Wilco Album: “A.M.”

Being a band like Wilco has got to be hard. Every album is a step forward, revealing something new about the musicians, both as musicians and as human beings, and displaying a new depth and lyricism that builds on their previous work and is absent from so much contemporary music on the radio and on TV. Unfortunately, it is for this reason that 'A.M.' is to many Wilco fans what 'Pablo Honey' is to many Radiohead fans: a debut album, worth owning but not their best (and so rarely listened to).

Despite 'A.M.' being a debut record, there is nothing really amateurish about it. The songs are solid, well-written pieces, performed with energy and well recorded. What changes with each album is the way Wilco approaches the songs: how can the music change? How can the music be recorded to add meaning to the lyrics? The straightforward nature of this album is not something to be ashamed of. It takes a little time for some newer Wilco fans to open up to the more obvious country stylings of 'A.M.' (myself included...it took me a good two years to finally appreciate Wilco's debut), but once one does, there is a great bunch of songs to be heard. "Should've Been In Love" and "Dash 7" are probably the emotional cornerstones and I consider them to be the strongest songs on the album. To be honest, the weakest song on the album isn't even a Jeff Tweedy song. "It's Just That Simple" is written and sung by John Stirratt. It isn't a bad song, it just has trouble standing next to the high caliber songwriting of Tweedy.

All in all, this is a very strong album. I urge newer Wilco fans that haven't heard it or haven't really listened to 'A.M.' to give it a chance; let it grow on you. It may not have the subjective flare of 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' or the subtle silences of 'A ghost is born', but it is a Wilco album, with the same great songwriting and the same great love of music that has been with the band from the start.

A lot of people love either SON VOLT or WILCO and hate the other. I can't understand it, personally. They are both necessities in your music collection. Buy "A.M." and set it next to "Trace," Son Volt's debut. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

While "Trace" is more sober and serious, "A.M." prefers a bit more tounge-in-cheekiness. Tweedy taunts hard-luck gamblers in "Casino Queen" -- "I split my paycheck/ With my wife that I just met/ She's lookin' like a wreck," he shouts. And the lamentations of the drunk in "Passenger Side," is laugh-out-loud funny -- "You're gonna make me spill my beer/ If you don't learn how to steer."

But Tweedy knows how to be both silly and inspiring. Songs like "Box Full of Letters" and "Pick Up The Change" will linger in your mind long after they're over. They're both catchy and thought-provoking. The line that really sticks with me is "I just can't find the time to write my mind the way I want it to read." Get this album, and you'll find plenty of lyrics and hooks that speak to you, too.

When I first bought this album I listened to "I Must Be High", "Box Full" and "Casino Queen" most of the time. After awhile I decided to sit down and listen to the whole thing again and see what I thougt. I couldn't believe what I had missed out on. While the first three songs are nice pop rock songs - the rest of the album really covers a wide variety of sounds. "Blue Eyed Soul" is one of Wilco's best songs. Also John's twangy vocals on "Its Just That Simple" really capture the country side of Wilco at the time. It would be nice to know how this record would've been different had Bennet been in the band at the time, but the way it is is good enough. I think that this album is often overlooked as Wilco's trying to be UT record, but it isn't hard to imagine any of these songs being on Wilco's later records. If you enjoy hearfelt songs that come from a variety of angles musically you should consider this album.

Someday, when you've got a long drive ahead of you, and a car with a CD player, get yourself a copy of every one of Wilco's albums, and play them all back to back, listening intently. Start with "A.M.," go to "Being There," "Summer Teeth," Yankee Hotel Foxtrot," "A Ghost is Born," and the upcoming live album.

Notice, as you listen, this band's amazing evolution. No band since Radiohead has shown such an amazing ability to completely outdo itself and evolve with every album. No band has stayed so completely great no matter what its sound. Today, the band is an experimental college-noise-rock guitar band--and they're great at it--but before that, back in 1995, they were the alt.country kings of "A.M."

Yee-haw!

These songs are filled with banjo, and fiddle, and guitar by Brian Henneman from The Bottlerockets. The songs are melancholy and happy, rocking and peaceful, feel-good and feel-strongly, and always, always high quality. This album picks up where Uncle Tupelo's "Anodyne" left off, and bridges the gap from that to Wilco's rowdier, more experimental "Being There." It's a classic, no matter what Greg Kot says in his book. It also features a great song, "It's Just that Simple," written and sung by John Stirratt, the band's bassist, something that's never happened on any Wilco album since. The whole album's got great lyrics (sample: "You've got a / blue-eyed soul / and if you don't / let it show."), and its last three tracks hint strongly at the weirder, less conventional direction the band was about to take.

I remember when Wilco was touring for this album, they came to Albuquerque and played an over-twenty-one venue, when I was only sixteen. I sat on my car in the bar's parking lot, near their shabby-looking tour bus and listened to the muffled notes of these songs trying to escape the dingy walls of the El Rey Theater. I loved these songs back then, when I had no idea of what this band was capable of, and I love them still, even though I've heard them take a very different direction.

Every song is good and thoughtful, and the entire album is worth whatever you have to pay for it.

my favorite wilco album. the lyrics on this album are great. i feel like there music has grown over the years, but the lyrics are never as good as this album. i have all their work and really enjoy it, but there is not a bad song on this one.