After perusing this topic the other day I was having a hard time deciding between YHF and Summerteeth, so I went back and listened to both again. It was still difficult for me until "Via Chicago" after which I couldn't breath normally for about 5 minutes....so yeah...I'm gonna say summerteeth.

Cheers.

yeah, Via Chicago is like the greatest invention since Sputnik ....yeah

"Via Chicago" was the song that got me into Wilco. They never really wowed me before that, but I heard this song on NPR one day, and it blew my mind. I had to go out and buy that album.

Ok, I loves me some Wilco! So here's my list.

1. Summerteeth- prob in my top 5 all time.
2. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
3. Being There
4. Sky Blue Sky
5. A Ghost is Born
6. AM

oh, and Kicking Television is vastly overrated. It's not bad, but look, it's not good either just because it brings to live the dull muted sound of Ghost

another A ghost is born hater. Boo!

Yes, boo indeed.

This may be a cop-out answer, but I like "Kicking Television" best. If we're sticking to studio albums, I'll go with "YHF" ahead of "Summerteeth" and "a ghost is born". Pick up any of those four, plus "Being There", and you'll have no regrets.

Alright, here is the definitive Wilco rating- please adjust your opinions accordingly. [I have excluded the live album and MERMAID AVENUEs from consideration]

The best Wilco album is:

SUMMERTEETH

The best combination of exuberance, quality songwriting, and experimentation which enhances the songs. (Best tracks: "A Shot In The Arm," "Via Chicago." Worst tracks: "Can't Stand It," "Pieholden Suite")

2. BEING THERE

Overall, its tumbledown charm compensates for the throwaway nature of much of it's material. Both ambitious and lazy. (Best tracks: "Misunderstood," "Sunken Treasure." Worst tracks: "What's the World Got in Store," "Someone Else's Song".)

3. A GHOST IS BORN

The first year, I listened to it maybe three times. Disappointing. As time goes on, it's the one I reach for most often. Doesn't have the highs of YHF, but doesn't have its dismal lows either. (Best tracks: "At Least That's What You Said," "Handshake Drugs." Worst tracks: "Less Than You Think," "Hummingbird.")

4. YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT

Over-rated to a vast... vast... vast degree. (Vast!) This is where experimentation was substituted for songs (where "A Day In The Life" devolves to "Revolution #9.") Its highlights are gorgeous, but man, those lows! (Best tracks: "Pot Kettle Black," "Jesus, Etc." Worst tracks: "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart," "Heavy Metal Drummer.")

5. A.M.

Hard to knock this one. They were young. (Best tracks: "Casino Queen," "Dash 7." Worst tracks: "I Thought I Held You," "Should've Been In Love.")

6. SKY BLUE SKY

It's not hard to knock this one. They're no longer young, they've made some of the best music of the last decade, but to whatever degree their earlier albums channeled Neil Young, SKY BLUE SKY is more interested in channeling Nicolette Larson's "Lotta Love." And it contains the worst song Wilco have ever recorded- "What Light."
(Best tracks: "Impossible Germany," "Shake It Off." Worst Tracks "You Are My Face," "Sky Blue Sky.")

This message has been edited. Last edited by: riverman,

Summerteeth has never done anything for me no matter how hard I try. My friend always give me shit for saying A.M. is better. YHF is what sold me on Wilco. I love the first Billy Bragg collab too.

1. YHF
2. AM
3. Being There
4. Ghost
5. Summerteeth

I haven't absorbed Blue Sky Blue enough to rank it yet.

quote:

Originally posted by facet.squared:
I haven't absorbed Blue Sky Blue enough to rank it yet.

Shoot, I haven’t even heard “Blue Sky Blue” yet; I need to pick that one up!

quote:

Originally posted by facet.squared:
Summerteeth has never done anything for me no matter how hard I try... YHF is what sold me on Wilco.

It's weird that you don't like Summerteeth, but you rank YHF as your favorite. Those seem like the two most similar albums in the Wilco catalog. I admit that Summerteeth is probably their most poppy outing, which may be your aversion to it.

quote:

Originally posted by riverman:
Worst tracks: "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart," "Heavy Metal Drummer.")

What?? Are you kidding me?? Those (along with Ashes of American Flags and Man Who Loves You) are my favorite songs on the album. YHF might be over-rated, but not by a whole lot, since it's still one of the top 25 albums of the decade thus far. I think you're just out to look "hardcore" by dissing what's widely considered the group's best album.

Well, Kid Chameleon, that certainly was an ignorant and childish response. It would be like me accusing you of just being out to look cool by favouring YHF- Wilco's 'hippest' record.

I love music too much to be bothered with silly games like appearing hardcore. Claiming to like or dislike good music because I want to present a certain image of myself would be the ultimate insult to any musicians I admire.

The [debatable] claim that YHF is generally considered the group's best album means nothing. (Celine Dion is generally considered one of today's best singers.) Besides which, YHF's stature has as much to do, sadly, with it's hype as it's music- the whole Reprise debacle and the moronic cries of "Amercan Radiohead!"

A big chunk of the album ["I Am Trying to Break Your Heart," "Heavy Metal Drummer," "I'm the Man Who Loves You," and "Reservations"] is some of the worst material Wilco has recorded. At least before YHF you could blame their weaker tracks on naivete, laziness, or overreach. But even though -after the string of well-regarded discs that came after A.M.- they had nothing to prove, they insisted on making an abstract ART record, and the duds were so self-consciously fragmented it was hard to swallow.

YHF has some great songs, but so what? All Wilco albums do. And the other albums don't have such clunkers, nor do they take themselves so ridiculously seriously.

quote:

Shoot, I haven’t even heard “Blue Sky Blue” yet; I need to pick that one up!

It's the remix album, featuring artists like Simian mobile disco and digitalism

quote:

Originally posted by Tweedy's party time lounge:

quote:

Shoot, I haven’t even heard “Blue Sky Blue” yet; I need to pick that one up!

It's the remix album, featuring artists like Simian mobile disco and digitalism

oops

quote:

Originally posted by kid_chameleon_86:
What?? Are you kidding me?? Those (along with Ashes of American Flags and Man Who Loves You) are my favorite songs on the album. YHF might be over-rated, but not by a whole lot, since it's still one of the top 25 albums of the decade thus far. I think you're just out to look "hardcore" by dissing what's widely considered the group's best album.

Seconded. Those are definitely a couple of my favorite tracks on the album. Saying that YHF isn't Wilco's best is OK and all, as long as that's really what you think, just know that you're in the very small minority.

quote:

Originally posted by ImmovableMotorist:
Saying that YHF isn't Wilco's best is OK and all, as long as that's really what you think, just know that you're in the very small minority.

Thanks for letting us know that it's OK for us to like what we like.

quote:

Thanks for letting us know that it's OK for us to like what we like.

Somehow I knew that comment would either be ill-received, made fun of, or both. I wasn't trying to state the obvious, but I guess that's how it came out.

So let me reiterate: riverman, assuming you're not just going trying to "go against the grain" with that opinion, I respect it. But I do not agree.

All the talk on a different thread had me go back and reexamine A Ghost Is Born. It really made me appreciate Sky Blue Sky a little more. AGIB is just too damn meandering for my taste. Updated ranking:

Summerteeth = Being There > Yankee Hotel Foxtrot > A.M. > Sky Blue Sky > A Ghost is Born

quote:

Originally posted by FragileKidA:

quote:

Originally posted by ImmovableMotorist:
Saying that YHF isn't Wilco's best is OK and all, as long as that's really what you think, just know that you're in the very small minority.

Thanks for letting us know that it's OK for us to like what we like.

You must be feeling super bad-ass right now.