Wilco- A.M.

If I may: upon its release, Wilco's A.M. got an undue amount of grief and bad mouthing from every side imaginable. Even members of the band, in particular Jeff Tweedy, regard the album as a failure, inspiring him to craft the massively ambitious follow-up, the double album Being There.

While that may be the only silver lining of this record for most people, I have the strong impression that if anyone bothered to listen to the thing today, with all the alt.country/No Depression/rivalry with Jay Farrar's Son Volt in the distant past, they'd discover a decent little album with some fantastic songs. After all, Wilco often bust out fan favorites 'Casino Queen', 'Box Full Of Letters', and 'Passenger Side' as crowd pleasing stompers during their shows. If three great songs don't exactly a great album make, they do help make it a good one. In other words, A.M. is, depending on your familiarity, not as bad as you remember or not as bad as you've been led to believe.

I would add 'Too Far Apart' to that list of great songs from this album. As this is the only Wilco release on which Brian Henneman appears, his lead guitar playing on this track makes it among the most unique in the Wilco canon for that reason alone, though the mid-60s Dylan-esque organ stabs and ramshackle drumming help make this my pick for most underrated, unknown Wilco song. It's simply a rocking little album closer, unassuming and casual, the sort of thing critics and disappointed music fans probably derided the album as being boring or underwhelming for. Which means to me, it's populist and fun, hard to hate but also difficult to praise or critique in a meaningful way.

Yes, what strikes me most about A.M. is its populist appeal. Not so much alt.country as a country-rock record patterned in the rustic-by-way-of-folk-and-rock Bob Dylan/Neil Young style, the album title is also a dead giveaway for the band's aim, making music that would feel welcome next to, say, The Band on a classic rock station. Sure, there's some twang to tracks like the modest 'That's Not The Issue', the record's undiscovered treasure (next to 'Too Far Apart', anyway), featuring some spirited banjo picking and pedal steel guitar licks. Sure, nothing on here hints at the stronger rock, pop, and later, experimental elements that were to come, to say nothing of the forthcoming greater artistic ambition. Yet listen to this in the context of the band's discography as it stands in 2011 and you'll find that, as a whole, A.M. is closer in sound and spirit to Being There than Being There is to Summerteeth and everything after.

This may sound strange, especially coming from someone who generally loathes brainless, feel-good pop music, but even I enjoy modest, good-time music now and again. And A.M. is just that; nothing more, nothing less. Not every song is great or an amazing piece of art but with an album like this, it's unnecessary. Furthermore, it's ironically almost an asset that some of the songs are mediocre because, at a party (the ideal place for such music), it's nice to have a break to get up and grab another beer or greet those lackadaisical friends showing up fashionably late.

All of that said, A.M. is without a doubt Wilco's worst album. Being There is a more artistic and enduring rejiggering of its aesthetic minus the boozy fun-time country-rock swing, as if Tweedy was finally putting in a genuine effort to try. By which I mean, not only to try to best former Uncle Tupelo bandmate Jay Farrar but also to carve his name on the tree of rock history. Whatever record you think he managed to complete both of those with--I wasn't totally sold until A Ghost Is Born, which probably sounds insane--I don't think anyone would claim he did it with the debut. Still, calling A.M. Wilco's worst album is analogous to calling Grizzly Bear's Horn Of Plenty their worst, too. Both are true statements, though those debuts are quite different in spirit and tone from what they would go on to do, to say nothing of personnel changes. Thus I would append the claim to be a variation on the sophomore slump rather than "worst album." So, no, those albums aren't the worst; they're the "freshmen slump" of both bands.

3 Poorly Drawn Stars Out Of 5

Wilco- Wilco (The Album)

Just as diversity can be a good or bad thing, a band content to sound like itself can be a good or bad thing, too. I think this is the reason the Beatles's self titled album (commonly referred to as The White Album) is my favorite of their's. It's all over the map, stylistically and mood-wise, and in the end it didn't represent a leap or further development for the band so much as a consolidation of their strengths and a longform demonstration of their gift for inventive, art tinged pop. By contrast, Wilco's self titled album is arguably the weakest thing they've done since their debut, A.M., because Wilco (The Album) is a mess of contrasting styles that recall music from their various albums but come off like weaker versions.

I actually love Sky Blue Sky, which has a laid back, classic rocky feel to it. Even in that 'simple' setting I felt that Jeff Tweedy and company were exploring new things and pushing themselves. Also, the songwriting remained strong, a crucial element in the band's appeal. 'Sunken Treasure' and 'I Am Trying To Break Your Heart' are songs that hook fan for life; even the peppy 'Wilco (The Song)', the best thing here, isn't that good.

Most of Wilco (The Album) feels undercooked and effortless. By which I mean, effortless in a bad way. It adds nothing to their sound and only a handful of songs rise above "this reminds me of X off of Y", where X represents one of your favorite songs from album Y. 'Bull Black Nova' reminds me of 'Spiders (Kidsmoke)' off of A Ghost Is Born, but not as good. 'Country Disappeared' reminds me of, well, a lot of songs off of Sky Blue Sky but isn't as good. 'You Never Know' reminds me of 'Outta Mind (Outta Sight)' off of Being There but is weaker for it. I would never complain about Wilco recording stuff that sounded like songs they've done before but if the songwriting isn't as good it doesn't matter what they're trying to sound like. The Sea & Cake have sounded like themselves for most of their career but every album they put out is of a consistent quality.

So I find myself in the strange position with this album of recommending it to newcomers but telling established fans to skip it. It's as good an introduction to the band as you can get, containing most of the various styles and guises Wilco have worn. But once you've heard the rest of their discography, it sounds like a weak, insular release. Considering how many bands are pushing themselves and releasing their best music yet (check out the releases from Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, and Sunset Rubdown from this year), and how Wilco has the amazingly talented and experimental minded Nels Cline and Glenn Kotche, it's almost a shame that Tweedy was content to coast. Wilco (The Album) is not actually bad, but it is underwhelming, unsurprising, and ultimately unsatisfying.

Loose Fur- Born Again In The USA

Wilco's Sky Blue Sky divided a lot of people because it wasn't another experimental, Big Important Rock Album like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born were. Rather, it's an easy going, classic rock, 70s worshipping release, and once you get past what you expected it to be and enjoy it for what it is, Sky Blue Sky is actually every bit as good as Wilco's best. Still, it's not as if it came out of nowhere. In fact, if you have been paying attention to what Tweedy was doing outside of Wilco--or read between the lines of A Ghost Is Born's more immediate, catchy songs--you'd have been prepared for it.

I'm resisting the urge to say that Loose Fur's albums are like a preview of where Wilco is going, but their two releases make for an easy cause and effect relationship. Though not released until 2003, Loose Fur's first self titled album was recorded in 2000, during the recording process for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Comparing the two, you really get the sense that Loose Fur unblocked whatever problems Tweedy was having with Wilco. Though Loose Fur is more overtly experimental and at the same time not as consistent or excellent as Yankee, the sound of the two albums isn't that different. The same could be said for Born Again In The USA, which was released a year before Sky Blue Sky but approximates its 70s sound and classic rock just as equally.

By the time of this recording, Loose Fur's three members had a very familial working relationship--Jim O'Rourke had produced or worked on a couple Wilco albums while both Glen Kotche and Jeff Tweedy are in Wilco. Like its predecessor, Born Again In The USA isn't as good as the related Wilco album, but it has a low key, relaxed charm all its own. Guitars are the obvious centerpiece of this album and nearly every song has some outstanding playing on it. Tweedy and O'Rourke remind us both of their chops and their way with a song; though O'Rourke only sings two, it's nice to hear him again since he's spent most of this decade off the mic. Tweedy, meanwhile, reveals the playful side that's emerged lately both in his music and in his personality/stage presence. 'The Ruling Class' is a jaunty tune and sees him singing about a Christ-like figure (or maybe Christ himself, returned) shootin' smack and smokin' crack. And as usual I've got to give some token appreciation for the efforts of Kotche, always showing the difference between simply being a drummer and being a master musician/session musician, doing what he can to add to the music, never getting in the way. In fact, I'll go one step further and say that he is a deceptive drummer because what he's playing, despite filling the usual role of holding down the groove/rhythm of a song and keeping time, is much more complex and interesting than it initially seems.

If forced to pinpoint what exactly it is about this album that makes it merely above average, an interesting side project but not as good as Wilco's main stuff, I'd have to give two reasons. The first is 'Wreckroom.' While it is eight minutes of mostly interesting music, it doesn't quite gel with the rest of the album. In the same way that I like 'Less Than You Think' on A Ghost Is Born but rarely listen to it, 'Wreckroom's extended outro of swirling, pealing guitar space never works for me. The second reason is that, well, this is just a side project, ultimately. I don't want to insinuate that Tweedy saves up his 'A' game for Wilco because I like these songs a lot and he's not holding back. But due to the way these songs are played and what they are, they don't have the panache and punch that Wilco does. Loose Fur get by on a lot of charm and "we just did this because we enjoy playing together and it was fun" on Born Again In The USA. Anyway, when are side projects ever taken as seriously and loved as deeply as the main stuff?? It's pretty rare. Loose Fur was an album about risk taking and sonic discovery and though I do like it better than Born Again, that's a matter of personal taste. The two albums are trying for different things and succeed at them. On Born Again, they aren't trying to push themselves; it doesn't have the sense of experimentalism and searching that made Loose Fur so interesting and worth hearing. But, again, this isn't trying to be that. Just as Sky Blue Sky was a good old fashioned rock album at its heart, Born Again is a good old fashioned rock side project, where a few guys from other bands or what have you get together to hang out and play music together because they like each other.

Born Again In The USA may not have the freshness and historical importance that the first album did, but that doesn't diminish it in any way. It's a nice companion piece to Sky Blue Sky, at any rate, and an above average album in its own right. Since you'll come to this via one of the three people involved, there's little chance it will blow you away in the same way the main projects do, but it's still great music for fans.

Video: Wilco- Side With The Seeds

One of the reasons I like Wilco is that I could fit right into the band, looks-wise. Members often have terrible haircuts and three-day-shadows on their faces. I can appreciate that.

This is a performance video from, as far as I can tell, some kind of bonus DVD that accompanied Sky Blue Sky when it was first released. This particular clip starts with Jeff Tweedy talking about growing up, or something like that, before they cue up 'Side With The Seeds.' While mostly following the album version, you do get a chance to see Nels Cline in action.