Wilco: A Chronology

So Wilco is playing East Lansing this weekend. This has me very excited, to the point that I’m dusting this thing off after a month long hiatus (again!) to present the biggest post yet: a review of every Wilco album (I might also be listening to all of them in full before tomorrow night… yeah, I’m that geeked).

Without further ado:



The debut album is frequently derided as one of the weakest. Tweedy, fresh out of effectively playing second fiddle in the alt-country defining Uncle Tupelo, seemed to stumble out the gate on this in the opinion of many. While I can’t deny this as being one of Wilco’s weaker efforts, there’s some solid signs of promise here, from the upbeat anthem to youthful confusion that is “Box Full of Letters” to the tender country balladry of “I Thought I Held You,” Tweedy’s songwriting is already strong and effective, as if he’s just waiting for the music to catch up a bit. Also, there’s a rare vocal appearance by John Stirratt here on “It’s Just That Simple,” which is appreciated. And screw the rest of you out there who despise it, I LIKE “Casino Queen”.

Wilco- Box Full of Letters


Arguably the elite fan’s favorite album. They hit their stride on the whole alt-country thing here, and the results are a lot of fun, paying homage to the traditions of great American folk music even before they were given the keys to Woody Guthrie’s archives. “Far Far Away” may well be one of the sweetest, most honest love songs I’ve ever heard, and “Kingpin” is a hell of a lot of fun here (and even better live). Also, with “Sunken Treasure,” Tweedy first achieves that level of spine chilling mysteriousness in his writing that we’ve come to love. By far the best Wilco album you probably haven’t heard.

Wilco- Far Far Away


Naturally, having gotten it right on that whole folk-rock thing, the guys decide to try something completely different—I can only imagine the loyal fan’s shock upon putting this album in for the first time when it came out and hearing the opening bars of “Can’t Stand It”. To me, however, this will always feel like the album to play in the wee hours of the morning, as the sun is just barely coming up and illuminating the darkness. Stuff like “Pieholden Suite” and “Via Chicago” just breaks your heart (never did I think I’d come to love the lyrics “I dreamed about killing you again last night and it felt alright to me” as much as I do), yet its broken up by the triumphant (if not cautious) refrains of “I’m Always In Love” and “Nothingsevergonnastandinmyway(again).”

Wilco- Pieholden Suite


The closing scene of “Reservations,” my conceptualized film that uses YHF as a score/storyline (you heard me):

So this guy, he’s had a rough day. He got kicked out of his apartment by his girlfriend (again), and has spent the day wandering the city, searching for meaning. He struggles, he fights, he breaks down, he realizes how much he misses her and almost goes back, but gets too proud at the very last second. Now, after another night of drunken debauchery that went nowhere, he finds himself in front of her building, right back where he started the night before. He’s cold, he’s alone, he’s about to spend another night on the park bench, and he realizes… he has to try. He might just fuck it all up again, but it’s worth a shot, in fact is more than worth a shot. As Tweedy croons “I’ve…. Got reservations… About so many things, but not about you…”, he swallows his pride, and walks forth into the building. As the camera zooms out from the doorway, all the way out to the Chicago skyline, the music slowly fading into oblivion, we realize that we’ll never really know what happened to the guy, but somehow it doesn’t matter all that much.

Wilco- Reservations

It took a while to grow on me (10 minute looping rock anthems? 15 minutes of ambient noise? Come on Jeff…), but the creative strides taken in A Ghost Is Born can at some moments even rival those taken by its predecessor, all while telling some incredibly memorable stories in there. It produced tow of my all time favorite songs, “Hummingbird” and “Theologians,” which I think can very well describe me at my worst and best, respectively. And of course, it gave this blog its name, so how can I not love it?

Wilco- Theologians




Honestly, this album took what was already damn good and made it flat out incredible. The new lineup in its entirety sounds amazing, Nels Cline is clearly a god among men when it comes to guitar, and there are some ridiculous new keyboard lines in there to top it off. Top honors go to “Shot In The Arm” for being transformed from another decent track on Summerteeth to an all out rocker that’s a live highlight.

Wilco- Shot In The Arm (live)