Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

by Wilco

Overview

The story of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot -- band records adventurous album, band gets tossed out on the street by multinational conglomerate label, album lands on critics' best-of lists the year before its release -- was one of 2001's more compelling showbiz melodramas. It pales, however, in comparison to the epic sweep of the long-delayed disc, easily Wilco's finest, if not their defining, moment. Frontman Jeff Tweedy has come a long way from his alt-country days and his time revisiting Woody Guthrie on Mermaid Avenue, and while Yankee Hotel Foxtrot hasn't abandoned those roots entirely -- the steel guitar-laden "Pot Kettle Black" proves that -- he has certainly forged a challenging path for his bandmates and Wilco's listeners. There's a latter-day psychedelic edge to these Brian Wilson-inspired songs, where Tweedy's yearning melodies are subjected to all manner of studio deconstruction, thanks in part to the mix by Chicago's visionary Jim O'Rourke. "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" couches a portrait of severe emotional breakdown beneath a dizzying number of sonic layers and distorted notes. Distortion plays a big part in other tunes: "Radio Cures" wraps Tweedy's vocal in plenty of snap-and-crackle, all but obliterating the pop structure. Ditto the hypnotic "Poor Places," which seethes with a distant but palpable ache. While the album is dominated by dark tones, there are moments of sweetness and light as well. The brassy "I'm the Man That Loves You" fuses country and soul in a decidedly late-'60s manner, with Tweedy radiantly declaiming undying love in every verse. He's equally enamored on the nostalgic "Heavy Metal Drummer": "I miss the innocence I've known/Playing Kiss covers/Beautiful and stoned," he sings. Wilco go a long way toward recapturing innocent thrills here -- and not just because they pissed off their record company and scored great reviews. The adventurous sounds of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot are what moves this bunch. They will move you, too.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/23/2002
Label:	Nonesuch
UPC:	0075597966923
catalogNumber:	79669
Rank:	26228

Tracks

1. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
2. Kamera
3. Radio Cure
4. War on War
5. Jesus, etc.
6. Ashes of American Flags
7. Heavy Metal Drummer
8. I'm The Man Who Loves You
9. Pot Kettle Black
10. Poor Places
11. Reservations

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Wilco   Primary Artist
Fred Lonberg-Holm   Cello
John Stirratt   Horn
Jeff Tweedy   Horn
Glenn Kotche   Percussion,Drums

Technical Credits

Jay Bennett   Engineer
Ken Coomer   Contributor
Jim O'Rourke   Engineer
John Stirratt   String Arrangements
Jeff Tweedy   String Arrangements
Wilco   Producer
Leroy Bach   Contributor
Chris Brickley   Engineer
Jessy Greene   Contributor
Lawrence Azerrad   Art Direction
Chris Buckley   Engineer

Editorial Reviews

Few bands can call themselves contemporaries of both the heartbreakingly earnest self-destruction of Whiskeytown and the alienating experimentation of Radiohead's post-millennial releases, but on the painstaking Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco seem to have done just that. In early 2001, the Chicago-area band focused on recording their fourth album, which ultimately led to the departure of guitarist Jay Bennett and tensions with their record label. Unwilling to change the album to make it more commercially viable, the band bought the finished studio tapes from Warner/Reprise for 50,000 dollars and left the label altogether. The turmoil surrounding the recording and distribution of the album in no way diminishes the sheer quality of the genre-spanning pop songs written by frontman Jeff Tweedy and his bandmates. After throwing off the limiting shackles of the alt-country tag that they had been saddled with through their 1996 double album Being There, Wilco experimented heavily with the elaborate constructs surrounding their simple melodies on Summerteeth. The long-anticipated Yankee Hotel Foxtrot continues their genre-jumping and worthwhile experimentation. The sprawling, nonsensical "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" is as charmingly bleak as anything Tweedy has written to date, while the positively joyous "Heavy Metal Drummer" jangles through bright choruses and summery reminiscences. Similarly, "Kamera" dispels the opening track's gray with a warm acoustic guitar and mixer/multi-instrumentalist/"fifth Beatle" Jim O'Rourke's unusual production. The true high points of the album are when the songwriting is at its most introspective, as it is during the heartwrenching "Ashes of American Flags," which takes on an eerie poignancy in the wake of the attacks at the World Trade Center. "All my lies are always wishes," Tweedy sings, "I know I would die if I could come back new." As is the case with many great artists, the evolution of the band can push the music into places that many listeners (and record companies for that matter) may not be comfortable with, but, in the case of Wilco, their growth has steadily led them into more progressive territory. While their songs still maintain the loose intimacy that was apparent on their debut A.M., the music has matured to reveal a complexity that is rare in pop music, yet showcased perfectly on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

All Music Guide - Zac Johnson

"On 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,' named after a sample of a shortwave radio broadcast on the album, Wilco's new songs about love, America, apocalypse and self-invention unfold in richly enigmatic arrangements. The music provides eerie terrain for Mr. Tweedy's homey melodies and his careworn voice, as songs drift from the familiar sounds of guitars and drums through layers of stray instruments, electronics and noise.... There's nothing as simple as a comeback on 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.' The songs no longer seek the refuge of revived 1960's styles or the security of a clear-cut, vanished past. This time, the music wanders across odd, rewarding frontiers, where, at any moment, things can change."

New York Times - Jon Pareles

...an earthy, moving psychedelia, eleven iridescent-country songs about surviving a blown mind and a broken heart. In Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, [Wilco] actually bring you the enchanting sound of things falling apart -- and gingerly, doggedly coming together again. This is an honest, vivid chaos, and it tells a good story.

Rolling Stone - David Fricke

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