Host: Frankie
Artist: Wilco
Album: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Release Date: September 18, 2001 (webstream); April 23, 2002 (physical release)
Track Listing:
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot – Wilco
Exploring the depths of music, one album at a time.
The Album Society 
Let’s kick off the discussion here. What are everyone’s initial reactions upon listening? I’ll start with mine and then we can go with the flow. No rules here, just spill your thoughts.
First off, I think most of you know this about me but for those that don’t, I am much more predisposed to feel a connection to music rather than lyrics. That’s not to say that I completely ignore the words, it just requires a little more effort on my part to absorb and interpret lyrics than might be the case for other people.
With that in mind, in my research for setting all of this up I did read some analysis, so unfortunately I didn’t have a clean slate going into my first listen. Nevertheless, I tried to set that aside and just enjoy and absorb as I was lying on a picnic table beneath the Baja stars. The setting was very rewarding, and the first tune did a good job of getting me engaged. Without getting too in depth on any particular songs just yet, I’ll say that some of them were familiar, either from having them on playlists or just hearing them in everyday life at some point in the past. I liked some tunes more than others, all in all feel the album flowed pretty well start to finish. I liked the instrumentation on most of the tracks, and was impressed by Tweedy’s vocal delivery – rough without feeling contrived.
Anyone else want to share their first impressions?
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So I was feeling bad about not replying. But, then I saw nobody did. So, screw you guys.
First – I disagree with Jon. Lyrically, a lot of the time it felt very contrived. But, to be fair, I feel that way about a lot of music like this. The one thing about the album I found pretty interesting was how multifaceted it was. It moved from different styles in a jarring way at times, but got you right back in.
I focused a lot on the percussion from track to track. It was pretty interesting to me, especially in some of the auxiliary choices. The first track dragged too much more me. It explored those percussion elements, but it never truly made a statement for me.
The transition to Kamera was jarring. We had just experienced all that heavy percussive dissonance, and it moved to the jammy, straight rock tune that seemed much more positive than the weight of I am trying to break your heart. Still, that percussion did more. Don’t know what instrument that really is – metallic temple blocks? But I liked the feeling of the track more. The bells solo at the end was nice.
But, then, we go right back to the plodding feeling I got in the first track with Radio cure. It felt so whiny at this point. All the positivity he had generated was brought down. And oh, the refrain: Oh, distance has no way of making love understandable. The fuck. come on. He misses a girl and tries to connect by listening to music. Cool. At least it was more melodic.
War on war is a cool track, right back in the rock pocket, and then it moves Americanaish with Jesus, etc. I actually really liked this transition from the dissonance at the end of WoW into the string solo at the top of Jesus. And then yet another left turn back in the heart/kamera vibe. This time we don’t get quite as dark, but i feel like these three songs really did well together in their message and feel. Ashes wraps it up with more cacophony. It was kinda cool at that point.
HMD and I’m the man are another two complementary tracks. It feels like he’s setting himself up. First describing himself, then how “she” views him. Then PKB comes back to show how he’s going to move on and keep writing songs regardless.
I’m not sure how I feel about poor places and reservations. Especially reservations. It’s a nice bookend if you remember where you came from in track one, but it left me unsettled, like there might have been more to say.
Anyway. Listen to Bruce now. K bye.
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Bravo Eric! Thank you for taking the time to record your thoughts. First I will clarify that I wasn’t pointing towards the lyrics but rather his delivery of the lyrics. Rough but not over the top. As for the lyrics themselves, Frank and I chatted about the album briefly last week. He and I had both read an interesting 10-year retrospective in the Atlantic that offered the interpretation that the album demonstrates both lyrically and musically the disconnect between human emotions and the ability to communicate those emotions. One of my favorite lines from the review is “Tweedy’s lyrics are poetry. That’s not in the sense of ‘so good it’s poetry’ but in the sense that the words were chosen for their shapes, for shadows they cast, and for the ways they can be misheard.” Worth reading if you still care to mull this one over further.
Atlantic article: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/05/what-yankee-hotel-foxtrot-said/256320/
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