Thread: Favorite Albums
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Old 2011.08.07, 08:32 PM   #48
Tokyo Jihad
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#8: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

After 1999, the one sure fire way for me to keep up with new music was to just wait for the end of year, “best of,” lists. In 2002, I had fallen woefully behind on the scene. To my surprise, every end of year list I could find, Amazon, metacritic, allmusic, had a stunning consensus opinion on what I should have been listening to: Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

I was largely unaware of the album's cult following and legend on the internet prior to the record's precarious release. Wilco was a band that was only getting better. With Being There followed up, shown up, by ‘99's fantastic Summerteeth, the band was on the precipice of it's masterpiece. Yet The album that Wilco's former label called a "career killer" is the album that poised the band, behind frontman Jeff Tweedy, to be one of the defining voices if the aughts. I recognized Summerteeth’s iconic album cover, but I had never even heard of Wilco let alone heard their music. Yet apparently this was a landmark album! I was a bit naive on my first listen, maybe a case of blind following, but I liked it -- even if I knew I didn’t “get” it. Yet. Parts of the album were over my head, but Yankee Hotel Foxtrot had much to offer even to the novice listener.

"I am Trying to Break your Heart" opens the album and symbolizes the album, an oddly catchy, creaky, song that tumbles and spirals. It creates an atmosphere to elevate what could have otherwise been an unassuming song. It’s the perfect open because the song represents the album in microcosm, a little bit of familiar songwriting mixed with a new environment or point of view. The timeless "I'm the Man who Loves You," and the rocking "Heavy Metal Drummer" as well as the statement opener are all songs that were easy for my untrained ears to latch on to. Catchy hooks that lend themselves to sing-alongs and poppy beats just disjointed enough to keep you off kilter. I may have first spun this album to keep up with the cool crowd, but what I didn’t anticipate is how dependable the record would become to me as the years rolled along. Thanks to the poppier songs on the album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot would accidentally become one of the most played albums on my mp3 player, and the rest of the album bloomed.

By the time I reached college, the album was already three-four years old, but I was still (re) discovering gems on the album like the nostalgic "Jesus etc." and "Pot Kettle Black." By the time I graduated, five more years later, I was acquiring a taste for more challenging music. The, droney and ambling "Radio Cure" became a personal highlight for it’s ability to dip in and out of catchiness. The low-key epic "Poor Places" found itself a frequent repeat in my car, as I would explore my new surroundings as well as the album’s centerpiece, "Ashes of American Flags." Even when I was listening to this album as a high-schooler, I knew "Ashes of American Flags” was the real “point” of the record, even if I found it difficult to get through at the time. Much later, I would anxiously await the explosion of detuned strings in the chorus that erupted out of little more than an echoed organ and drum smack.

Anyone who has ever tried to create anything has to admire Jeff Tweedy in the creation of YHF. Not only did he experiment with, and expand upon the alt-country-slash-folk that gained him some notoriety, but in I am Trying to Break Your Heart, the documentary chronicle of the album’s creation, you see the fight he went through. Tweedy wrestled with his bandmates, most notably Jay Bennett, in the album’s production; when he wasn’t sidelined with migraines. Then upon completion, being told by Reprise records the album was so bad that Wilco would ruin their career. From the label’s standpoint, the industry was slumping due to Napster and the mp3 format and releasing anything but a straightforward, crowd-pleasing album, was going to be unprofitable. Naturally, Napster and the mp3 format is what saved Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. After the band bought the rights to the record, they distributed it online, and eventually published through Nonesuch Records. I wish I could say I am as headstrong as Tweedy. After pushing himself to make something new and unique and to be shot down at every turn seemingly. He kept at it. He didn’t quit when many, myself included, would have likely hung their heads. The result of all this was not just critic’s 2002’s album, but an album that saw me through the 2000’s.
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