
Being There (1996)
Hello: Multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett and lap-steeler Bob Egan.
Goodbye: Henneman, though he was really just a glorified session player on A.M. (not to knock some solid solos on that debut record).
Number of Tunes on the Album Solely Written By Jeff Tweedy: 19/19.
The Moment Where Wilco Began to Transform: The clusterfuck of instruments erupting during the first 45 seconds of “Misunderstood”.
Number of Songs Preventing Being There from Being Great?: Five. A couple of these songs have a fascination with dreams, one wishes to be a Michael Clarke Duncan-portrayed villain, another offers hospitality in the state where Suns and Diamondbacks play, and one questions why you would want to continue existing.
Best Finish to a Song: Maybe the toughest entry here, but let’s go with the guitar picking at the end of “What’s the World Got in Store?” That’s some real-deal beauty right there.
Number of Entries in the Top Five Transitions of, Like, Ever: One. The “son of a…” line bridging “Monday” and “Outtasite (Outta Mind)”.
Album Title Ranking: #4.
Summerteeth (1999)
Hello: Multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach.
Goodbye: Egan and Max Johnston (along with the latter’s Dobro).
Number of Tunes on the Album Solely Written By Jeff Tweedy: 2/15.
Most Disturbing Moment: The end of “She’s a Jar” (“You know she begs me not to hit her”).
The Other Most Disturbing Moment: The beginning of “Via Chicago” (“I dreamed about killing you again last night and it felt alright to me”). Also the maddening moment where all the instruments collide shortly before the song ends.
That Part of the Album Where You Don’t Know if You’ll Ever Be Able to Stop Smiling: The beginning of “I’m Always in Love”, with that weird keyboard sound.
Unfairly Maligned Track: “ELT”. That song also falls into the above category of “That Part of the Album Where You Don’t Know if You’ll Ever Be Able to Stop Smiling”.
Best Not-So-Secret Track: “Candyfloss”, with its aspirations to magically whisk the listener back to the mid-1960s, when free love reigned supreme along with Brian Wilson’s words and music.
The Song That Makes Me Sad and Reminds Me That Jay Bennett is No Longer With Us: “My Darling”. I go back to that scene in Sam Jones’s documentary, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, where Bennett sings the song solo after being kicked out of/leaving the band.
Album Title Ranking: #2.
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)
Hello: Drummer Glenn Kotche.
Goodbye: Coomer.
Number of Tunes on the Album Solely Written By Jeff Tweedy: 3/11.
“Kamera” Ranking: #2. It’s better than the version on the More Like the Moon EP, but not as good as the rock-out version found in I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.
Number of Bad Songs: Zero. Certain songs are better than others, but there isn’t a dud in the bunch.
“You’re So Misunderstood” Line: I always thought the final line in “Poor Places” was “I’m not bored, I’m psyched”, when it’s actually, “I’m not going outside.” Man, I overanalyze everything.
“Oh, Yeah. He’s Right About That” Moment: “Distance has no way of making love understandable.” – “Radio Cures”
Why This is Wilco’s Finest Album: As strong as the production is on the record, you can strip it down to guitars, bass, and drums and find the tunes are still there. You can dress up shit with the greatest producers, mixers, and engineers on earth, but it’s still shit. This is the album where the band was firing on every available cylinder, even if it cost them a member.
Album Title Ranking: #1.
A Ghost Is Born (2004)
Hello: Keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen.
Goodbye: Bennett.
Number of Tunes on the Album Solely Written By Jeff Tweedy: 8/12.
Moment You Realize Everything Will Be Okay Without Jay Bennett: Tweedy’s electric finale found within the walls of “At Least That’s What You Said”. The guitar work is totes nutso.
The Rock Song: “Once in Germany someone said, ‘Nein!’” – “I’m a Wheel”. Seek out a B-side track from the album, “Kicking Television”, for more rock goodness.
Best Lyrics: “Open your arms/As far as they will go/We take off your dress/An embarrassing poem/Was written when I was alone/In love with you” – “Wishful Thinking”
Excess Rules!: The umpteen minutes of guitar wizardry and thudding rhythms during “Spiders (Kidsmoke)”. Few bands can knock out a song this lengthy and loud and place it on a record with something as serene as “Wishful Thinking”. They had already burned the bridge to bearing a strict allegiance with the alt-country brand prior to this record, but with A Ghost is Born they managed to create a brand-new genre: “Wilco”.
Excess Sucks…: The umpteen minutes of reverb at the end of “Less Than You Think”. Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Buzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Album Title Ranking: #3.
Sky Blue Sky (2007)
Hello: Guitarist Nels Cline and multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone.
Goodbye: Bach.
Number of Tunes on the Album Solely Written By Jeff Tweedy: 6/12.
Hello Again, Nels Cline: The quiet guitar solo midway through “Impossible Germany”, followed by the guitar interplay with Tweedy for that same song’s conclusion. People can say what they will about the rest of the album, but this is a Top 10 Wilco song.
Song That Most Resembles “Far Far Away”: “Sky Blue Sky”.
Song Most Likely to Make Fans of Wilco Angry: “Shake it Off”. Or “Hate It Here”. Or a slew of others.
Most Accurate Song Title in the Wilco Canon: “On and On and On”.
Why So Harsh?: It just falls in on itself after “Impossible Germany”. The album has its defenders, but it just lies down after track three. It’s not a matter of “they’ve done better”; it’s a case of “they can do much, much better.” Fortunately, things would get better by the next record, and much better with their most recent release (And no, I don’t like “Walken”). For more uses of the word “better”, seek out The Who’s “You Better You Bet”.
Album Title Ranking: #6.
Wilco (The Album) (2009)
Hello: Everybody! For the first time ever, the same line-up is in place.
Goodbye: Nonesuch Records – well, after this one.
Number of Tunes on the Album Solely Written By Jeff Tweedy: 10/11.
Duet Alert: Feist on the uber-pleasant “You and I”. It’s the album’s unabashed love song and a fine one at that. It gets a lot of grief, but not from this ol’ softy.
Best Use of Tweedy Shouting Since “Misunderstood”/Best Sequel to “Via Chicago”: “Bull Black Nova”. Wilco’s most menacing track, with its cries of “Pick up!” haunting each listener long after the disc’s stopped spinning.
Song That Most Resembles “On and On and On”: “I’ll Fight”. Dammit.
Song That Most Resembles The Song Played in That Scene from Teen Wolf Where Scott Howard Plays Basketball as the Wolf for the First Time: “Sonny Feeling”. I wrote it in my original review of the record years ago, but it bears repeating. Seriously. Listen to the song on the album, then click on this link for comparison.
Number of Blatant Beatles Rip-Offs: None!
Number of Blatant George Harrison Rip-Offs: One. Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” is all over “You Never Know”.
First You Harp on Sky Blue Sky, Now This? What’s the Deal, Brah?: I still recommend the record to fans of the band; just expect to lean towards the front half for most of the good tunes. And Wilco loves you, baby.
Album Title Ranking: #7.
