Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002) (1 Viewer)

[Cornu Ammonis]

Exactly how I remembered it, a very beige version of Pavement with the odd quirky guitar sound or sample to make you think that something interesting will happen. And it doesn't. The songs are weak, the lyrics are embarrassing and the best I can say about it is that it alerted me to the Conet Project and I bought a box set of Cold War numbers station recordings off the back of reading about this album.

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

Really Wilco are Neutral Milk Hotel for middle aged men.

 

[nooleen]

shouldn't you like 'em then?

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

Ouch.

I'm the upper limit of a millennial apparently. That is more upsetting than being middle aged.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Ouch.

I'm the upper limit of a millennial apparently. That is more upsetting than being middle aged.

same. 1981?

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

same. 1981?

Not that upper, gramps. 1983. I always thought Millennials were 1990s births. I guess I took Italia 90 as my cut off for completely unknown reasons.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

sick burn

 

[nooleen]

we've all gotten a lot meaner since that burn rating came in

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

I'm sorry Burnie. I mean, Bernie.

 

[rettucs]

don't worry kids, the adults will be by soon and will tell you what you're supposed to think about this album

 

[nooleen]

Not that upper, gramps. 1983. I always thought Millennials were 1990s births. I guess I took Italia 90 as my cut off for completely unknown reasons.

i'm the same
we're 'cuspers', or 'generation catalano', or some other pop culture references that mean nothing to me (i never watched my so-called life)

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Oregon Trail Generation - Wikipedia

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Generation Dempsey – those who remember Ian Dempsey’s tenure on The Den

 

[ann post]

I've only managed one listen. This for once isn't due to work and is really because I'm having a midlake renaissance.

Anywhooo - listened on the way out to the beach and got one lap of the record in.

That intro track was kinda interesting. The sortof musical 'conflicts' that arise in it might have been ground breaking in the path of wilco records, but coming from a background of loads of king crimson it doesn't amaze me. It all felt a bit self conscious. I kept hearing lyrics about being in a band and stuff. Those sound annoying to me. Those are the worst songs on the planet by my measure.

Think i've a drive at the weekend I can get another go. So far its about 2/5 from me.

 

[rettucs]

This album is beautiful. I would have said before this week that its not my favourite Wilco album (I'm a big fan of the albums they've released in the past 5 or 6 years), but I think I might need to revise that opinion.

Though it was definitely my favourite Wilco album at some point, and for a while too.

I illegally downloaded this about 12 years ago. It was the first Wilco album I'd heard and I suppose that was the time that listening to music became very easy. Streaming hadn't really happened (other than when a gang of us in work pooled our record collections onto a server in work so we could all listen - fucking company made us take it down not long after cos the law).

Soulseek was my best friend in those days. I'm sure I said it on here before that illegal downloading never sat well with me but I was able to justify it to myself by vowing to buy anything I ended up liking. For the most part I kept to that.

But for some reason I never bought a physical copy of this album. I have a feeling it was because I started buying their other albums not long after. Getting them was one thing, listening to them was something completely different. I'm still working on those first 3 albums (I'm fairly familiar with the last 4 or 5).

Anyway, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. My copy of this was bad quality and I reckon for that reason this always felt like a collection of songs (b-sides, outtakes, etc) than a coherent album. Listening this week I can't see how the hell I ever thought that. But there you go.

There's a subtelty to this album. Its definitely not one that instantly grabs the attention, maybe Heavy Metal Drummer aside. You end up humming a song to yourself after a few listens, wonder what that song is you're humming, realise its Wilco, then revisit the album, at which point it reveals itself in all its glory.

And fair enough if some people find it boring. For me it just works. The first 4 or 5 songs are quite understated. You wouldn't be dancing around to them like. But they evoke a particular kind of atmosphere. Moody. Something that works best early in the morning or late at night. Radio Cure, for example. It'd be easy to dismiss this as bland or boring. Its beautiful though.

And ultimately, for me, its Tweedy that makes the songs. His voice is perfect, and is the essence of that Wilco sound.

If I'm in the mood to listen to Wilco I generally put one of the later albums on (typically Wilco (The Album)). If I get a bit of time I'm gonna try and make a bit more effort at those early songs.

This wasn't one of my picks but its a 5/5 for me.

 

[ann post]

Ouch.

I'm the upper limit of a millennial apparently. That is more upsetting than being middle aged.

Well of course it is.

 

[nooleen]

i'm giving this my full attention for the third listen, eyes closed, in the dark

i enjoyed the first track very much

now i'm going to make some coffee because my attention span is poor

 

[Lili Marlene]

Oregon Trail Generation - Wikipedia

Granny's Garden generation.


Gonna try one listen now and see how it goes.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Right, that's done. This album, to use Scutter's favourite put down, is completely inoffensive and fine. I really liked it for one song but then most of the other songs seemed to be more or less the same thing as that one song.

People need at most one or two albums like this in their lives, anything more is overkill. I have a few alright, early dEus, Rachael Yamagata, but i'm the first to admit they're the same auld dreary shite as this.

Heavy Metal drummer seemed like it was threatening to break into something interesting right at the end there but then ended before that could happen. Oh well.

I liked the last few songs on it there as well, maybe I was becoming attuned to the music. I could probably grow to like this album a lot if I kept playing it but i'm not gonna.

I dunno, I kind of feel this album is released 30 times a year, every year, by various different artists. It'll get a 5/5 review by Tony Clayton Lea and one of your mates will be mad into it and maybe they'll play somewhere as big as the Olympia but it'll be indistinguishable from the next album that comes out a week later.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

The songs are not up to scratch. It's a production job with bad singing