Wilco: Wilco (The Album)
When I was in Chicago this past summer, floating by the pie-shaped Marina Apartments on a tour-boat, it took me back to the surreal cover of Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002). It also helped that Wilco was on my mind as the single “You Never Know” had been playing on the local college radio station for a few weeks. It was inevitable that I would have to pick up the new disc, Wilco(the album), released June 30.
Wilco has always been a mature band with a tight sound and smart lyrics, but on this album, they somehow feel even more settled. Wilco (the album) like many of Wilco’s albums, this is a typical “grower”, however suffers if you over play it. That seems like an Oxymoron, but the solution may be to spin this one, once-in-a-while and front-to-back, rather than a daily dose.
As Wilco have demonstrated previously, they’re well equipped to mimic different genres while delivering a new sound. With “Country Disappeared” we get a Beatles-style piano ballad. A countrified “House of the Rising Sun” influence can be heard on the track, “I’ll Fight.” With “Wilco (the song)” they explicitly define their sound. But its on tracks like “You and I” (which features fellow Canadian, Feist) that stand out and satisfies the listener’s cravings for an all around indie folk song with that minimalist-type perfection.
Wilco has occasionally been dubbed “Dad-Rock” and it’s true, you could easily give this album to your ‘rents as a holiday present and they’d probably dig it. “You Never Know” is filled with good elderly advice to the kids, but never comes off as condescending (see Animal Collective review). Still, Tweedy (despite being 42) sounds as youthful and (on occasion) as angst-soaked as ever.
For many, Wilco is back and for those who haven’t heard them previously, Wilco (the album), is not a bad place to start to spark your interest. However this album may be somewhat of a disappointment to a fan of their old stuff. It doesn’t have the “OMG” perfection of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot andit’s relatively incomparable to the pixie-like (screech guitar/soft acoustic), Queen-like (big piano ballad) effects on A Ghost is Born (2004). Despite those differences, Wilco feels care-free and at home. Whether you like it or not, Wilco is having fun and that type of band dynamic transcends the album in a powerful way.
Notable Tracks: “One Wing”, “You and I”, “Country Disappeared”
Listeners may also enjoy: Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, The National: Alligator
————————
Animal Collective: Fall Be Kind EP
“What would I want? Sky.” Fall Be Kind is the new EP from the Brooklyn-based experimental group, Animal Collective (AC), and is filled with great questions and even greater answers.
FBK feels like a break up album in sequel to the carefree summer loving that Merriweather Post Pavilion brought us earlier this year. Avey Tare starts by coyly stating “Let me begin”. Then opens up by asking, “Comfort, comfort, why do you run for it?” in the very eclectic (even by AC standards) song, “Graze”. AC moves on to search for escape in the sky but checks back to earth asking, “Is everything alright? You feeling lonely?” We slip into dark depression, anxiety and guilt with the track “Bleed”. The tension builds; “I can’t breath” gasps the band in harmony, on a highway. Tare provides some comic relief exclaiming his jealousy of his band mate’s (Panda Bear [Noah Lennox]) dreaming. Bitter-sweetly, the EP ends with questions and insecurity of whether or not he will get over that break up. How like life.
So now that I’ve viciously dissected an album (and band) that should be entirely up to the listener’s interpretation, it’s a good time to fill you in on some back story.
AC is a busy band with 8 LPs, 4 EPs, 2 live albums and 1 compilation album to date, starting in 2000. This year has proved to be one of their busiest and most successful. It doesn’t feel like only January, that the (virtually) universally acclaimed MPP came out, which is guaranteed a spot on those “best-of” year lists. Then we received Animal Crack Box (live album) back in May, a refreshing alternative to a slapped together best-of album.
After all this excitement, I thought, “Surely we won’t be getting another AC record anytime soon.” One thing you have to understand is AC is notorious for its blog-hyped torrent leaks months in advance of their releases. And even with their ever growing popularity in some circles, it’s questionable how much money they pull in from record sales. However, Panda Bear has been quoted with promoting the illegal downloads, “So if you’re listening leakers, put up those other three songs, man, pronto.” But perhaps all these rapid-fire releases are an attempt to get ahead of the “leakers.” Maybe AC just has a lot more material than we could have imagined.
With all this fuss about a seemingly unimportant indie group, they sure make it exciting to follow them. Quoting from Wilco (the album), “Every generation thinks it’s the worst, thinks it’s the end of the world” (see Wilco review). If you ever wondered what type of music our kids (or the generation after us) might make that might offend/annoy us, AC may provide some preview of that. That is not to say that if you don’t like AC, you must be some old fart with no taste in current music. AC is simply not for everyone. Psycho-activators (I’ve been told) help.
However, as a member of the generation that was raised on Thomas the Tank engine, the “I think I can, I think I can…” closer is a little cheesy for my tastes. But if cheesy is the by-product of accessibility, I will compromise for tracks like the Grateful Dead-sampled, “What would I want? Sky.”
Notable Tracks: All of them. (There are only 5).
Listeners may also enjoy: Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest, Dirty Projectors: Bitte Orca