Agreed Sky is underrated 1 AM 2 Sky Blue Sky 3 A Ghost is Born 4 YHF 5 Whole Love 6 Summerteeth 6 Being There 8/9/10 the rest
1. Summerteeth 2. YHF 3. SBS 4. AGIB 5. Being There 6. Star Wars 7. The Whole Love 8. AM 9. Schmilco 10. Wilco
1. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot 2. Summerteeth 3. A Ghost is Born 4. Being There 5. Sky Blue Sky 6. Schmilco 7. AM 8. The Whole Love 9. Star Wars 10. Wilco (The Album)
All of their records have at least a few great songs. But I think Wilco/Whole Love/Star Wars run is definitely their creative nadir. A few songs on each of those records just wash over me. I feel like they were getting creatively tired around Sky Blue Sky (which I really really like, but there are definitely some skippers in it). I think Schmilco had some real interesting signs of life on it. Judging by the first two singles only Ode to Joy is shaping up to be (IMO) their best stuff since A Ghost is Born.
I don’t care much for “Walken” and “Hate it Here”, which is ironic because they mine McCartney Beatles pretty hard, and I love McCartney. “What Light” is fine? But it’s the kind of song Tweedy can write in his sleep. It doesn’t interest me much. “Shake it Off” does nothing for me. And I think “Leave Me” is a lesser version of songs on the record that accomplish the same thing, it’s not a bad song by any means but doesn’t really bring anything new to the record. The opening 5 song run is really great though and I love “Please Be Patient With Me” and “On and On and On”
All the ones I didn’t mention are better though! Plus their best records (the 4 I prefer to SBS) are quite a significant jump in quality above it. Those 4 records are just incredible, with way more sonic variety. SBS comes off a little flat in tone in comparison. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot would be in my top 3 all time favorite albums.
Nahhhhhhh Seeing them perform "Walken" and "Hate It Here" on SNL was what convinced me to check them out in the first place
When I think of bad pitchfork reviews their review of SBS is always the first one that comes to mind for me.
yhf being there summerteeth ghost whole love am wilco the album sbs star wars shmilco Everything after AM on that list varying degrees of sucks, imo. I really never liked sbs but I will concede there are 4ish great songs on it. I know WTA is extremely unpopular but to me it's really the same level of quality as SBS, only the songs I don't like are by and large inoffensively boring instead of the worst. Warm and Whole Love are absolutely miles and miles ahead of any other post-Ghost output from JT but admittedly I haven't heard Warmer yet and am hopeful it is also good.
I really like schmilco. There is a warm charm to it. There’s 6 songs I really enjoy. The first 3, Locator, Somebody to Lose, and Just Say Goodbye. The two new singles are probably the most effortlessly great Wilco songs since AGIB. They’ve put out lots of great songs since but it sounds like they’re in a groove.