mail: daniel_fjall@hotmail.com
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being there mermaid avenue (with billy bragg) summer teeth yankee hotel foxtrot a ghost is born
Being There Released: 1996 Rating: 7/10 Track listing: 1. Misunderstood/ 2. Far, Far Away/ 3. Monday/ 4. Outtasite (Outta Mind)/ 5. Forget The Flowers/ 6. Red-Eyed And Blue/ 7. I Got You (At The End of The Century)/ 8. What’s The World Got In Store/ 9. Hotel Arizona/ 10. Say You Miss Me/ 11. Sunken Treasure/ 12. Someday Soon/ 13. Outta Mind (Outta Sight)/ 14. Someone Else’s Song/ 15. Kingpin/ 16. (Was I) In Your Dreams/ 17. Why Would You Wanna Live/ 18. The Lonely 1/ 19. Dreamer In My Dreams A double album and hailed as a masterpiece at the time of its release, Being There is 77 minutes of low-keyed, and country-influenced pop songs with the roots in the American folk singer tradition. “Misunderstood” is a beautiful piano-based ballad that comes off as a bit weird with it’s sections with heavy feedback and moments of chaos. Still it’s gorgeous and melodic when it’s more traditionally approached. “Far, Far Away” is a even more beautiful creation. A mellow waltz that at first seems being a lightweight and unoriginal country ballad, but then some unexpected minor-chords changes everything and the song becomes fascinating. The album continues like this, simple melodies along with not too offensive arrangements (which is a good thing here), strong songwriting and great performances throughout the album. Unfortunately, there are fillers. The rockers that are included for variation and diversity often seems to be Rolling Stones ripp-offs. “It’s Only Rock And Roll” played by Slade or something. It ends up as stupid arena-rock and is far from being as successful as the country-ish and poppier stuff. Good thing then that songs like “I Got You (At The End of The Century)” always is followed up by perfect song material and band-delivery as “What’s The World Got In Store”. Catchy, earthy, organic and uplifting with the organ and harmony vocals bringing out the best possible out of them. Another clear highlight is “Say You Miss Me”, a nice, tender ballad that once again reminds of Jagger/Richards thanks to the catchy “Woohoo”s in the chorus. Also again, strong melody and so damn catchy! Not only is there openly Stones-influences on the album, but don’t you think “Outta Mind (Outta Sight)” breathes some Beach Boys? Nice harmony singing, that echo on the drums, the rhythm. Sounds just like a Wild Honey or Sunflower left over to me. I love it. It manages to sound like something more than just another rip-off which is more than “Monday” and “Outtasite (Outta Mind)” can brag about. To sum things up: perfect retro, mixed up with some bland rockers that surely would have been great unless it was for an almost tasteless approach. It almost makes me afraid of the dark to imagine how much Ryan Adams have stolen from this little band. Being There is not a masterpiece, but it sure as hell is a good effort and suffers from the CD-format-syndrome. Just because you have the possibility to fill an album with 20 songs doesn’t have to mean it’s a good idea. I mean, you don’t pour milk into your beer just because you can, right? Oh, “Someone Else’s Song” sounds just like someone else’s song. Sounds like Johnny Cash’s song.
Mermaid Avenue (with Billy Bragg) Wilco teamed up with modern protest singer Billy Bragg for a risky project: writing new music to unpublished Woody Guthrie lyrics. Now, my knowledge about Guthrie is rather limited, but I acknowledge his importance for the musical and lyrical evolution. He was the leading singer/songwriter of his generation and his massive influence on Bob Dylan alone makes him one of the corner stones in American music history. Add his own, more direct contributions and impact, and suddenly the image of an icon and legend appears. To even think about messing around with his work must have been both inspiring and scary for everyone involved. Despite the fact that some of the lyrics were written in the 1930’s, they still hold up well. Never sound dated, but rather timeless and sometimes even contemporary. Lines such as ‘I’m sure that women are equal and they may be ahead of men’ manage to bring up a modern west world discussion and the album is filled with matters and ideals that still seems urgent and important. The music is also highly enjoyable as, whilst always kept simple, it refreshingly enough holds a lot of depth and diversity. Billy Bragg and Jeff Tweedy shares the lead vocals, and both of them doing it well. Billy Bragg, however, is generally the most authentic and affecting. Yet, the most affecting and tender moment, slightly challenged by Jeff Tweedy’s “Another Man’s Done Gone”, appears when guest vocalist Natalie Merchant handles the lead on the soft “Birds And Ships”. Mermaid Avenue is a wonderful listen. It may be somewhat confusing, though, as you might start wondering who is to be celebrated; the performers or the lyricist? You realize soon that it is a full blown collaboration between Wilco, Bragg and Guthrie. It never would have worked as well with one of them missing. It is an album combining the old traditions with the new ways. The past with the future. All done with respect, pride, emotion and beauty.
Summer Teeth On Summer Teeth Wilco ignores the root rockers that wasn’t too convincing on Being There and instead set their aim on ballads and catchy pop songs, filled with r’n’b and traditional American songbook influences dressed up in a modern suit. The strong melodies are delivered with confidence and not a stinker anywhere. The only thing that might be somewhat off putting is the length of the album. It’s a tad too long which makes it harder to embrace and perhaps with 17 songs a little hard to get into. Once you’re in there’s nothing that stops you from enjoying it, though. The ballads in particular are successful, “My Darling” and “We’re Just Friends” are extremely moving and emotional. The former has a certain spaciousness in the arrangement which makes it adorable right from the start, whilst “We’re Just Friends” has a lovely broken vocal lead that is about to crack any moment. The lighter pop songs, such as “When You Wake Up Feeling Alone”, has great harmony vocals which is worth paying extra attention to, and “I Can’t Stand It” and “A Shot In The Arm” is going straight to catchy rock heaven. What ties everything together, except for Tweedy’s impeccable vocals, is the brilliant keyboard work throughout. Maybe not impressive from an technical point of view, but the simple melodies are catchy, ear grabbing and always has a great sound. Sometimes the keyboards are used to atmospheric effect only, but either way, the keyboard arrangements never fails to add something special. Of course that wouldn’t have mattered if it wasn’t for the strong songwriting that Summer teeth is based on.
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot With classic pop songs, slightly disguised as singer/songwriter country material, Wilco creates a close to perfect album. The acoustic guitars and the earthy arrangements makes Yankee Hotel Foxtrot a great listen. Especially since the melodies more than often are top notch, and the lyrics takes a social stand. There’s more to this album than naive love songs, even though you could easily be lead to believe that they are nothing more. "Jesus, Etc" and "Ashes of American Flags" are particularly good examples of that, whilst "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" and "Heavy Metal Drummer" are pure pop songs, in the best meaning of the word. And the ballad "Reservations" is a small masterpiece in itself. It has a beautiful piano along with a fantastic vocal performance, and the song defines the meaning of 'album closer'. The comparisons to Whiskeytown and Ryan Adams are still inviting, but with this album Wilco surely seems much more interesting than Mr. Adams’ current work. It’s hard to find a true stinker here, but the noise and sound experiments between the actual songs might put the average listener off. However, if you just get pass those 30 seconds of chaos every now and then you will be all set for another four minutes of pop heaven. Quite emotional too.
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