Wilco have pleased me and teased me and occasionally let me down over the years but they have always stretched themselves in an attempt to reach music that doesn’t waste our time. Jeff Tweedy is a man of weighty importance in the world of contemporary song writing. There’s a social depth to his writing and a tenderness of care for the individuals whom he sings about. Wilco (The Album) I guess picks up where the appropriately named Sky Blue Sky left off. It is less experimental than Hotel Yankee Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born and you can’t help thinking that the ghost this time is George Harrison or at least his guitar. Tweedy’s songs are built around glorious gorgeous guitars that like Beatle George’s gently weep but also smile, frown and occasionally even chortle! Most obviously Harrison influenced is the guitar riff on You Never Know and actually that entire song could be an out take from Cloud Nine. Everlasting Everything is a rewrite of All Things Must Pass with its spiritual core and message of our mortality. Harrison was the sixties mega star who caught onto the truth that the deification of the individual is a philosophical heresy and cause of much of our human ills and Tweedy puts the lesson sweet in Solitaire – “Took too long to see/I was wrong to believe in me only.”
Great songs greatly played!
Yep this is a class album. Almost comes to close to YHF but I doubt they'll be able to top that one!
Posted by: Jonny | 12/08/2009 at 10:38 PM