Wilco - Summerteeth
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Free Music Notes for Summerteeth
Free Music Review: Wilco at their best- The Key Ingredient: Jay Bennett (RIP)
Hit: 5 Stars
Wilco was a fair to good alt country outfit until Jay Bennett joined after "A.M.". Instantly, miles of growth! "Being There" brought experimentation and noise to the fore, including the use of any number of stringed instruments and keys supplied by Bennett to bring texture to Tweedy's increasingly diverse songs. But with "Summerteeth", Wilco reached an even greater plateau. Due to an increase in Jay Bennett's input in arrangements and production, adding beautiful swirling keyboard & guitar tracks, the group presents an album that continues to bring new discoveries with each repeated listen. Bennett was a great foil for Tweedy, adding nuance and edge to the proceedings. Every track shines. Listen and listen again and those songs that you originally didn't care for, might start to become your favorites!
"Summerteeth": the hIgh water mark for Wilco. "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" continued this winning streak. Many focus on Bennett getting sacked by Tweedy over mixing/ production issues, but this neglects the far more important aspect of "YHF". Jay Bennett co-wrote nearly every song and had a great role in the sound of this album, playing his usual plethora of instruments and experimenting with sound and noise. Like "Summerteeth" "YHF" has a group of catchy potential pop songs, but their mangled further. This partnership of vision (Tweedy) and vast chops/arranging skills (Bennett) lead to another great album.
But that was it...Jay Bennett was tossed out after fighting with Tweedy and their producer. "Ghost Is Born" was good, but not the peak of the previous trifecta. The albums headed in the opposite direction, down not up, culminating in "Sky Blue Sky", a truly dull album from a group that, whether you liked them or not, one could never call DULL! But, that trilogy: "Being There", "Summerteeth", and "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" are 3 of the greatest albums of the last 30 years! "Summerteeth" is my personal fav, but the other 2 are on same par, just different.
It is sad, Nels Klein is a fantastic guitarist, the other players that joined post-Bennett are all great musicians. But, the songs and magical soundscapes are missing or hollowed, yeah they'll still put on a great show, but this band that used to be my favorite current band, is now, in my mind, just another slightly interesting modern band.
Free Music Review: Surprise! The Hoopla is Worth It.
Hit: 5 Stars
I love Uncle Tupelo. Unlike so many people who have been drawn to Son Volt and Wilco through the emergence of "altenative radio", I have been listening to Uncle Tupelo for a long time and I have always hated Jeff Tweedy. Jay Ferrar was always the romantic, Neil Young inspired tunesmith (what a horrible word!). Through all of their records, I found myself ignoring all of Tweedy's harder-edged contributions to that incredible band. So when I picked up "Summer Teeth", I did so grudgingly (for want of anything else in the store at the time)and then felt like such a misdirected fool. This record is so dense, so immediate, so seemingly heartfelt and direct that I had to go back and re-evaluate all of my attitudes. This is an incredible pop album influenced by hard core country sentiment, rock & roll experimentation (which probably bummed me out so much about Jeff Tweedy's work in UT), and just great heart-felt songwriting. What incredible songwriting! The arrangements are intelligent and (should I sound stupid) overwhelmingly daring for a band birthed from American roots-rock. Jeeeze. The first couple of songs cruise though, then "A Shot in the Arm" hits. You can just feel this one. Then the perfect pop of "I'm Always in Love" (nice baritone guitar and Moog) and "Nothing's evergonnastandinmyway (again)". Then "Via Chicago" rolls through. Wow. This is an album for people who listen to their music, for people who want to feel something. Tweedy's voice just drips with emotion and loss and I buy it. The production is, again, dense and relevant. Moogs, guitar noise (a bad thing done so without intention), and strings all play together amazingly. I, for one, amhumbled by how well this record is crafted. And it is crafted: everything works, everything drives the songs forward. This is one of the best albums of the nineties and maybe (we'll see) one of the best of all time.
I still love Son Volt and UT, but if Jeff Tweedy keeps throwing out stuff like this, I'll have to reevaluate the importance of those bands. Right now, with each Son Volt album mining the same roots rock seam, Wilco, with it's experimental bent is forging a future even this UT fan can't argue with.
Free Music Review: Wilco breaks the alt-country mold
Hit: 5 Stars
Wilco
Summerteeth
1999; Reprise Records
My Rating: 9/10
SUMMERTEETH was the WILCO album I knew before I knew WILCO. It's hard for SUMMERTEETH not to at least register in some way in your consciousness when you catch a glimpse of the record's cover. It's just one of the stangest images you've ever seen, and is the best of Wilco's generally pretty great album covers yet. Not to mention that title - just what the heck are SUMMERTEETH? I've heard explanations, but I've never quite figured out the significance of the title here. Nevertheless, SUMMERTEETH is the record where Wilco began to venture out of the confines of alt-country. Whereas on BEING THERE they looked for influences from the outside to drag into the alt-country equation, on SUMMERTEETH you get the sense that they are completely trying to break the mold and expand into other forms of American music.
PHIL SPECTOR's Wall of Sound dynamics seem to be a strong influence on tracks like "A Shot in the Arm" and "I'm Always In Love", and there's plenty of nods to the Beach Boys and Big Star. But it's on darker, more unconventional tracks like "She's A Jar" and "Via Chicago" that the band starts to find its own way ahead, hinting at the unorthodox song structures and circular lyricism employed on YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT. "How To Fight Loneliness", "When You Wake Up Feeling Old", and the title track are also very worthy additions to the Wilco canon, and the album rounds off nicely with "In A Future Age."
THE FINAL ANALYSIS: SUMMERTEETH is right up there with the best of Wilco's work, but coming between the mountains of BEING THERE and YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT in the band's catalog robs it of a little glory. Still, it's a must have for any Wilco fan.
Tracks:
1. Can't Stand It (4.5/5)
2. She's a Jar (4/5)
3. Shot in the Arm (5/5)
4. We're Just Friends (4/5)
5. I'm Always in Love (5/5)
6. Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway(again) (4/5)
7. Pieholden Suite (4/5)
8. How to Fight Loneliness (4.5/5)
9. Via Chicago (5/5)
10. ELT (4/5)
11. My Darling (3.5/5)
12. When You Wake Up Feeling Old (5/5)
13. Summerteeth (4/5)
14. In a Future Age (4.5/5)
16. Candyfloss (5/5)
Free Music Review: The Best Record of 1999 (maybe the decade... maybe longer)
Hit: 5 Stars
I almost feel sorry for Wilco to have to follow this record. Once you've produced greatness, people expect more of the same. But how does one follow perfection? I don't have a clue, but obviously Jeff Tweedy, Jay Bennet and the rest of Wilco do. Wilco's first record AM was a wonderful, driving, collection of roots-rock with an eye toward pop infection and melody (a first album that shows a band with incredible talent, and potential). Wilco then raised the bar with Being There, the sprawling double album that looked back as much as it strode ahead. Follow that with the grammy nominated Mermaid Avenue, and you've got quite a streak going. At this point anyone whose been paying attention would have been amazed, and eagerly awaiting the next gem Wilco had up its sleave. Nobody would have expected what they gave us though. Summerteeth passes all expectations. The roots-rock that put Tweedy on the map in Uncle Tupelo (and the previous Wilco records) is all but gone. What remains is his integrity, heart-felt singing, great words, and a new batch of incredible songs. The man is a genius. By now we're all familiar with the comparisons between summerteeth and the Brian Wilson / Beatles classics (pet sounds, smile / rubber soul, revolver), but that doesn't quite sum it up. This album is more than that. Sure those influences are evident, but when you look at this album in light of the bands previous work you see the progression of an incredible band. Time will tell, but I belive Wilco is and will go down as one of rock's great bands. Up there with Dylan, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Stones, Neil Young, and the Band, there is Wilco. And right now, Wilco is THE Great American Rock Band.And I can't think of a band that's had a series of records this great since the Beatles (rubber soul, revolver, sgt. pepper, magical mystery tour, white album, let it be, abbey road) '65-'70 streak. Maybe one day the AM, Being There, Mermaid Avenue, Summerteeth, and whatever comes next streak will be remembered with the same reverence. (Heck... the streak goes back even further if you count No Depression, Still Feel Gone, March 16-20, and Anodyne).
Do yourself a favor and buy this record.
Free Music Review: Take it to the limit...then PUSH the limit
Hit: 5 Stars
Wilco fans are weird, you know...kinda obsessive and creepy. That's only because those fans love Wilco's music SO MUCH, and they feel compelled to hold the craft under a microscope and look for the good, the bad, and the ugly. It's a natual reaction.Amazes me to see the reviews go from one star to five stars. Well, maybe it doesn't.
Anyway, as for me, I've been dying for this sound for at least a decade now, and I'm thrilled to have finally found it. Ok, that's an understatement. I spent most of the nineties drowned in Def Leppard and .38 Special, complaining that 90's music sucked, because most the 90's acts, well, sucked. Originality was completely forgotten and worse, abandoned. Then I found Wilco. Totally original. These guys has redeemed the nineties' music scene in my eyes.
Anybody who has any taste at all will love this record. "Summerteeth" transcends anything they've ever done. There are no words to describe how different these songs are from what you'd expect from an alt.country band(I consider them 'unclassified,' meself). Pure kick-ass pop. "ELT" is reminiscient of some of the masterpieces from _Being There_. "Can't Stand It" is completely new, and "When You Wake Up Feeling Old" is pure old-tyme pop. But for the most part, this album was just a really nice, pleasant surprise.
Did I mention how good these guys were as a live act? If you've never had your mind blown, go to a Wilco concert. Trust me on this.
My favorite tracks are "Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway(again)" ->what can I say, it makes me smile ... and "Pieholden Suite". One for its pop perfection, and the other for its strange, emotive lyrics. WTF *IS* a 'pieholden suite,' anyway?
Right now, Wilco is the "no-hit wonder," but one of these days they will be recognized in the same way Big Star was...as one of the greatest and most influential bands ever, and the can of worms will explode and people will backtrack to their earlier works (particularly A.M.) and discover a buried treasure of brilliant music. I rue and breathlessly await the day. Don't ask me to explain.