Wilco - Summerteeth
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Free Music Notes for Summerteeth
Free Music Review: Five stars is not enough to express my love for this record.
Hit: 5 Stars
There is no two ways about it..this is simply the best record I've heard this decade...from the first chords of Can't Stand It to the last notes of A Shot In The Arm's second version, this is simply 60 minutes of the best music you'll come across this year. Wilco have traded their No Depression roots for Big Star-ish power pop, Beach Boys harmonies, Wall Of Sound production, Beatles inventiveness....and it's all for the better. In fact, this is the album Big Star fans could have been hoping for all along, if the band had stuck together for a few years. Jeff Tweedy's long time fans may not acknowledge this on the first listen, the possessiveness of alt-country fans coming a close second to folk-era Dylan fans, and the cries of "Judas!" may haunt this band for years. But music fans should learn to look further, open their ears and realize this may be as good as it gets... The instrumentation is very unusual, ranging from bells, mellotrons to E-bow guitars and Moogs, and only the slightest hint of a steel-guitar here and there. Each song contains enough surprises to come back to this record every day, meaning this album will very well stand repeated listening (I'm at 14 and counting since I bought it 3 days ago)... The shear amount of instruments and studio tricks used by the band also means you are likely to discovering new sounds every single time you press the play button...As for the songs themselves, this could be loosely described as a song cycle about failed relationship(s), with a measure of redemption coming in the end... From the opener Can't Stand It ("No loves as random as my love/I can't stand it...I can't stand it..."), up to Via Chicago, it seems to be all the way down for Jeff, despite the sheer joy of the music in the likely single Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway(again)...Via Chicago starts with some of the bleakest lyrics Jeff has ever written "I dreamed about killing you again last night/and it felt alright to me" (which were in fact allegedly written with his wife...) but then things slowly seem to turn around, until the first hidden track, Candyfloss, that is one of the purest pop songs you'll hear this year, even if radio airplay is unlikely. That songs climaxes with operatic voices in the background, which seems almost as clever as the "handclaps in the chorus" of the aforementionned Nothing'sever... Pieholden Suite, which may be the best song here, starts quietly but adds somthing at each verse, and concludes with a melancholic trumpet solo. The lyrics also show a stunning growth from Tweedy's days as co-leader of Uncle Tupelo, and if you do not shed a tear over at least one song here, your heart is made of stone...
To put it mildly, chances are that listening to this record you'll cry, you'll laugh, you'll want to die but in the end, you'll want to fall in love all over again...and press that repeat button over and over and over....
Do yourself a favor...pick this one up...5 five stars are not enough...a clear summer night's worth of stars would still be not enough...it's just THAT good...
If, like me, you've simply fallen in love with this record...tell everyone you know about it...if anything deserves to become a hit, this is it...
Free Music Review: So INCREDIBLY GREAT I can't stand it
Hit: 5 Stars
I simply can't say enough about "Summer Teeth" --or Wilco themselves, for that matter -- so I'll try to be succinct. This album is nothing short of a masterpiece. I know, I know ... longtime Wilco & Tupelo fans may scratch their heads at the obvious lack of twang on this record, but don't dismiss it on that count. It's different, yes, but in a glorious way. When Wilco's last CD, "Being There," came out, it took me a couple of listens to get used to the idea that the band might be shedding a little of their roots-rock sound. But soon the cd pulled me in & hooked me. It's since become one of my fave albums. Now that I'm used to their new direction & evolution, I became instantly addicted to "Summer Teeth."
So Wilco fans, don't fight the band's emerging new sound...It's wonderful, especially if you dug tunes like "Sunken Treasure" off of "Being There". Imagine Jeff Tweedy has dinner with Brian Wilson and late-60's/early-'70's Beatles. That'll give you a vague idea of the sound of "Summer Teeth," but not nearly enough. You have to experience this work of genius yourself.
This is actually "Pet Sounds" for the '90's. The production values make me want to do cartwheels, they're so perfect. I could take a bath in this album. The layering is endless but somehow never excessive. The instrumental performances are vibrant, tasteful and flawless, especially with the stylings of boy wonder Jay Bennett on everything from keys to moog. Kudos to the band for having the courage to throw in some of the unexpected synth sounds and other instrumentation that gives "Summer Teeth" its exhilerating bite. At first you furrow your brow, then you start bouncing your head from side to side with a wry smile.
And Jeff Tweedy's voice is, more than ever, indescribably expressive and irresistably compelling. What that man can do with a single line of lyric is more than any of my former boyfriends could do with their hands. And that's even with the overwhelmingly vague lyrics of "Summer Teeth," which will linger with you and leave you pondering what the hell they mean for days. But it's the tunes, as delivered by Bennett, Tweedy and the boys, that get under your skin the most, enough to make you feel like you've taken a hit of some kind of musical heroin.
OK, so I rambled on & blew the succinct thing, but PLEASE don't cheat yourself out of the chance to own this CD. The short audio clips you can hear here on Amazon can't begin to reveal the depth and wonder of this album. It's simultaneously gorgeous and disturbing, light and heavy, dreamy and earthy, luscious and confounding. You won't hear a finer CD anywhere. Wilco are fast emerging as the musical deities of the new millenium.
Free Music Review: Truly an American Beauty
Hit: 5 Stars
I simply wasn't prepared for this. Back in 1990 or so, I seized on Uncle Tupelo and their sad, strange, ineffably American sound: D. Boon and Bob Mould careering into Hank Williams and the Carter Family.So when UT split off, and regenerated as Son Volt (led by Jeff Farrar) and Wilco (fronted by Jeff Tweedy), I grudgingly acknowledged the split as inevitable, and anticipated something akin to the rootsy garage rock they perfected.
While I wasn't expecting a tired rehash of the "No Depression" school UT is credited with founding, but even so, Tweedy's daring search for musical truths is nothing short of astounding.
From "AM" through the incredible "Being There," up to the wondrous Billy Bragg collaboration on "Mermaid Avenue" that put music to Woody Guthrie's newly discovered words, Wilco has explored -- and subtly exploded -- new song forms and ideas. I hesitate to call "Summerteeth" the apex of Wilco's forward urge, because I suspect Tweedy's restless genius has some great journeys ahead.
So for now, I willl continue to luxuriate in the densely beautiful sound of "Summerteeth," as Tweedy/Wilco conjure an incredible array of spirits -- the Beatles, Brian Wilson and the Byrds to name but a few -- while crafting some of the most irresistable pop that's come our way in recent years.
Of course, this is Jeff Tweedy we're talking about, so beware the hooks. "Summerteeth" has a lush, resonant and orchestral sound, but sadness and danger often lurk beneath its shiny pop surfaces. Tweedy's keening voice is getting better with age, and it has the capacity to startle when he sings "I dreamed of killing you again last night/and it felt alright to me" on the rueful "Via Chicago." Even at its brightest and bounciest, "Summerteeth" is disarming, as on the bubbly "I'm always in love," which opens with Tweedy asking, "Why, I wonder, is my heart full of holes."
I'm forever upset about the lack of popular acclaim and the abundance of critical neglect that consigns some of our greatest bands to a form of neglect that is hardly benign. So it's never easy for me to simply recommend a group Wilco without urging any willing listener to dig deeper and go back to Uncle Tupelo, which was so graced by Farrar's and Tweedy's populist sensibilities.
That said, I have to accept that Tweedy has gone someplace new and different. It's not that he's abandoned roots rock so much as traveled further down a continuum of glorious modern American music.
Sure, I miss UT, but "Summerteeth" makes me grateful for Tweedy's restless, journeying spirit.
Free Music Review: Amazing 3rd record by most important young rock band in US
Hit: 5 Stars
Don't usually do this, but read that a customer called this album "generic," which is the most inappropriate adjective you could ever use for it.Summer Teeth offers what is simply one of the most gorgeous, compelling, challenging song cycles I've heard this decade. Jeff Tweedy puts to good use all the lessons he's learned in his 10-year quest to make honest, sincere, musically and lyrically impeccable albums ... and ones that still know how to rock and roll. I didn't know if Tweedy and the guys (by the way, multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett is definitely the musical star of Summer Teeth) could make an album that was better than Being There -- that sprawling masterpiece that listened like one of the best books ever written about being a singer in a rock and roll band, as it were. If they didn't, they've come close.
Summer Teeth might not exceed the reach of Being There, but the more I listen to it the more I'm convinced that it has succeeded in more fully realizing those things that it aspires to accomplish. It's a more mature album. Again, as in Being There, the song cycle is connected by a thread: This time it's a troubled relationship that has the singer vacillating between domestic violence in "She's A Jar" and dreaming of homicide in "Via Chicago," and the notion that their love, as strained as it is, can and will survive -- "Nothingsgonnaever..." and "ELT." The serious subject matter is delivered amid gorgeous melodies filled with all those influences everyone's already mentioned -- Beach Boys, Beatles, etc. I even heard a little bit of Bacharach in "When You Wake Up Feeling Old."
A lot of No Depression lovers that have followed Wilco from the early folk-punk days of Uncle Tupelo (a band so intensely magical and mercurial there was no way it could possibly survive) might decide to give up on Tweedy and company with Summer Teeth -- which seems so very far removed from his work with Jay Farrar, and even from the y'all-ternative stomp of A.M. But when you think about it, all of Tweedy's work (including the Guthrie/Bragg thing) has been about keeping things honest, even as the framework gets more and more experimental and divergent. In that truest of senses, Summer Teeth isn't so different from Still Feel Gone or Anodyne or A.M. at all. Cause within all those lush arrangements and soaring harmonies, there's still Tweedy -- and he's just as willing as ever to use that wonderful raspy voice to share his insecurities and joys with us.
Free Music Review: Another Classic
Hit: 5 Stars
You can't go wrong with Summerteeth. There is definately something hear for everyone. For me, every song on hear is just great. Here's a brief summary for each track:1. Can't Stand It - Great song for the beginning of a cd, lots of energy and a great hook. It possesses some elements of country for fans of older Wilco cds, and also rock for people more disposed to later Wilco cds.
2. She's A Jar - Brilliant song. Fantastic Lyrics. I could see where the Dylan comparisons come from after listening to this figurative language. Awesome Track.
3. Shot In The Arm - Baby all I need is a shot in the arm. This is one of those songs that I have to listen to about 8 times in a row before going on to the next track. Great song.
4. We're Just Friends - Another beauty with some classic Tweedy lyrics. Nobody else makes such great music and lyrics and intertwines them so naturally and effectively as Wilco. This track is a prime example of that great song structure.
5. I'm Always In Love - This is the first song I ever heard by Wilco. It was on a compilation cd I bought from American Eagle. This song is the reason why I bought this cd. It's a very happy rocker, disparate from the rest of the disc, but certainly just as great.
6. Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (Again) - Not my favorite song on the cd, but still very strong, good harmony, more Wilco fun.
7. Pieholden Suite - Beautiful track, a little sad but very nice.
8. How To Fight Loneliness - Awesome song, more fantastic lyrics, and sad acoustic guitar that is truely memorable.
9. Via Chicago - To me, this one is similar to Pieholden Suite, slow, gentle, and beautiful.
10. ELT - Fun song, perks up the cd a bit and acts as a precursor to my favorite songs on the album.
11. My Darling - Sweet song, sounds like a remake of some old country song that I can't think of. Very nice
12. When You Wake Up Feeling Old - One of my favorites on the cd. Uplifting and sincere, the piano certainly does fill your soul, just as Jeff says it will.
13. Summerteeth - My favorite title track of all time. This song is magnificent. So breezy and fun, like nothing I've ever heard.
14. In A Future Age - Great closer, leaves you dying for more...
15. Candyfloss - 23 seconds of silence. You need it to catch your breath.
16. Summerteeth (Alternate Version) - Nothing like the other Summerteeth, but still very good.
17. In A Future Age (Alternate Version) - Sadly, all great things must come to an end.