Wilco – The Whole Love
3.5 out of 5
When I said I liked the new Wilco album, that means like with a small l. Lets make one thing clear is that if there is any band that has disappointed me more than R.E.M. it was Wilco. The period between Being There and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is pure gold and I still look at that era as the golden age as well as the “Classic Lineup”, one that will obviously not return.
I think I am more disappointed because I thought that they had more potential. Jeff Tweedy had the power to be the 21st Century’s Bob Dylan with a knack for sonic exploration. We see this on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, one of the true innovative and classic albums of our era. However, since the demise of Jay Bennett from the band, I have to admit to them being just alright to bad.
At times, their Dad Rock/Jam Band genre they are trying to invent is boring going on ridiculous. The Whole Love however, has a handful of tracks that make the grade as being the best since YHF.
‘Art of Almost’ is a great way to start off this album, and is definitely the best track that Wilco has released in nearly a decade. It contains everything that I would have hoped this band could have turned itself into. Lets face it, it is very difficult to get someone with music talent who at the same time has the potential to write eloquent lyrics.
The Whole Love is much more up-tempo than some of their previous efforts and I think this has afforded the band some better reviews due to critics not being lulled to sleep. ‘I Might’ is a drum-stomping track that exudes more Velvet Underground than Dad Rock.
Before we get too excited, Sunloathe hits our eardrums and all of a sudden we are reminded of ‘Sky Blue Sky’ and the fact that Wilco’s mellow days are behind them.
Off the top of my head without thinking some golden oldie Wilco mellowness
She’s a Jar
Via Chicago
Far Far Away
The Lonely 1
Pieholden Suite
Radio Cure
Ashes of American Flags
Now you take a song like ‘Sunloathe’ and to be honest I just do not get it.
Capital City sounds like a B-Side/Broadway Number and Rising Red Lung has mellow Wilco syndrome as well.
Still there are plenty of other positive moments. ‘Born Alone’ and ‘Standing O’ kick this album up a notch, bringing a little pleasure and less pain to their sound but also point to the fact there is more positive than negative on this album.
Finally, I can say is that ‘One Sunday Morning’ (Song for ‘Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend) would make me go postal. If I saw Wilco live this would be the perfect time to check out the bathroom and get yourself a drink. Part of the problem with a 12-minute track is that it needs to go somewhere instead Wilco decides to proceed on cruise control. At about the 4-minute mark it becomes annoying. The 6 minute mark you are getting twitches and there have been cases of music listeners going into full seizures by the 10 minute mark. So before you play this song in the Jukebox at your local watering hole, think of your friends and choose epic songs by Sufjan Stevens instead.
A Whole Love is a solid album but not a classic one. It reminds fans why they loved Wilco but it will also remind why they still annoy. For many fans like myself they are in a difficult predicament not being the same band they were 10 years ago and they never can be. I don’t know, I always thought there was something rock and roll about Jay Bennett.
Over the past few weeks of listening to the new Wilco and Girls albums on top of the breakup of R.E.M. I focused much of my time on how some of those old Wilco albums had a lot more heart in them. You could say that ‘Being There’ is your classic 70’s double album that you would never see anymore. I found myself missing the old Wilco after listening to the new Girls album and wondered aloud while listening to the new album where did that band go?
But bands become more than the songs. We care about the parts making those songs. When parts are changed along the way can we move on with the spare parts or is the machine not as authentic?
The Tweedy/Bennett feud was never answered but swept under the rug and while a review might not be the place to talk about it, I am not sure where is a good place. Critics are not objective voices in the crowd but subjective listeners just like the rest of the population, we’ve been maimed by rock and roll as well.