Wilco - Summerteeth
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.27 You Save: $3.71 (46%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.85 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Summerteeth
Free Music Review: The best CD I've heard this year... so far
Hit: 5 Stars
I don't worship the ground Jeff Tweedy walks on. I think some songs on A.M. stray dangerously close to becoming novelty songs. And (dare I say it) not all of Uncle Tupelo's work has held up over the years. There are now more bands making better music in a similar vein.Summerteeth, however, is a glorious example of what happens when a band breaks free from expectations and discovers its own voice. This voice has not pleased some former Wilco fans. Some have said it's overproduced (or not "country" enough). Others say it's too pop. But Wilco has always been pop, just as country music has always been pop music in its most general sense. And it's only overproduced if it's incoherent (and it's not).
What we have in Summerteeth is the best new thing to come out of the "alt.country" genre in a few years. By abandoning the worn-out, banjo-and-mandolin fake-country sound, Wilco has managed to revive pop music and make it both fun and interesting.
Not only has the band written hummable melodies (a cardinal sin in the eyes of far too many of their fans), but the lyrics are still evocative and clever, perhaps more so than on their previous CDs. "The ashtray says you were up all night." See if you see a line with such imagery and embedded meaning in a song by Jewel or by Jay Farrar.
Musically, the songs have a timeless feeling, perhaps the effect of their melange of styles. If this is the direction in which Wilco wants to go, I will gladly follow. If they choose to go in another direction for the next album, well, I'll check that out, too.
Free Music Review: What You Once Were Isn't What You Want To Be...Anymore
Hit: 5 Stars
Summerteeth is a remarkable coming of age for Jeff Tweedy, a broad brush stroke that is complex on so many levels. "Shot In The Arm" may be the best song about a relationship ending that I've ever heard: ("The ashtray says/you were up all night/when you went to bed/with your darkest mind") which quickly transcends to boiling anger and the need for a tonic--anything to take the pain away. But there's hope at the end of the cd--another, sunnier version of "Shot" which leaves the listener with both a sense of redemption and hope. And while the entire album doesn't necessarily work to perfection, the gems (I Can't Stand It, Shot, I'm Always In Love, Nothingsever, Via Chicago) are 99% better than anything else out there. In sum, Tweedy is willing to take risks in a day when many others pursue the commercially acceptable practice. For those who haven't heard YHF, you are in for another delicious and timely outing. "Jesus Etc." may well be the most haunting and daring song Jeff has penned to date, although "I'm The Man Who Loves You" is my personal favorite and more Beatlesque than anything on Teeth, with it's Revolver era horns and sunny twanging guitars. If Neil Young wasn't on Reprise, I'd probably boycott the label altogether. Finally, to the prior reviewer that didn't like "War on War" or "Heavy Metal Drummer", I would say Let Tweedy be Tweedy--the more he explores, whether it be with drum machines or a Fleetwood Mac era sound, we the fans are unquestionably the true beneficiaries.Free Music Review: WHERE TO START YR WILCO COLLECTION
Hit: 5 Stars
Yes, Being There may be a better album overall, and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot can be considered more adventurous and daring, but this is the starting point for Wilco.Know how all the best albums are ones that you can listen to all the way through and then want to start them all over again? Know how those are the albums that leave you wonderiung week-to-week (and, if they're truly exceptional, year-to-year) which is the absolute, single best song on the album? Know how you can put that CD on again after a long hiatus and oine song that never made its' mark on you before suddenly leaps out of the speakers as "THE BEST SONG EVER WRITTEN"? And how new textures and elements introduce themselves to you with each listen?
That's this album. Unlike YHF, where the best songs are clearly defined and stay, this album, with each listen, it seems a diferent song leaps out: "Can't Stand It", "A Shot in the Arm", "My Darling", "She's A Jar", and my absolute favorite (at least this week) "I'm Always In Love". Jay Bennet's contributions as a musician and arranger are invaluable and prove that Wilco is not the same band in the least any longer (and should just be officially declared a jeff tweedy solo project in the wake of YHF)
Oh, and by the way, the reason I say Being There is not the place to start is that a great deal of the songs all share the same slow feel, sorta like a cool attractive death by mid-tempo.
Summerteeth is the bridge between the trad-rock of being There and the experimentation of YHF. You won't go wrong.
Free Music Review: Power pop perfect
Hit: 5 Stars
As much as I love good power pop, when I hear the words Power Pop I shudder from the top of my head to the bottom of my toes. Every inch of me shudders with fear that another band is going to write a formulaic CD. You know the kind: 3 minute pop songs, the hook at 25 seconds, bounce their heads to the left when they play it live, throw in odd instrumentation and sound effects to give it that Beatles or Beach Boys feeling! When I heard the rumblings that Wilco made a pop record, I was sick for a week. Coming off of two great CD's was a feat considering when you leave an incredible band (Uncle Tupelo), you never match that level of passion or songwriting again. Being there had the touches of power pop but didn't turn the full power pop corner and embraced the evil side of power pop. The evil side of power pop is what makes it so great, happy songs with shady lyrics or slow numbers with disgusting thoughts put in the framework of a pop format is what makes power pop music worth buying. To this day I still remember my first listen. I still remember that moment when I passed from being a fan of Wilco's music to becoming obsessed with everything that has passed through the Wilco camp past, present and future."She's A Jar": The transition from going from "She begs me not to miss her" to the last line in the song, "She begs me not to hit her" is flawless power pop songwriting. The fact that this song didn't become A) huge or B) controversial is more of a mystery than why the Beach Boys never released Smile.
Free Music Review: One of the great all-time albums
Hit: 5 Stars
I've been a big fan of Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy since Uncle Tupelo days. It seems that he is not only a naturally gifted songwriter, but he is additionally a devoted fanatic of pop music history. He and Wilco seem to be intent on creating a canon of work that stands alongside their strongest influences, specifically the Beatles, Big Star and the Beach Boys (although that doesn't even cover them all). I'm struck by the fact that I bought this disc three years ago and, like with the White Album and Pet Sounds, I continue to hear new sounds in these songs that I hadn't detected before. "Pieholden Suite" is breathtaking (I hate to overdo the Beach Boys' comparison, but the way Wilco both imitates and innovates in this song is stunning). "When You Wake Up Feeling Old" is heartwarming, "We're Just Friends" and "How to Fight Loneliness" are great melodramas, "Via Chicago" is hypnotic, and the title song is as optimistic as you might have been the last time you skipped down the street. The sound is completely full, with guitars, drums, keyboards, mandolin, banjo, and all manner of strange synthesizer sounds. The songs here just flow from one to the next in a seamless fashion and each one creates an entirely different mood, from tearful to euphoric. I can't recommend it highly enough. And yes, it might take a dozen listens to begin sinking in, but once it does there is seemingly no end to its depth.