I’ve thought of “dad rock” as a mildly amusing pejorative. I think I first heard it when one of my daughters used it to describe The National. As in, boring music my dad likes, maybe. But… also maybe in the sense of music I learned of because my dad was always listening to it a lot too. I’ve heard them listening to earlier music from The National all on their own, so not entirely a pejorative I think. Gonna have to ask them what they think of Wilco, which they’ve heard quite a lot of, up to Sky Blue Sky anyway.
That's pretty much my take as well. I listened to Cruel Country yesterday and it was superb....sunny day and warm outside set a nice mood for me. Although I'm probably in the minority in that I think A.M. is my favorite.
Cruel Country and AM are two of their best! My other favourites are of course the Being There to YHF run.
As I said upthread, I'm fairly new to Wilco, but, one thing I have observed is that there is a significant 'spread' of favourite Wilco albums among Wilco fans. Yeah, there is a consensus around YHF, Summerteeth, and Ghost, but, beyond that, people have favourites across their entire catalogue. That, for me, distinguishes them as a very, very good band.
I originally took it to mean rock which is safe, tame, melodic, and unexperimental, without influences from more modern pop genres (like hip hop and electronic music in its various forms). I think it has since been warped more often to the other usage (literally "bands that dads like"), which I think is just a mild pejorative without insight or interest. Saying that Rush (to pick an example almost at random) is dad rock tells us nothing. Saying that Wilco circa Sky Blue Sky is dad rock is a slyer bit of criticism. However, for its slyness, I still find it obnoxious and founded on assumptions that I don't share. Go read Pitchfork's 5.2 review, which is Patient Zero for dad rock as an insult: Wilco: Sky Blue Sky Check out some of these lines: "An album of unapologetic straightforwardness, Sky Blue Sky nakedly exposes the dad-rock gene Wilco has always carried but courageously attempted to disguise. Never has the band sounded more passive, from the direct and domestic nature of Tweedy's lyrics, to the soft-rock-plus-solos format... that most of its songs adhere to." "Sky Blue Sky's soothing classic rock elements feel like a desperate pursuit of comfort." "Among Sky Blue Sky's most distressing attributes is its misuse of the experimentalist weapons at Tweedy's command: drummer Glenn Kotche is given no room to stretch beyond routine time-keeping, and Cline is used for his capacity to rip and wail rather than his ear for texture and atmosphere." Just a wall of assumptions about what a properly educated listener should want: classic rock = bad. Soft rock = bad. Solos = bad (but "texture and atmosphere" = good). Straightforwardness, most damningly of all = bad. The whole thing reads like "Where is my experimental Wilco that would shove some Sonny Sharrock skronk into a seemingly normal song?" while taking no time to observe the craft of the songwriting, the loveliness of the sound of the songs, how good it is at realizing a mood and a set of ideas that were only hinted at on previous albums, how it incorporates those verboten classic rock (and folk rock, and jam band) influences into an updated indie-rock context. I'm not a Pitchfork hater like many and wasn't back then, but this is one of those reviews where I feel like it tells me so much about the reviewer--not all of it flattering--while saying less about the album. And unfortunately it also inspired a lot of copycats to glibly dismiss all kinds of interesting (if less vaunted than Wilco) bands as mere "dad rock" and thus not deserving of any further attention.
Saw them twice, the first time with Jay Bennett, so I'm glad for that. That was mostly Summerteeth I guess. The second time was with the bigger band after Ghost and YHF and that was an awesome show. Both times were at small venues. But to answer the question HYF is probably my fave and Sky Blue Sky seemed like they were already less interesting. It really was a shame about Jay
This is a good point, but it might have something to do with the rest of their catalog being both very enjoyable, and interchangeable. They’ve never made a bad album, if you like rootsy rock music and solid songwriting, their albums are very easy to dig. It just becomes much more difficult to single out a standout.
The only album after Jay left that I truly loved was A Ghost Is Born, but Sky Blue Sky has grown on me over the years. I agree with you about Nels, (and the single time that I saw Wilco live in concert was the SBS lineup,) but something is missing for me in Tweedy's songwriting from that point on, as good as the musicianship is. The angst is gone--and I like a little tension in my music.
I think that was my point - there catalogue is strong. So much so, ask a hundred fans (as per here), you'll get a bunch of different rankings that will pretty cover their entire catalogue. That's fairly unusual, I think.
All good. "Warm" is probably my favorite Jeff solo album (although the best/better parts of "Sukierae" make up more than a full album & "Love Is King" is right up there too- so, on any given day, any one of them...) while "Warmer" is definitely my least favorite (still very good with some great tracks)...
If anyone counted Being There, Summerteeth, YHF, or A Ghost Is Born as their favorite Wilco album, I wouldn't raise an eyebrow. They're all very different, but represent the peak period of the band.
Even assuming the most insulting interpretation of the phrase, I guess it just doesn’t bother me much. Every genre and sub genre gets slagged at sometime by someone. Probably like many here, I have eclectic tastes, and I’m long used to somethings I enjoy surprising someone in a negative way, in a why-are-you-listening-to that way. And it just doesn’t bother me. Something resonates with me, or it doesn’t.
What a stupid review. The entire album is texture and atmosphere, to my ears -- it's the reason why (as well as sentimental reasons) it's my favorite Wilco album. "Leave Me Like You Found Me," "Impossible Germany," "Shake It Off," where do I stop? The guitar tone and expressiveness on this LP is superb. I won't even get started on how insipid the concept of "dad rock" is. All I can say is that Pitchfork did a good job at whatever it was that it did.
I guess I'd put SBS at #5 these days, behind Being There, YHF, The Whole Love and AGIB. Summerteeth used to be in there, but I can't listen to it anymore. Too dark.
For someone who has never listen to this album or really Wilco, who would you say it can be compared too?
Not exactly the same, but you could say 70% of Wilco albums are something along the lines of Neil Young’s “Harvest” or “Comes a Time,” without any extremes in production (i.e. no sympony orchestra). Nice mid-tempo country-rock focused around acoustic guitar and elliptical lyrics.
I like plenty of Wilco songs but for my money the "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" movie is the best thing with their name on it.
@dalecooper too- Over the years, Pitchfork caught a lot of well deserved heat for that review. They recanted, as a magazine (raising it from 5.2 to an 8.5)... Pitchfork Reviews: Rescored And here's the author of the review, also recanting... I Introduced the Term 'Dad-Rock' to the World. I Have Regrets.
It's a snoozefest. They peaked with Summerteeth for me, then hit a low with Ghost Is Born and SBS....a self-indulgent O'Rourke indie mess and a mellow snoozer. Been kinda hit and miss since then, I suppose, but in general I'm just not a person who understands 2000's-era pitchfork music, I guess.
A truly great article that came out when "Cousin" was released & it bears re-posting, to be sure, enjoy! Why Is Everyone Always Saying Such Dumb **** About Wilco?
The first time I saw them was in that in-between period after YHF and Jay, but a year before AGiB, where they were touring as an eclectic five-piece. It was maybe the most intriguing show I've seen from them for sure.
