Wilco "Being There" (1996)
Following the dissolution of his band Uncle Tupelo, Jeff Tweedy and the majority of his bandmates formed the new band Wilco.
Initially Wiclo carried on Uncle Tupelo's alt-country sound, but with this, their second album they branched out, both stylistically (genres) and sonically (production). The opening track "Misunderstood" mixes mellow piano with loud, fuzzy guitar... kind of starting off by letting you know that this is going to be a different kettle of fish. There is brash rock in "Monday" which, with its bluesy rock and sassy horns doesn't sound a million miles from the Rolling Stones.
The album is not without its alt-country tracks though. "What's the
world got in store" is a nice bit of banjo heavy balladry. "Red-eyed and blue"
is a beautiful song with almost a sort of jazzy undertone to its mellow
country. The bridge features an atmospheric roomy sounding whistle solo
(love a good a whistle solo).
The penultimate track "The lonely 1" starts with lush strings, letting
you think that the album will end on a gentle emotive tack, until the
closing track "Dreamer in my Dreams" comes crashing in with its raunchy
honky tonk and rocks you out to the close.
A double album and probably a bit long for me, but another one where
there no songs I actively disliked and I could happily listen to this
in bits and pieces (my wife has a few Wilco albums so this one might
even be around the house somewhere). Actually it'd probably be quite a
good road-trip album with its mix of reflective and rocking tracks.
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