[roscoeiii]

RClark,

There are two veins that Wilco falls into, as some of the discussion above indicates. One experimental (employing feedback, electronic elements and some dischordant sounds) and the other more traditional and conventional (a mix of country, folk and rock)

In general, I think Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is their best album, but it is on the more experimental side, and their first statement of this direction. For their other, more conventional side, I'd try Being There or Summerteeth.

[zybar]

What about those of us who are about to delete all of their Wilco CDs from their electronic database because of the tendency for Wilco songs to deteriorate into pure noise?  Are there any songs on this CD where I have to RUN to the remote to skip the rest of the song?

No Bob.

BTW, that was only one track on one album.   

George

[zybar]

I've never stopped to check this band out, but they've been around a while and you never hear anything bad said about them. Where should I start? I'll try an album.

"Being There" is generally viewed as their best album and is personally my favorite.  http://www.amazon.com/Being-There-Wilco/dp/B000002N7G/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1317303787&sr=1-1

If you want to hear what their music sounds like before purchasing, go on to youtube and listen away.  There are literally hundreds of songs available.

You can also read through the album reviews over at allmusic.com

George

[pardales]

RClark,

There are two veins that Wilco falls into, as some of the discussion above indicates. One experimental (employing feedback, electronic elements and some dischordant sounds) and the other more traditional and conventional (a mix of country, folk and rock)

In general, I think Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is their best album, but it is on the more experimental side, and their first statement of this direction. For their other, more conventional side, I'd try Being There or Summerteeth.

I agree with that analysis. YHF is the album that got me to love Wilco but I have come to enjoy their whole brilliant catalog. I expect the new album to arrive tomorrow.

[Diamond Dog]

There are two veins that Wilco falls into, as some of the discussion above indicates. One experimental (employing feedback, electronic elements and some dischordant sounds) and the other more traditional and conventional (a mix of country, folk and rock)
In general I think Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is their best album... 

I agree with that analysis. YHF is the album that got me to love Wilco but I have come to enjoy their whole brilliant catalog. I expect the new album to arrive tomorrow.

I'm with roscoeiii & pardales. For me, A Ghost Is Born was where I really got hooked although I really liked YHF. I was listening to the new album on the way in to work this AM and four tracks in, no Feist has been detected and I am happy.
Further to Wilco's penchant for noise, better steer clear of Summerteeth  ("Via Chicago"), YHF ( electronic bleeps and beeps all over the place ) and as for Ghost, well....
Ya know what, ctviggen, maybe just push delete...this may not be your thing and there's no law saying it has to be.

D.D.

[ted_b]

RClark,

There are two veins that Wilco falls into, as some of the discussion above indicates. One experimental (employing feedback, electronic elements and some dischordant sounds) and the other more traditional and conventional (a mix of country, folk and rock)

In general, I think Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is their best album, but it is on the more experimental side, and their first statement of this direction. For their other, more conventional side, I'd try Being There or Summerteeth.

+1

[krikor]

I definitely fall into the experimental vein of Wilco fans and YHF is still one of my goto albums.  Perhaps that's why my favorite "Wilco" albums are the two Loose Fur side-project recordings (self-titled and "Born Again in the USA") with Tweedy and Kotche along with Jim O'Rourke who mixed YHF.

[brother love]

AM is my fave w/ Being There a close second.  I like the al. country sound of those & Jay Bennett's guitar work & influence on the band. Rock songs have a Rolling Stones feel to them.

Tweedy's songwriting skills get better & better w/ later releases, but as said before, so does the weirder experimental sounds too.

A Ghost is born is really good, but I like Sky Blue Sky too.  Hell, they are all good to me except for the release "Wilco" before this new one.

[sebrof]

If you think some of Wilco's other albums are "amazing" then you'll probably think that about this one as well.
For the rest of us we'll probably file it under "pretty good album". I don't see this as being head and shoulders above the other Wilcos I have ( I have 5 plus this new one).
I got the CD version today at Target and have listened to it twice. Definitely enjoyed it.

[TONEPUB]

I’m surprised to see TONEPUB flat-out dismiss the vinyl pressing as “awful,” without any specifics, especially since the link to Tone Audio’s review takes you to a rave write-up of what is apparently the 2 LP vinyl version, and it doesn’t say a word about compromised sound quality. I’d like to hear a second opinion.

Bob Ludwig supervised the production of the vinyl edition of The Whole Love. Here’s an exchange from an interview on Wilco’s site:

http://wilcoworld.net/#!/interview-bob-ludwig-mastering-engineer-of-the-whole-love/

Our guy at the LA times got an advance on the album and we wanted to get the word out before street date.  I've written up the vinyl in full in the new issue's audiophile pressings next week.  It is truly disappointing compared to the CD, but they did a nice job on the mastering on the CD, so no big deal in my book.

Todd is a fantastic music writer, but not an audiophile and doesn't have a great system.  And for the most part, we are a lot more concerned about the music ultimately than the sound quality.  Always nice when you can have both, but I'll give up sound quality for a great record if that's the option.

[sts9fan]

I would say YHF is generally referred to as their best album.
 

[soundbitten1]

Summerteeth is my favorite.

[Diamond Dog]

After several listens, this is one solid frikkin' piece of work...Art Of Almost is the seven most exciting minutes of music to come out of 2011 for me so far... the slow, upwardly-spiraling build to the crazed dervish dance of the last three minutes or so is still blowing my mind. Certainly among the best of the year. 

D.D.

[HalSF]

Thanks for the follow-up, TONEPUB. I liked Todd’s review a lot, and look forward to the longer take in the magazine. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born are gorgeous vinyl showcases, so it’s a bit of shock to think that somebody punted on the vinyl version of The Whole Love.

The new album (CD version) is also pretty damn gorgeous in audiophile terms, a worthy match both in studio-symphonic stylistics and killer sonics to Radiohead’s King of Limbs, if not quite the bass monster that KOL is. Among other things the dynamic range of The Whole Love is a righteous blow against evil in the loudness wars.