Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

There are, in my estimation, only a couple of sins in music that are entirely unforgivable, and chief amongst them is to be boring. And that's my problem with this, an album that seems to have garnered plaudits and critical acclaim off the back of very little. For all the sonic bells and whistles, this is such a monotone-sounding collection; unvarying in tempo, tone or ambition. The melodies are boring; Jeff Tweedy has a boring voice; the bing-bong-whizz sound effects (or should that be affects?) are boring. I hate this album with a rare passion.

This album is LOVELY. Just out there enough that you can see a few wee aliens. But warm enough it’s like a big hug that smells like weed. Class.

Pretty boring album, there's some decent songs in the middle but it starts off with nothing and ends with nothing, I was not impressed with most of the songs on this album

I'm glad I listened to this album through my good headphones. The instrumentation is more interesting than I've given it credit for in the past. Dad loved Wilco, and I'm glad I can finally connect with it too. I'll listen to this album again.

Oh my... what a breath of fresh air! I've heard of Wilco but never taken the time to hear them out. This is the perfect bridge between Guster and Bright Eyes. They are sensitive with substance, but never whiny. Now that would be good enough to get my attention, but they make great use of distortion, sounds, and beats to really add some depth. The autoplay for youtube after this album suggests a day in the life by the beatles and I would agree that this album shares a lot with that track. My first impression was a 3 star album due to the lofi sound, but it grew to a 4 with the emo substance and then a 4.5 with the progressive instrumentals. A phenomenal record!

I couldn't wait for this album to end.

It was on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot that Jeff Tweedy's obsession with deconstruction and the studio reached its apotheosis. Tweedy always wrote simple songs, often based on Americana, which gave him the freedom to screw around with attenuating the structures, adding dissonant elements and noise, and subtracting or layering elements, all in the service of asking the question, "What makes a song work?" and laying bare the artifice of the studio. Fortunately for us listeners, Tweedy's obsessions aren't simply academic--his layering is often gorgeous and never more than on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Nowadays, it's common for bands to have heavily ambient elements and noise jostling for attention alongside more conventional song structures. I would bet that Yankee Hotel Foxtrot has a lot to do with that. Also Eno, industrial music from the 80s, and a bunch of other influences, but I digress. The songs on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot work both as deconstruction and as catchy tunes. You don't have to be a music geek to enjoy Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but it definitely deepens the experience.

Cohesive as an album and has some interesting sounds, but those elements never quite combine. It's weird to say, since that should undermine the overall cohesion. Perhaps that means I'm not quite getting it. But the effect is that listening to the LP puts me halfway between "This is almost very good." and "This is nice background noise."

This is an easy one. This is one of my absolute favorite albums of all time, maybe even top 5. Every single song is good, and several of them are great. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart is the perfect first song for this album, and it just keeps going from there. The album is sad and sweet, but also revels in some happy moments, like War on War and Heavy Metal Drummer. I'd also recommend the documentary about the making of this album if you can find it (titled: I Am Trying to Break Your Heart) 5/5

How the fuck are there two Wilco albums in this list? It's alright, but hardly noteworthy. Christ, what if there's more? Fun fact: Wilco sleeps upside down.

Genuinely impressed by how boring it is.

NO! Just fucking no! Every algorithm in existence suggests that my indie-pop, singer-songwriter soul should love Wilco, and worship this goddamn album. I've tried. I really have. Took a long hiatus from it. Trying again in good faith via this site. Just a whiney, whiney nasely warble dragging my ears across a very lame, non-energetic blob of dull. Fucking no. Wilco annoys me.

this album was an exercise in restraint. there were some god awful sounds throughout the album, like that loud static noise?! the lead singer, jeff tweedy, has an unremarkable voice that even sometimes sounds like pure whining. those sorts of things soured me on the rest of the album very quickly. wilco did get something right: "heavy metal drummer" is the best song on this album. it's cute, charming, and there are no awful sounds on it. unfortunately, what that means to me is that wilco is capable of creating good, enjoyable music but chooses not to.

I don't really know what to take from this album. Is it iconic because this sound was the first in a wave of bands cutting albums like this later? This album has interesting stuff in terms of sonic textures but I don't see the cohesive whole where I care about it? I don't give a shit about this album.

I've listened to a little Wilco here and there over the years, but not this album. Gotta say, I really like it - love it when indie rock dabbles with ambient. This sounds like an album Pavement would put out a couple of months after developing a penchant for cat tranquillizers. Fave track - "Radio Cure" for that melancholy, "Poor Places" for those number station samples....

I bought three of Wilco's albums before this one. While I never bought Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, I was given as a present the documentary on making this album. There was a lot of drama around this album with the drummer leaving just before the recording and guitarist / co-songwriter Jay Bennett leaving just after. To top it off, Reprise (their label) refused to release the record. Wilco paid Reprise peanuts to buy out their rights to the record and then signed with the label Nonesuch who paid Wilco much more than Wilco paid Reprise. fyi, Warner Brothers owns both Reprise and Nonesuch. GONG! On the first song the drums are more conspicuous than on any other Wilco song; the drummer clearly wanted to let everyone know there was a new sheriff in town. lol The album has a smattering of upbeat songs and many of the typically very quiet introverted ballads that populate Wilco’s albums. The experimental music in the last 30 sec. of Poor Places and all of Reservations doesn't work for me. It was worth a try I guess; I understand musicians wanting to try new things but this didn't work for Wilco and should have been left on the cutting room floor. The experimental accents on I'm Trying to Break Your Heart are quite good. The differentiator between this song and Reservations is that the experimentation is an accent rather than the main course. Jeff's pensive voice on ballads is an acquired taste. On “Being There", Wilco’s second album, the songs with strong rhythms were so good you were motivated to play the whole album and invest the time to get to know (and get to like) the ballads. There are good songs with strong rhythms on this album, including Kamera, Heavy Metal Drummer and I'm Trying to Break Your Heart. War on War is also good. I can imagine that previous iterations of this song sounded like a nice Jeff Tweedy ballad that all but devoted Wilco fans would hate but it was then engineered to produce a catchy and experimental beats oriented tune. While the songs with strong rhythms are good, they're not on par with Wilco's best.

A little over a month ago I gave a mixed review of Wilco's Being There but said I was looking forward to the "indieheads essential" YHF. Well here we are. And color me impressed, every track stands out... no filler. Simple melodies, some catchy, some super experimental, with an aesthetically pleasing folky voice that reminds me of Sufjan Stevens. By far, the star of the album is the creative songwriting, covering themes of angst and existential dread. I really love the lyrics. My favorite is on "Ashes of America." Lyrics are full of literary devices that evoke imagery that speaks of the narrator's twisted and often flawed mindset. Vocals perfectly reflect the melancholic tone. Experimental techniques often reinforce the confusion and anxiety. However, this is also a double-edged sword, it gets a little too obscure. Especially in that first song. It took me a few listens to come up with some attempt of what they're talking about, and then to read interpretations online. "Oh so he's a drunk driver who improves his alcoholism from the size of an aquarium to a dixie cup." This can be a distracting (or engaging) experience for new listeners, making it slightly inaccessible since the songwriting is the main shine. The other fault that prevents this album from being perfect is the cohesion of the album. The songs stand really well on their own, and could be improved by some track reshuffling. But as is, the moods expressed in one song get totally disrupted by the next. "War on War" ends chaoticly, then immediately goes to a melodic and soothing "Jesus etc," then the deep introspective and political "Ashes of American Flags," then to the catchy pop "Heavy Metal Drummer." I'm not sure what to feel because it doesn't give me time to breath and prepare for different emotions. The intro "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" and closing "Reservations" perform their roles well respectively, but the rest either needs to be reshuffled or placed on different albums.

Yeah I would like this if I was a gen x democrat dad but I'm not so I think it's whiney and lame. This was a chore and a half. No thanks!

Meh, not for me. Some parts were interesting.

My dad’s response when I asked him what he thought of R.E.M. is apt here: “They have good arrangements.”

Sometimes I worry that all the lore surrounding this album overshadows the fact that it’s fucking fantastic. I’m not the world’s biggest Wilco fan but I do enjoy their music, and this is rightly regarded as peak Wilco. It sucks that there was so much tension and drama in the making of this, but the end result is so good. Also fun, as I’ve begun to explore his work more, I can definitely sense the fingerprints of Jim O’Rourke all over this.

Transcendent. This album was originally scheduled to release on 9/11, yet it somehow captures the post-9/11 ethos perfectly. It's also fresh today. Complex in all the right ways, without sacrificing listenability or accessibility. It's cliche for hipsters to fawn over this album, but in this case, they're right. Best track: I Am Trying to Break Your Heart

Absolute classic album. Top 200 for me. Essential listening.

Loved this in highschool, my dad loved this when he was in his 20s, is it that good not reeeally but do I fuck with it? Yup. Pot kettle black!!!

This one’s a little overrated, isn’t it? Like maybe just a tiny bit? It is. Like Kid A, this is one of those albums that doesn’t really surpass the sum of its influences, at least if you’re familiar with the music of Wilco’s contemporaries in the Chicago indie scene. On Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco feels a bit indebted to the music that was going on around them in the Chicago post-rock scene and the broader indie rock world. You hear traces of Tortoise or The Sea and Cake in the record’s bubbling analog synths and the influence of Jim O’Rourke (Gastr Del Sol and later Sonic Youth), who mixed the record, is readily apparent on the more experimental songs. If YHF was your introduction to this sort of alt-rock minimalism, I can understand this record ranking highly for you, much like Kid A might open the door to the worlds of Aphex Twin or Boards of Canada for Radiohead listeners. If you were already familiar with Jim O’Rourke or John McEntire or Stereolab before hearing this record, you might not find it all that special. …and honestly, “Heavy Metal Drummer” is pretty much a Pavement song. I think it’s about time we all came to terms with that. Don’t get me wrong, I think there are some fantastic songs on this record: Ashes of American Flags, Jesus, etc, Kamera and Pot Kettle Black are all excellent. It’s just that Yankee Hotel Foxtrot leans more on experimentation than song craft to me, and the experimentation doesn’t always work. Wilco found a better balance of the two on 1998’s Summerteeth, which, to my ears, is the Wilco record to beat.

meh

I think if I didn't read your reviews before listening I wouldn't have spent the whole thing thinking: 'There's no way this is a five star album' then maybe I would have enjoyed it a lot more. It was great in parts but also just not that good boys, I'm sorry, I'm bringing it down

A little weird, not very melodic, not too much fun

It was okay. Generally inoffensive, but not that exciting. Not sure I really needed to hear it before I die. Feels like it might be a grower... Seems I was right about it being a grower. Enjoying it more on second listen. Some really nice guitar sounds. Vocals reminiscent of Mark Everett. Don't think it will ever be a favourite album, but I like it enough to revisit again.

in oregon if you don't like wilco they are legally allowed to kill you

Poor man’s radiohead, love it

very interesting…some of the songs felt very indie folk but some of them had these insanly creative electronic elements, and some were cold and ambient. not sure what to think, but i enjoyed it a ton, easy 5 stars, the creativity and noise on this record is unlike anything ive heard.

Modern Classic

I love everything about this record. The instrumentation is weird and sorry of broken. The vocals are unsure delicate. Even the story of this records failure to be released by WB, leading to the band releasing this on their own. This record shouldn't work. But it's a classic piece of Americana. It's one of my favorite records of all time.

An easy 5 for me. I know I say this a lot, but for a while this was one of my favourite albums. A perfect example of clever, alt US indie. Amazingly their record label hated this and sacked them, not long after it got picked up by a rival and became a huge hit. Wilco were the first band I ever saw live that told the audience to put their phones away. Love them for that. Anyway, this is and always will be an incredible album for me!

Love this album so much. It’s all about the production; just those dry and crispy guitar bits with the lush vocals and strings…the way this album *sounds* deserves 5 stars and that’s not even talking about the songs. Must-listen #66.

One of the all time greats!

A real grower of an album. For me it took a few good listens to really uncover everything taking place, but it’s so worth it! And I feel like it just gets better and better by the end. Don’t give up on what seems like a mellow album, listeners! So good.

Instant classic!

It slightly hurts me that Mermaid Avenue is on this list. Maybe one of the few times where I’d argue less is more. Just having Yankee Hotel Foxtrot would be fine. If you aren’t looking for a full deep dive, all you need from this band is right here. I’m not sure why I ever listened to this album in the first place. Or what has kept me coming back. In the back of my mind I know there’s probably something better out there I could be spending my time with. Maybe it’s my dislike towards being told the music I listen to isn’t cool. I definitely feel like a hipster when this is on, but I promise you I am not. It’s surprising, because I’ve heard enough music similar to this that I’ve actively disliked to know this is generally not my thing. In some way, the crown jewel of Jeff Tweedy’s career resonates with me in a way I have found few other albums capable of doing. This is my definitive Americana/indie rock album. The weather was so beautiful today. At least I thought it was. Very windy but not uncomfortably cold, with the slightest hint of rain coming down. Pretty gloomy, but fitting for the season. That’s sort of the way I see this album. It’s so steeped in a deep and suffocating melancholy, but there is an ever so small amount of hope coming in through the crack in the door. The light at the end of the tunnel. Something like Radio Cure is oppressively sad, and feels gray and bleak in comparison to the song that precedes it. The lyrics are really where that hipster idea comes from. A lot of what he’s saying might not have any profound meaning. But every so often there is something really good. “Distance has no way of making love understandable” and “I know I would die if I could come back new” have always stuck out to me. Reservations is particularly a song I want to talk about. It had been a while since I last heard it, so I was going in more blind than not. But it’s hard to really explain the effect it had on me. The best way I can break it down is as if the song physically expunged all of the air from my lungs. I was left feeling winded and short of breath. By no means is it a traditionally written indie rock song, but it’s a positively beautiful one. I may never really know why I continue to come back time and time again to this. But it has rooted itself deeply in my heart, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Rating: 10/10!

A modern masterpiece and in so many ways, probably still the quintessential Wilco album.

I knew I liked them from 'California Stars' and 'Jesus etc' but didn't expect this. I'm completely hooked and can't stop playing it. Every track, every minute, every moment gets better and better with every listen. So much depth, so immersive. I love it.

Always hard to decide whether I think this or Sky Blue Sky is a more perfect record, but it is like comparing Abbey Road to the White Album. And yes, I made that parallel, because Wilco is that good. I think this is a culmination of everything the band (and Jeff Tweedy before Wilco) had been doing in the years before, while the addition of Nels Cline on the next album took things to an entirely new level. Both are always worth the listen.

This album is a true highlight in the history of songwriting. It does not provide that much innovation, but the sheer craftmanship cannot be denied. Songs like "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart", "War on War", "Jesus, Etc.", "Ashes of American Flags", "Heavy Metal Drummer", "I'm the Man Who Loves You", "Pot Kettle Black" and "Reservations" are amazing. Yes, that is almost all of the songs. The other ones are "just" great and live all these songs are even better. One of the true classic albums!

Absolutely Excellent.

Listened to this album on repeat for a year when it came out. LOVE LOVE LOVE. so sad that this incarnation of wilco didn't stick around for longer.

One of the great recods of our time.

I fucking love this band! I've been listening to Wilco for a long time now, and this is their best album. period. from lyrics, to the instrumentals and just the feel of the album, it's one of my favorites.

It was much more alternative and experimental than I expected, but I only had a passing familiarity with Wilco. I think I liked it

I've always been obsessed with Heavy Metal Drummer. Solid album.

Ez jóóó

Surprised from the comments that many find this boring. This is a great album - stretching the band (perhaps to breaking point) and delivering some really fine songs.

Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Really good album to listen! There's a lot of elements of what makes this album really unique, also the fact that it has a lot of depth into the lyrics and the messages that they try to convey to the audience. This album is so complex that there's rarely one genre to categorize it, it combines so many genres into one and somehow it works. Overall, this is REALLY great! 1.- I Am Trying to Break Your Heart = 10/10 2.- Kamera = 8/10 3.- Radio Cure = 9/10 4.- War on War = 8/10 5.- Jesus, Etc. = 9/10 6.- Ashes of American Flags = 9/10 7.- Heavy Metal Drummer = 7/10 8.- I'm the Man Who Loves You = 9/10 9.- Pot Kettle Black = 7/10 10.- Poor Places = 10/10 11.- Reservations = 10/10 FINAL SCORE: 8.7/10

Las bandas que se conocen gracias a personas que dejan en uno marcas para toda la vida tienen una mayor relevancia. Otro recuerdo. Se trata de un trabajo más ¿solemne? ¿oscuro? O algún concepto que aúne a ambos. Es increíble la función de The Beatles en toda la música. Fueron como una pandemia benévola y parece que lo seguirán siendo. El disco abarca distintas emociones desde lo musical. Quizás eso lo hace particular.

The first Wilco album I heard, and the reason why I expect the others to be so much better than they actually are. This is really good, a lovely set of songs enhanced by electronic fiddling and distortion. Kamera, War on War, Jesus etc, are all great, and the eponymous numbers station broadcast integrated into Poor Places is a stark and haunting climax. I can even tolerate Heavy Metal Drummer this time around. Happy to spend the day with one of the more interesting indie albums of the 2000's once again.

I first heard this album when it was new. I already had a respect for Wilco, but wasn't that familiar with their music. When Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was released, the reception felt like this was the next Radiohead. I listened to it once or twice, but I just didn't understand what anyone loved about this album (just like my reaction to OK Computer). I didn't get it and Wilco was off my radar forever. When this album came up as my next listen, my first reaction was "Oh really?!? We're doing this again?" However, I did actually enjoy the listen this time. Nothing that knocks my socks off. Just a good solid album that almost piques my interest. The whole album just got me in the mood for Golden Smog, what I would consider a better version of Wilco. I was most engaged in the middle of the album (from Jesus Etc. to I'm The Man Who Loves You). At one point, near the end of Ashes of American Flags (I was doing yard work at the time), the lyric "All off the falling leaves filling up shopping bags" played while I was actually emptying my mower bag into the larger bin. Eerie, but appreciated. This album was definitely worth the second listen before I die. I may hear it again, I might not. It was a good experience though and I give thanks for the suggestion even though I was sceptical out of the gate. Edit: I realized the impression this album gives me... Pavement light.

The most successful Wilco's album. Great calm and melancholic mix of art-rock / indie rock. Recording sessions were documented for the film "I Am Tryind To Break Your Heart". Reprise Record refused to release the album because they felt unhappy about the end result so the band streamed the album for free on their website in 2001. Later in 2002 the album was oficially released by Nonesuch Records and critics acclaimed the album as one of the grratest albums of the 2000s.

Fourth Wilco album. They made a documentary about the making of. Their drummer was fired at the beginning of the sessions, and a guitarist was fired after the album was made. A good listen.

Some great songs and some meh. Would be 3.5 if I could.

Obvious references are Radiohead and Flaming Lips but YHF leans less heavily on studio tricks than either of those bands. Compared to Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots it has clearer provenance and compared to Kid A it is a lot more accessible. The trade-off is that it's more boring than either of those records. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart begins with a pleasant musique concrete hum which continues in one form or another throughout the album. There's a nice contrast between the warm and fuzzy guitar tone and hum and the story of regret. Kamera is an indie rock song and it would be fine if I turned on the radio with friends in the car to find it playing. Radio Cure starts with quite a nice tense acoustic guitar strum but occasionally swells into a twee pop thing at odds with the message about a long distance relationship. The single War on War is a fun and upbeat number with a climax that pays tribute to Sonic Youth. Jesus Etc. starts a bit more interesting with a lounge number with surrealist lyrics and a fiddle. Ashes of the American Flag is indie sludge that shows you everything that was wrong with music in the 2000s. The other single Heavy Metal Drummer has the best studio work, with breaks and a heavy synthetic bass line in the chorus making it the rare Indies song that you could dance to. I'm the Man Who Loves You keeps the energy going with a country tinged song with simple yet effective lyrics and some great brass. Pot Kettle Black is a pretty standard indie pop number which does nothing for the album. Mellotrons are nice I suppose. Poor Places again channels Sonic Youth with lyrics that could have come straight out of Thurston Moore mouth before a pop resolution which morphs into a kind of cool instrumental vamp and then back to noise. Reservations is a ponderous and overwrought love song which is entirely skippable. The final three minutes of slow piano chords and the ubiquitous radio noises are fine but won't win any awards for sound design. As an unrepentant jungle and IDM freak I was surprised by how often the overdubs and abstract stuff in the album felt like it took away from the story telling. I know the album is full of radio themes but why? There are flashes of brilliance and a few songs which I'd put on a mixtape for my girlfriend but ultimately this isn't earth shattering. On the one hand what they did to secure the master and self release on the internet was super cool, but I think if a label had a bit more control and cut the length by 15-20 minutes this could have been a 4.

The first listen went by a little unnoticed. So I played it again. There were parts that got my attention but nothing that really grabbed me by the balls.

Suffers from 'Macbeth is Boring' syndrome.

The album is just so lifeless and uninspiring and never picks up. Greatly lacks rhythm and anything truly memorable. But not bad enough to not have in the background at the very least.

This album was just very very uneventful and boring

YHF? You have failed?

Two or Three good Songs but as a whole quite Boring. Too centered around lead Singer/lyriks. Lacks the melodic elements and dynamics to excite.

Solid. Pleasant alt-country. 7/10

Not worth the effort.

Dreary. Sorry, couldn’t find anything to like much here.

Like country moved to the suburbs

I wanted to like this more. This seems to be in my musical wheelhouse, but it came to me an competent but generally uninteresting. It began to blur together.

Oscar Kilo

not very interesting or energetic

Just not good. Whiny, boring, bad lyrics, worse vocals, drab nothingness of music. And at some point I will encounter another one of their albums on this list, yieeeesh. Wilco and this album are if Modest Mouse had to fight the aliens from SpaceJam (The Monstars) and when lose, they lose all their talent and any ability to feel emotions. 1.2/10 59/1001

I just listened to this and I already forgot everything about the album. I don't think I've ever listened to anything so lacklustre before. At least bad albums are bad, this is just....beige nothingness.

Horrível

Nothing grinds my gears more than a singer who sounds like they're bored while singing

Maybe I'm not the target audience for this album but I couldn't get into this at all, it was too slow and it didn't grab my attention. From a quick Google search on Wilco, I found they were listed as alt-rock but I think they're much more alt than rock as alt-rock is a genre I usually enjoy. The bright spots in the album were the instrumentals and the lowest point was definitely capping off what I would consider to be a snoozefest with a 7 minute song. Overall yankee hotel foxtrot is more boring than bad, but honestly, I'd rather cringe than yawn. Best song: Jesus Etc. Worst Song: Reservations Skips: The whole album

This is so unremarkable that I'm inclined to believe that this albums inclusion on this list is the result of someone's having been paid off. I mean really. I make it a point to listen to each of these albums at least once through, but this one was a real challenge to not skip the aggressively boring tracks. 1/5

This isn't the first time in this project that I've been pleasantly surprised by how much I vibed with an album. This is FANTASTIC for helping me focus! I got shit done! Active listening? Naaaaaah. I shall accept this gift from the ADHD gods.

Overall: 9/10 This album felt like a ray of sunshine peeking through the cracks of my mind. I felt incredibly chill throughout the listening experience but I was able to pick up on some dancey, catchy bits too. The production is insane and there's a lot of sounds added that enhance the experience. Such a great album, glad it was part of this project. Fav Song: I'm the Man Who Loves You Least Fav Song: Radio Cure

Another one I would give 4.5, but since I have to choose I will go all 5 for this one. Really liked seeing it live a lot better though.

I've always wondered what the deal with Wilco is, but I hadn't gotten around to it. I knew OF them, but only really knew Jesus, etc, and I feel like I've heard so much of them from who knows where. But I Get It. This influenced probably every indie band I listened to in college. I love how sloppy it is at times. 10/10

Rating this a 5 before listening to it because it is. One time I saw them in Granada, Spain, and it was a magical evening. Not many people there so it was weirdly intimate, a great show and I was feeling amazing when I was leaving the venue. I walked down an alley and a team of 15 Spanish SWAT team style guys suddenly rounded the corner at full sprint and rushed past me, pushing me against the wall. Two of them pulled out a battering ram and broke in a back door of one of the houses and they all rushed inside. I heard either gun shots or smoke grenades going off and I took off running and didn't look back. Never figured out what it was or what happened. Anyways terrific album, 5 stars!

I don't think i was expecting it but i absolutely loved Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Even if my favorite genre is metal, i still do enjoy an album that is so relaxing, it soothes the soul. Every song, even if it did have a faster pace to it, just felt so relaxing with the slower songs being the ones that really brought it out. I also liked all the little electronic sounds in each of the songs as they did help give the songs even more of an identity even if they did get a little noisy in the first couple of songs. I also never really found the length of the album an issue because i feel this album needs to be 57 minutes in order to fully soothe you. This is a really excellent album that i can easily recommend to anyone. Best Song: Ashes of American Flags Worst Song: I Am Trying to Break Your Heart

For the longest time now I've held reservations about indie rock. Y'know, "Why is a genre that's so acclaimed and beloved by music critics and journalists often some of the most boring music I've ever heard in my life? Are they dumb?" But, no, really, it really is some of the most "eeeehhhh" music I've ever heard in my life. It's like, for as much as I rag on post-punk (the pure stuff, I mean), I at least usually feel something listening to it, even if it **is** mostly offense at the idea that being unpalatable and unfun to listen to automatically deserves praise. Meanwhile, with most pure indie, all I usually wind up feeling is the need to take a nap. It's not exactly something this list has helped me with much, either: just look at how much I didn't enjoy any of the three Arcade Fire albums my group got. Which thus brings up to the subject of this little review/babble: Wilco, another darling of the indie rock scene (so I understand). They're one I actually had a lot of hope for going in thanks to featuring on another soundtrack of my youth, the one for THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE. Now, like, sure, the song they did ("Just A Kid") wasn't my favorite on the album — it's no "They'll Soon Discover" or "SpongeBob & Patrick Confront The Psychic Wall Of Energy" — but if nothing else, it was a cue from the top that they don't make what I'd think of off the dome as "hipster-ass record store music." Real "RYMcore," y'know? Within the first track, then... I'll admit, doubts were setting in. Something about it on a first listen just didn't gel with me. I suppose (if I hadda guess) I just couldn't square away what the musical monotony of the track was adding to whatever it was about. "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart"... I understand the sentiment, and I can even get a feeling from the lyrics even if I don't 100% "get them," but on a purely melodic level (which is how I normally operate)... Boy, it wasn't a good first impression. Was the rest of the album gonna be like this? Thankfully: no. Oh, dear goodness me, no. Things really started picking up after that song, and by the time I got to the third record side (starting with "Heavy Metal Drummer"), I was all on board. This is real good stuff, and I was the fool from doubting the guys who made "Just A Kid". Way livelier than I'd expected... I mean, I'll tell you this: with the full musical context of the album in mind, I enjoyed "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" **way better** than I did the first time. Like, damn, y'know? It's just... Y'know, it's here I gotta describe the feeling I had around this album, and it's a... New one for me, I gotta say. 'Coz as I was listening through this album, I got the strangest sensation like I should know it already. That I should vaguely know the words well enough to kind of sing along with it... That I should be hearing instrumentals to songs and getting pumped as hell about them, like "YEAH, THIS ONE..." That I should have deep connections to these songs for the way I've wrapped my character and stories around them... It was so bizarre to feel this familiar with an album I was only hearing for the first time. I couldn't even pin down anything it specifically reminded me of — maybe some of the songs reminded me of the more serious cuts on the Barenaked Ladies' album GORDON, but other than that... Everything just worked for me that well, from the instrumentation and the mental landscapes they evoked, all the way down to, yes, even the lyrics. I've expressed before, being as likely AuDHD as I am, I'm usually never good with lyrics, especially the more poetic ones. They make me feel dumb for not "getting them" and having to look up what they mean... But here, thankfully, it's not poetic to an extreme like Bob Dylan and his ilk are. It's a lot simpler, which doesn't all detract from how... Evocative they are. Seriously, I'unno if I can really describe it, but even when I wasn't fully grasping the lyrics, they still evoked **something** just so well that I could still go along with them anyway. I'unno if you know what I mean, but that's really how it went. Of course, I wanna temper things a bit here and say that it's not like this album changed my brain chemistry or anything. **Maybe** it coulda been cut down by a couple minutes, y'know? It's just, in terms of the hypes and praise I'd always heard this album had... Jeez, yeah, no, yeah, it lives up. And I guess it's as good of a reminder as any that indie rock is a spectrum, not a monolith. Some of it... Boring as damn tar — seriously, I just do **not** get the hype for Arcade Fire. But on the other hand, you got stuff like this, and like with shoegaze and LOVELESS, this should be more the kind of stuff I think of when the genre pops up. So, yeah, good on yah, Wilco. I give this album a very enthusiastic Yankee Echo Sierra.

Wonderfully indie. Solid 5 Stars.

I’m at a 10. I knew this one had acclaim going in, and I’m very glad that it lived up to it. It’s much easier to feel this album in the moment, while your ears are just encapsulated by it & while the brain is conjuring up the imagery to match. In this case, it’s one of those albums where I got so deeply encapsulated that I’m having trouble finding the words to write down. There’s broad strokes flying around my head; “stellar lyrics”, “his vocals pull incredible emotion out of them”, “instrumentation & sound design that always fits the mood”, “perfectly captures a feeling my brain hasn’t gone to since Radiohead’s Kid A”, “did these guys steal the Beatles’ talents on ‘I’m The Man Who Loves You’ like they were the Monstars”, and so on. I guess I’ll touch on those a bit. Vocally, it did feel dry at first, but the intentions revealed by the end of “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” made the monotony of that track suddenly feel brilliant, and from that point onward, I was all in on Jeff Tweedy’s style. It’s subdued yet authoritative, for the most part, but when he needs to break out for the sake of the track, he meets the moment really nicely. I think the instrumentation & sound design do deserve as much credit as they’ll get here – I absolutely love the way each track sounds, & I can’t say I ever had a dull moment with the instrumentation, save for the last minute or so of “Reservations”. The moments where everything feels like it’s falling apart on a few tracks do a great job of mirroring the mental state of each track’s protagonist (is it the same guy throughout?), but even in this album’s happier & brighter moments, the instrumentation never really misses a beat. I’m fully convinced they stole a track from the cutting room floor of Sgt. Pepper’s for “I’m The Man Who Loves You”. As far as the Kid A comparison goes (which, by the way, also a 10 in retrospect), perhaps it’s a bit of a stretch, but this does feel a lot like a Radiohead album to me, at least in the way it’s structured & performed. I’m obviously not the first person to point this out & I won’t be the last. It did capture some type of vibe though, one that became far more apparent to me by “Radio Cure”. It’s like capturing a panic attack in slow motion, with all of the insecurities & self-doubt brought to the forefront. Sometimes, people say their brain is thinking at 100 miles an hour, so what if you just caught that on a camera & tried to actually view it? Kid A does a similar thing, but it takes the approach of sonic therapy in an effort to heal, whereas this one feels like introspection, swaddled in clothing that feels like toxic disdain for yourself, never quite resolving that inner turmoil. The lyrics do deserve a bit of love for enhancing that vibe; for tracks like these, I’m very much the type of person who follows along, reads them in the moment, and just treats it like a sort of live karaoke, to try and get a sense of how my brain would feel saying them. It’s a hit & miss approach, but in this case, it just worked perfectly. This is an album that I might define as poetry, but not in the curmudgeonly Bob Dylan sense where it’s far too wordy. It’s poetry in the style of a Maya Angelou, where the rhymes & verbiage are simple, but the imagery they evoke says far beyond the words themselves. Much in the same way that a poet can enter a zen state while reading their words aloud, I think I entered a zen state while reading along. I wish I could bottle up that sort of zen state, when it just feels like you’re in sync with the music, so I could more properly describe it, but I haven’t been able to do it for these moments on the last 545 albums, and I don’t think I’ll have an epiphany for the 546th. All in all, I just really, really enjoyed this. I haven’t been avoiding it for years, I’ve just never had a drive to listen to it until now, and I’m obviously a moron for not biting the bullet earlier. It’s one of those albums where I’m just glad I started doing this “project” to begin with. Fantastic stuff here, and a seminal album of 2001. Probably the whole decade, really. It’s a 10.

Beautiful and emotive. A sedate journey with just enough interest to waft you along.

Very nostalgic for me

Love being at a period in my life where i can enjoy Wilco. Love you Tweedy Jeffy.

One of my favourite concert road trips was venturing off to Minneapolis (without the wife and kids) to see a pair of shows from Wilco at the First Avenue club, in late June 2001. This was the first of many times I've seen the band and these shows were significant (if you're a fan of the band) because it was drummer, Glenn Kotche's first show with Wilco and the first live performance of songs from their "soon to be released" album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The shows were magical and in this venue it was perfect! The concerts were filmed and excerpts were included in the film, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart and I captured both concerts with my trusty Walkman tape recorder. Before the album was actually released there was much conflict within the band and record label shenanigans (captured in the film). Without a label to release it, Wilco posted the complete album on their website (for free!) for their fans and the record became a turning point for the band. YHF remains Wilco's most popular album and it's their masterpiece. I love this album and every time I hear it I have unforgettable memories of the special moment I heard first heard these songs.

5-

An album that brings you to a smoke filled city street where you can't see the person on the other side, but you think you're in love with them and all you have is your guitar and a pre-roll. It's very good. Favorite Song: I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Only really banging wilco album, but a very banging one indeed Easily a top 100 album

another perfect album. I have loved this one since it came out. It’s even better after knowing the story behind it. The songs are amazing in every iteration. I can’t imagine writing a song like these. Take a song that would be great with normal instruments, take those all away, make it noisy, then add guitar back in. Love this one.

Classic, alt country that broke open the trail

This is what 2003 alternative sounded like............... feelings. kinda hippy.

*chef's kiss*

One can see the record company's point in terms of the strident warbling of the opener but it gets better and chiaroscura (dark/uncertain songs followed by brighter/tuneful ones) seems to be the key to this deeply thoughtful, creatively conceviied and exquisitely well made record, which was something like a personal life OST for the first few years of the new century. Too many grace notes to list, but the whole puzzle works and every piece has emotional substance and/or beauty and/or fun and/or psychological insight. Plus, the well layered sonic environs here, offbeat sound, and arfful noise rock flourishes. DOn't sleep on A Ghost Is Born, which is nearly as good and certainly merits inclusion on this full list. Wilco are a major artistic force in one';s life and this just one of several best-friend records they've blessed one down the years.