4 out of 5

Label: Nonesuch

Produced by: Wilco

I’ve told you my history with Wilco before, and alluded to the same at the beginning of my other Wilco review.  In summary: Wilco and me got issues.

I rolled my eyes at plenty of 90 year old bowtie wearin’ NPR listenin’ motherfucks who told me ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’ was an amazing album when we would have it in our playlist at Tower.  Like, that’s cool, dude, it’s behind you on the top 25.  I was… curious, I’ll allow, and I even think I may’ve had a promo of the disc at one point, but my judgments of motherfucks and already established humbug bias toward the band really wasn’t going to allow me to give the disc a chance whichever way.  Which is what it needs.  I do sort of understand Reprise’s issue with the album: it doesn’t really have a single.  There are some poppier tracks, like Heavy Metal Drummer, but there’s not a direct, heart-swooning song such as some of the wonderful rock cuts found on the prior two albums.  And the experimental layers that popped up on ‘Summerteeth’ and are more notable here (opener ‘I Am Trying to Break Your Heart’ is an improvised-sounding mesh of noise for a good thirty seconds before a beat drops in) and, as with that disc, don’t always feel necessary when the core hook of guitar and drums and bass are so solid.  However, YHF is Wilco’s first album where all of the songs feel seamless.  That lack of single ends up being for the best: by stepping away from a required verse-chorus-verse-bridge setup, the entirety of the album ends up feeling much more cohesive.  So it’s big-picture vs. little-picture that larger labels can overlook: YHF might not have a direct hook to grab you, but it stands up to repeat listens over and over again, with memorable moments all the way through – there’s not really a single song that it makes sense to skip, as they all contribute to the whole.  The album is also a step ahead for Tweedy lyrically, but this sorta goes hand-in-hand with ditching the single – ‘Summerteeth’ showed dashes of darkness but then would rock out a cheesy love song.  That doesn’t happen here.  Some of the lines are somewhat cryptic, but there’s no diversions into saccharine; themes of loss and loneliness are wonderfully resplendent.

Still – I have to allow that this took a while to hear.  Tweedy hardly rises above a speak-sing for most of the disc, and even though there’s some stunning mixing from O’Rourke (particularly the way elements fuzz in and out on ‘Radio cure’), the overall ‘sound’ is very muted.  And I totally felt like ‘Heavy Metal Drummer’ sounded like a radio-friendlier Pavement with any sense of gristle removed… until, until, until, I heard it in the larger picture, and now it’s a perfectly pleasant break at the album’s midpoint.  But there is, certainly, something of a veil over Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, as though the group needed to perform behind a curtain to prove that they could carve out something unique.  And yeah, some of that uniqueness doesn‘t quite always feel necessary so much as kitchen sink experimentation.

Anyhow, I think I had to make some listenin’ exceptions to assess the other Wilco albums I’ve reviewed, but I legitimately like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.  Which is a bummer, ’cause then I have to consider listening to all of the Wilco albums and then, like, buying a bowtie.