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Saturday 19 September 2020

50 Americana Albums You Should Hear Before You Die - Summerteeth

 

Today was originally going to feature Heartbreaker the debut album by Ryan Adams. However, having wrestled with my moral dilemma outlined in the Whiskeytown contribution to this series I felt that I could not justify it's inclusion.

So Wilco come off the substitute's bench although quite what they were doing there in the first place I have absolutely no idea.

Forget George's Second in Better that First series. In Wilco's case Third (Summerteeth) is better (marginally) than second (Being There) which is better than first (A.M.)

There are some deluded souls out there who feel that their fourth Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is their best but they are clearly wrong there.

There was something on Twitter  a few days ago asking folk to rate their top three Wilco albums. I went for 1 -Summerteeth 2- Being There and 3 - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot . These three certainly featured a lot more than their others in the replies. After Jay Bennett left they were never the same.

Released in 1999 on the Reprise label Summerteeth is primarily the work of Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett with Tweedy relying on Bennett to provide the music for his bold but depressing lyrics

She's a jar wth a heavy lid

The ashtray says you've been up all night 

I dreamed about killing you again last night and it felt alright to me

Around this time my pal Gogs was briefly staying with me for a few weeks and I have memories of this blasting out as I returned from work to find him watching the snooker.

There are worse records to watch snooker to.

Wilco - She's a Jar

Wilco - A Shot in the Arm

Wilco - Via Chicago



3 comments:

  1. The best album of the 1990s got in just under the wire. Couldn't agree with you more on the importance of Bennett. There is a reason your top 3 are the three that featured him. The Palace at 4am is the one album Bennett (along with Edward Burch) did post-Wilco that showed flashes of his brilliance. Unfortunately, not many seem to agree with my assessment on that one. Bottom line is Tweety and Bennett were at their best working together. Too bad for all of us there wasn't time to work out their differences and produce something else on par with any of the three Wilco albums you listed.

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  2. Good post from the Jay Bennett Appreciation Society!

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