Wilco's Sky Blue Sky
Jeff Tweedy is growing Bob Dylan's beard.
That's all there is to know about Sky Blue Sky, the latest CD from Wilco, probably one of the most consistently provoking and interesting bands of the last two decades.
I want to make one thing clear before I go any further. Saying that Wilco's indomitable frontman Tweedy is growing Bob Dylan's beard is not a bad thing. In fact, it's downright refreshing.
OK, I'm done with this metaphor. I was going to tell you that the reason that Tweedy is growing Bob Dylan's beard is because he's trying to make New Morning. And I was going to say Sky Blue Sky is the New Morning of Wilco's rich catalog.
But you can just listen to the CD.
I'm reviewing Sky here in spite of all the other reviews everywhere else for two reasons. The first is that if I remember correctly, I'm the only musicglutton who gives a crap about Wilco. The second is more complex.
I graduated Saturday. I started work as a journalist, at a magazine, Monday. I'm two days in. And, not to get into the personal details of my own life or anything, but I like it.
I've never been so great at existential crisis. I like to think I deal with things like Dylan might. This is not to say I deal with them brilliantly and abrasively, but rather that I just adjust.
And I'm enjoying coming home at night and loading the dishwasher, cooking and washing clothes. It's satisfying.
Every line Tweedy sings, and every guitar note that he and Nels Cline play, on this CD is full of that domesticity. He sings it at one point. he sings that he tries to sweep up and wash dishes. He wonders whether the sun will shine.
Well, Either Way.
Critics aren't responding to it well, either. They want the Wilco from seven years ago. They want the Wilco that tore everything up and then refused to put it back together.
The critics wanted the same thing from Bob Dylan. But what they got in return was a beard. Dylan didn't turn his back on the hippies in 1966. The moment Dylan truly turned his back on the so-called '60s movement was when he said that a cabin in Utah, kids, a wife and trout was what is was all about.
Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. There are parts of Utah that are better than others. Tweedy, at his trippiest, is going to Shake It Off.
Sky Blue Sky is speaking to me. But not in the same way Pink Floyd speaks to some suburban stoner. It's speaking to me the same way New Morning does. This is not a buddy listen. This is a CD that goes on when no ones around, and you're not feeling so sad about that.
That's all there is to know about Sky Blue Sky, the latest CD from Wilco, probably one of the most consistently provoking and interesting bands of the last two decades.
I want to make one thing clear before I go any further. Saying that Wilco's indomitable frontman Tweedy is growing Bob Dylan's beard is not a bad thing. In fact, it's downright refreshing.
OK, I'm done with this metaphor. I was going to tell you that the reason that Tweedy is growing Bob Dylan's beard is because he's trying to make New Morning. And I was going to say Sky Blue Sky is the New Morning of Wilco's rich catalog.
But you can just listen to the CD.
I'm reviewing Sky here in spite of all the other reviews everywhere else for two reasons. The first is that if I remember correctly, I'm the only musicglutton who gives a crap about Wilco. The second is more complex.
I graduated Saturday. I started work as a journalist, at a magazine, Monday. I'm two days in. And, not to get into the personal details of my own life or anything, but I like it.
I've never been so great at existential crisis. I like to think I deal with things like Dylan might. This is not to say I deal with them brilliantly and abrasively, but rather that I just adjust.
And I'm enjoying coming home at night and loading the dishwasher, cooking and washing clothes. It's satisfying.
Every line Tweedy sings, and every guitar note that he and Nels Cline play, on this CD is full of that domesticity. He sings it at one point. he sings that he tries to sweep up and wash dishes. He wonders whether the sun will shine.
Well, Either Way.
Critics aren't responding to it well, either. They want the Wilco from seven years ago. They want the Wilco that tore everything up and then refused to put it back together.
The critics wanted the same thing from Bob Dylan. But what they got in return was a beard. Dylan didn't turn his back on the hippies in 1966. The moment Dylan truly turned his back on the so-called '60s movement was when he said that a cabin in Utah, kids, a wife and trout was what is was all about.
Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. There are parts of Utah that are better than others. Tweedy, at his trippiest, is going to Shake It Off.
Sky Blue Sky is speaking to me. But not in the same way Pink Floyd speaks to some suburban stoner. It's speaking to me the same way New Morning does. This is not a buddy listen. This is a CD that goes on when no ones around, and you're not feeling so sad about that.
posted by Anonymous at 7:51 PM
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