Wilco Album Recommendations

The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

Wilco

[#] Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)

A deliberate soup of chaos around eleven exquisite alternative pop songs.

Reviewed September 11, 2024

I mean, where do you even begin? Do you start with how Wilco lost their minds making this thing? Do you talk about the backdrop of 9/11 coloring its release? Do you discuss the label troubles or the way Yankee Hotel Foxtrot cemented Wilco's place in music history? The web of tales this album's stuck in the middle of is as fractured as the music itself, and it's only fitting: not only is it an album about an inability to communicate, but it was pulled apart and reassembled at least a dozen times during its production (as I discussed in the First Draft entry for it on the group blog last year). You'd expect it to be a mess—and it is—but Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is expertly constructed in its chaos and is worth every glowing review you've ever read about it.

Pacing is key to YHF. Jeff Tweedy knew full well which were his odd songs and which were his instant ones, and he perfectly uses the simplicity of a "War on War" or a "Heavy Metal Drummer" to diffuse the unresolved tension in, say, "Ashes of American Flags" or "Radio Cure". Where it all comes together is in the mixture of violin quartets and whistling ambience, summer nostalgia and cracked vocals, upbeat acoustics and Neil Young buzztar. By the time you get to "Poor Places"' squealing noise coda, with that alienated computerized Conet Project sample over the smoldering fields of guitar feedback and dissonant piano stabs, it becomes clear as day that Wilco really knew how to wield that juxtaposition of ugliness and beauty better than just about any of their peers, and we got one of the finest albums of the decade for it.

Essential:	"War on War", "Pot Kettle Black", "Poor Places"
Quintessential:	"Ashes of American Flags"
Non-Essential:	The first minute of "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart", maybe
Rating:
Further listening:	"First Draft: Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" on Letters From Somnolescent

[#] Summerteeth (1999)

How to sound alright when you very much aren't.

Reviewed July 8, 2023

I've never heard a more pitch-perfect snapshot of a violently estranged relationship than Summerteeth. "The ashtray says/You were up all night/When you went to bed/With your darkest mind." Yeppers. "Maybe all I need is a shot in the arm", or alternatively, "A kiss is all we need". The fix always seems so simple, right? But then again—"every little thing just tears you apart". "I'm too scared to get that close to you right now." No, it can't be that simple. "I'll come back to you/I'll be brand new/But I promise/We're just friends." It fucking stings—and so does Summerteeth. The peak of the Jeff Tweedy/Jay Bennett partnership, this is through and through pop rock, grand but not elliptical, and personal to the point of sticking in your chest.

The divide between the achy lyrics and the radiant pop rock backing, loaded with clanging pianos and bright, whirring synth leads is really what makes this album tick. The recurring autumn suicide dream on the title track wouldn't seem so significant without the sweetly noodling guitars, and the hoarsely-frustrated refrain on the outstanding "Can't Stand It" wouldn't go down so well without the chorus of groovy shakers and earworm riffs. (Not that Wilco can't be pretty when they slow down, as the blanket of keys on "How to Fight Loneliness" handily proves.) I'd recommend new Wilco fans start with the much less overloaded Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but it's hard to deny Summerteeth's, well, summery charms, regardless of how rough that summer happens to be.