Jeff Tweedy – Twilight Override – Album Review

 Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

Wilco – Hot Sun Cool Shroud EP – Review

 Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

Wilco – Cousin – Album Review

 Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

Wilco – 3Olympia – Live Review

 Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

Albums of the Year – KL

 Article for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

Wilco – Cruel Country – Album Review

 Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

Jeff Tweedy – Love Is The King – Album Review

 Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

Wilco – Ode to Joy – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2019/10/10/wilco-ode-to-joy-album-review/

Jeff Tweedy – Warm – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/12/04/jeff-tweedy-warm-album-review/?fbclid=IwAR0usytxVrb7XIj5A73_aijCxCdRYeWbZtMGVpx30uu0C5RfYDfesSEcUOc

Wilco - The Whole Love

The Whole Love, released in 2011, saw Wilco return to some of the experimentation that marked 2004's A Ghost is Born.  Never more so than on opening track Art of Almost which sees them go full on Radiohead, complete with glitchy percussion and electronic bleeps.  It's actually really good, though there is a LOT going on.  The track builds gradually to a thrilling, rocky outtro.  

The rest of the album doesn't quite live up to the opener, though it's generally pretty good.  Tracks like I Might, Dawned On Me and the title track are the type of thing Wilco can pull off with minimal effort, a kind of midpaced, rootsy classic rock.  The last of these combines growling guitars with whistling of all things.

There are a couple of moody acoustic tracks such as Black Moon which starts out with a bare picked guitar before being joined by a subtle string part that avoids overpowering the song.  Later Rising Red Lung combines a simple acoustic figure with a bit of pedal steel to great effect. 

Elsewhere?  Born Alone is a pleasant strumalong track with a biting electric lead after the chorus, before a Revolver-style outtro.  The Beatles are never far away on the likes of the pleasant drift on Sunloathe or jaunty Capitol City.

There are tracks where little happens such as the simple, vaguely country Open Mind, yet these deliver just enough to keep you returning.  

They save the best for last with the 12 minute One Sunday Morning.  It's difficult to explain what makes this one so good.  On paper it's a simple guitar and piano tune which doesn't vary much for its twelve minute duration, merely adding a few musical touches here and there, percussion, bells etc.  But try listening to this on a cold, sunny drive, it perfectly encapsulates that feeling of being at peace.  And it feels far shorter than 12 minutes. 

Wilco (the album)

Wilco released their self-titled album in 2009, just 14 years after the debut.  It starts with an actual song called Wilco, something of a throwaway chug.  Tracks like Deeper Down, Country Disappeared and I'll Fight have a strong production, giving it them slightly easy-listening feel.  The Leslie Feist duet You and I, and You Never Know are poppy, Beatles style numbers but aren't that memorable.  The driving, progressive One Wing is an improvement, still quite catchy but less... predictable.  Bull Black Nova is a sop to fans of their Jim O'Rourke period.  Built around a repeating one-note keyboard pattern, adding guitar, bass and drums where they see fit, again it's melodic but not as 'safe' as the rest of the album, getting noisier as it builds.  On the other extreme, Solitaire is like an acoustic version of the sadder end of the Beach Boys, which is a lot better than that sounds, all whispered, breathy vocals and deftly picked acoustic guitar.  The album finishes with Everlasting Everything, a kind of John Lennon-y piano ballad with a bit of drama thrown into the chorus with a clanging chime rounding it off.  

So most likely Wilco's pop album then.  But certainly, not their best.

Wilco - Sky Blue Sky

Wilco released this 'back-to-basics' album in 2007.  They had completely left behind the avant-garde feel of A Ghost Is Born.  In its place are soft-rock guitar stylings, exemplified by the lush, if a little bland opener Either Way.  You Are My Face throws in a bit of heavy guitar halfway through, as if the band are saying 'hey we can still rock'.  But mainly the default setting is 'amiable country shuffle' mode, and the album delivers this in spades on tracks like the aforementioned Either Way, and the title track.

Elsewhere, Side with the Seeds and Shake It Off allow the band to stretch out a bit with Nels Cline and Jeff Tweedy's guitars duelling.  The more hushed likes of Please Be Patient With Me also impresses with its wonderfully subtle playing, Hate It Here successfully channels late 60s Beatles, and What Light even evokes early Dylan.  At times all this bonhomie gets a bit much, Walken is a bit perky for its own good.

The standout track is Impossible Germany which opens with intricate, Television-like guitars, before unleashing epic guitar soloing courtesy of Cline.  It's a highlight, not just of the album but of Wilco's entire career.

All in all, those who enjoyed A Ghost Is Born might feel this is the sound of Wilco treading water.  They'll be listening out for the 'twist', and when it doesn't arrive (which it doesn't) that might feel like the biggest twist of the lot.  Songs go in unexpected directions, sure, but there are no noise freakouts to contend with.  Which makes it an album fairly easy to listen to, without being dull.

Loose Fur - Born Again In The USA

The second album from Jeff Tweedy and Jim O'Rourke's Loose Fur side-project was released in 2006.  If anything, it's less cohesive than the debut.  Instead of going for a purely immersive effect, they've decided that rocking out might be worth a try.  Hey Chicken swaggers in on Stones-y rock riffs, and rocks out for a solid three minutes before checking out.  The Ruling Class follows, all country strumming and good-natured whistling.  Stupid as the Sun is a kind of boppy rock song, sung by O'Rourke, it's not unpleasant but a bit forgettable.  The clattering Apostolic and Pretty Sparks are less pleasant, you could live without them.  Thou Shalt Wilt and Wanted are easy enough to listen to, if a little anonymous.

For those who enjoyed the first Loose Fur album they are best directed to the more introspective tracks here.  Answers To Your Questions sounds more like a Jim O'Rourke track than anything else here.  A gentle ballad sung by O'Rourke, it's a quiet beauty with a fine touch of steel guitar.  The instrumental An Ecumenical Matter, has gorgeous summery guitar licks and nice bit of piano.  At eight and a half minutes, Wreckroom is the longest track here, and its ebb and flow would not have been out of place on Wilco's A Ghost Is Born album, with fine guitar work ranging from lazy licks to full-on pounding riffs.  The last four minutes of the track or mainly a muted, piano coda with a hint of percussion.

So a fairly mixed, and mixed-up album, one that doesn't hang together particularly well but has its moments.

Jeff Tweedy - Together At Last - Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2017/07/03/jeff-tweedy-together-at-last-album-review/

Loose Fur - Loose Fur

Loose Fur was a project featuring Jeff Tweedy and Glenn Kotche from Wilco along with Jim O'Rourke.  They released their first album in 2003, which is fairly much as you might expect, six longish songs with Tweedy and O'Rourke sharing vocal duties.  Many of these songs, such as Laminated Cat are a little on the repetitive side, with a rolling guitar groove that repeats itself ad nauseam without really going anywhere.  The O'Rourke-sung songs such as Elegant Transaction are brighter and more enjoyable in a kind of meditative way.  So Long is odd, in a good way, in that it's reminiscent of the more stripped down and tripped out moments of Queens of the Stone Age.  You Were Young sounds like Wilco flecked with Sonic Youth and is therefore the song that suits Jeff Tweedy the most - it's the one track here that would work on a Wilco album.  The instrumental that follows, Liquidation Totale is pure Jim O'Rourke, while Chinese Apple sounds like what it is: Tweedy singing an acoustic Jim O'Rourke song.  There's lots of guitar noodling on show here so if you tolerate this, there's much to enjoy here.

Wilco - A Ghost Is Born

Wilco's fifth album came out in 2004, and was instantly pegged as their 'experimental' album.  This it definitely is.  But it's also enjoyable to listen to, more so than its predecessor Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.  It opens quietly with At Least That's What You Said, initially with just piano and Jeff Tweedy's voice, before he unleashes Neil Young-style guitar licks after a couple of minutes.  And what towering guitar licks they are, on an album where Tweedy's guitar playing really comes to the fore.  It's followed by a change of tack with the understated piano soft-rock of Hell Is Chrome, before shifting again with ten minute epic Spiders.  With a pulsing beat and repetitive keyboard motif, it sounds a long way from what you'd expect from Wilco.  The tension builds for a few minutes before a joyous, riffing guitar breakdown with a hint of Sonic Youth.  They stretch this out over ten minutes, yet it doesn't ever feel boring, though it eventually ends quite abruptly.  

Muzzle of Bees is a gentle, rootsy strum for the most part with occasional fretwork interludes.  Tweedy's Beatles fixation comes to the fore on piano-dominated tracks like Hummingbird and Theologians.  In the main, fine pop/rock songs like Handshake Drugs and Company In My Back abound on this album.  

The most polarising track for most people will be the 15 minute Less Than You Think.  For the first three minutes it's a soft piano ballad before giving way to 12 minutes of maddening machine drone.  It's total self-indulgence and depending on your mood that's either good or bad.  But rather than finishing with this, we get one final song, the enjoyable Faces-style throwaway The Late Greats.

But it's an album that, once you get into it, is most enjoyable.

Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Wilco's fourth album is an odd oul beast.  In 2001 Reprise Records refused to release it, and it eventually came out in 2002.  It's seen by some as their Kid A.  While it's not that, it does mark the point where Wilco moved away from their alt-country roots and established their own sound.  Opener I Am Trying To Break Your Heart won't jar with anyone familiar with Misunderstood, the opener on Being There - it's a slowbuilding track, melodic for the most part but containing noisier passages.  In truth the album is a kind of enjoyable mess, which, perhaps due to its background, received far more praise than merited from critics.  It has many softly strummed, accessible songs such as Kamera, the repetitive War on War and the Cure-referencing Pot Kettle Black.  Any of these would not have been out of place on Summerteeth, nor would Heavy Metal Drummer, the most uptempo and 'knowing' lyrics here ("shiny, shiny pants and bleached blonde hair, double kick drum by the river").  I'm The Man Who Loves You is a bit like the Beatles played by Crazy Horse while the jaunty folk of Jesus Etc is downright odd.

Far more interesting are the deathly slow crawls.  Radio Cure is the one song here you could imagine Thom Yorke singing.  Instrumentation is minimal, percussion barely there at all, yet this song gets under the skin.  Ashes of American Flags is pure Beatles' White Album.  And not Obla-di Obla-da either, especially the final minute or two of noise.  Better still, the final twelve and a half minutes of the album are occupied by two slow crawls.  The first of these, Poor Places, is a fairly definitive slow march towards nowhere in particular.  Reservations on the other hand is more of a funereal drift into nothingness.  Or if you prefer, a plaintive love song ("I've got reservations about so many things but not about you").  And it is that which sums up the album, it can be taken in more than one way.

Wilco - A.M.

Wilco's debut album, released in 1995 is a fairly 'straight' country rock album.  It opens with I Must Be High, a melodic, upbeat country rocker.  Casino Queen is a boozy, Stonesy rocker, straight out of Exile on Main Street, while Box Full of Letters is a similarly swaggering rock song.

Shouldn't Be Ashamed slows the pace down a bit and it suits them better.  The song still rocks, just a bit more gently, and it's a highlight.  As are Pick Up The Change and I Thought I Held You, a pair of breezy, relaxed tunes with Jeff Tweedy's voice upfront and central.  Less successful is the overly country, banjo-drenched That's Not The Issue, and John Stirratt-sung country ballad It's Just That Simple feels a bit out of place.

The album recovers well with strumalong Should've Been In Love, and the remaining songs drift pleasantly along, including the Dylan/Neil Young style Passenger Side and the blissed-out country drift of Dash 7 and Blue Eyed Soul.

Wilco – Schmilco – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2016/12/06/wilco-schmilco-album-review/

Album Review: Low | The Invisible Way

Review for www.meg.ie http://www.meg.ie/low-the-invisible-way/