“This is art, man,” Chris says of Wilco’s The Whole Love in part 3 of his discussion with Brandon. He also starts bandying about quotes from the film, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, and implies that Brandon doesn’t have a “careful ear.” The cad.
Wilco – “I Might”
From: Chris Mollica
To: Brandon Hall
“A circle needs a center. Well, he was going to be the center. I wasn’t going to be the center.” – Jay Bennett
All right, you got me. I don’t go for sports. I’m violently playful sometimes. I use text messages to send not-so-subtle verbal jabs. I’m also an obsessive researcher and consumer of knowledge (rememberer of some). They always warn you not to bring a knife to a gun fight. What they neglected to add was, “Especially when the guy bringing the gun searched the internet for the weapon best suited to both disarm a man and kill him.”
As I said before, this isn’t the easiest album to get into. For all it’s buzzes and whirs, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot has many a fan who love that album but know little else of Wilco’s catalogue. Venture far outside the safety of the Marina City towers and you might be off-put by the poppy sensibility of Summerteeth or the rambling twang of AM. You, Brandon, a fan of buzzes and whirs, you might even dislike the Grammy winning A Ghost is Born which contains a fifteen minute song, their longest, which was formed by each band member picking a drone they enjoyed and placing them on top of each other. It’s indulgent, a little ridiculous and seems to dip a little too far into “experiment for experiment’s sake” for me. So, Jay Bennet was asked to leave. Good riddance. Honestly, art doesn’t NEED poison. Sometimes it does rely on it. Sometimes it helps improve the thing it latched onto until the irritation grows too great. I watched I Am Trying to Break Your Heart and it was fantastic. It however painted Jay as a man (rest his soul) who desired top billing. Like that Pippen* character you said played with, who was it, Michael Jordan? Wilco’s The Whole Love knows its past, but holds no grudges. It’s moving forward.
“I’m more interested in making music with people I can share with than give things to.” – Jeff Tweedy
Wilco (The Band) as they appear on The Whole Love is a beautiful, harmonious, f-ing talented circle. It’s the sound of six musicians each stretching their chops and creating layered musical landscapes to live in. I stand by the assertion that “The Art of Almost” was placed right there at the top to blur expectations. What follows isn’t the “MOR meh” you assume it to be. It takes time though, and a careful ear. You need to listen. Each song isn’t only a different shade of Wilco’s past but music itself. Listen for that wonderful agitated guitar riff in “Born Alone” as Tweedy’s voice plays with what seems to be utter nonsense till he blares out, whole heartedly, “I was born to die alone!” This is a man who is assessing all the trials he’s been through, good and bad, choosing where to turn his gaze and settling gregariously on the futility of it all. Take the playful, Paul McCartney-esc, “Capitol City.” That lovely little organ undermining the buoyant piano and bass. Listen to those lyrics, “I wish you were here/ better yet I wish I was there with you.” Does this sound like a comfortable man? Or you, the lover of sad, sad songs, the desolate and stirring “Rising Red Lung.” Tweedy slowly unveils his own discovery of peace over delicately picked strings and the slow sway of a slide guitar. This is art, man. If I could lend you my ears, I would. They are in love with this!
You say comfort. I say bullshit. If this is the condition prozac leaves you in, remind me never to rely on prozac. Tweedy, a gifted songwriter, is tossing sun/moon metaphors all over the damn place, showing you that the restlessness you were so in love with hasn’t strayed. Wilco is also now a band that can ape styles in their own style. That’s badass. May I also point out, The Whole Love is the first album to be released on the dBpm label, Wilco’s very own. The Good: No one’s going to mess with Wilco’s music. The Bad: No one’s going to mess with Wilco’s music. Experimentation and play will happen without any outside forces, loft withstanding. Wilco is going to make the kind of music they want. There will be no Jay Bennets trying rearrange the sequencing of your beloved Foxtrot. But if that’s not the sort of team you like, you may not be made for Wilco country,
“But I hope I know when it’s passed/ And I hope I’ll know when to show you my…”
Chris
*[Chris tried to link to a Bleacher Report article here about Scottie Pippen saying LeBron James might be the “greatest player of all time” during the semifinals of last year’s NBA playoffs – a tacit diss of his longtime teammate, Michael Jordan. However, there’s no fucking way I’m linking to the worst, most poorly written, muck-raking, amateur-hour gossip rag of a sports blog on my site. Chris can be forgiven – he’s not a sports fan. Just note this for future reference.]
The Whole Love is out via dBpm.
Get it at:
Insound Vinyl | eMusic | Amazon MP3 & CD
AudioVole 
I’m sorry, but Brandon was right in saying that “The Art of Almost” writes checks that the rest of the album can’t cash. As you mentioned in a previous email, it creates a glimmer of hope in the Wilco lover’s mind… “Foxtrot….” But what follows is the same sort of mediocre, uninspired music they churned out on the last album.
Sky Blue Sky was brilliant because it was Tweedy embracing a new direction and a new sound. It was exciting, beautiful, loud, and new. But now he’s on his third album with that sound, and it’s getting boring. The joy of a new Wilco album used to be hearing where they were going next, whether it was the huge jump in songwriting ability and complexity from AM to Being There, or the right turn from pop into experimentation from Summerteeth to YHF. I’m not a YHF worshipper – I love everything from Tweedy’s Uncle Tupelo days up to Sky Blue Sky. I just think it’s time to acknowledge that Wilco’s best days are behind them. I’m sure they’ll continue to be a great live act, but when I go see them it’s not going to be for anything off their last two albums.
Posted by Zach Evans | September 29, 2011, 4:20 pm