keepers - 4
keeper avg .286
Where most albums would need a few songs to work up to this kind of aching, Whiskeytown's swan song kicks off "Ballad of Carol Lynn"****, before settling into light alt-country-rock of "Don't Wanna Know Why" and "Jacksonville Skyline". "Reason To Lie"**** seems like more of the same until its haunting instrumental coda, a great atmospheric moment of the genre. "Don't Be Sad"**** may be generically poppy but has memorable guitar hooks and more structural imagination that the form requires. "Sit & Listen To The Rain" would succeed to the same degree if the chorus didn't dissolve too quickly into a jingle. While side 1 pretty much sticks to conventional, side 2 follows a completely different and unexpected pop convention, specifically the ambitious Beatles / Pet Sounds production and structure being practiced by Wilco around the same time, specifically ragtime via The Band on "Mirror Mirror" and flamenco touches on "Paper Moon". The heavily-punctuated and chiming guitars make "Crazy About You"**** the most rocking of the country-rock tracks, a throwback to the time of Wilco's Being There. Ryan Adams' writing makes Tweedy's lyrical fumbling and Wilco's kitchen sink production seem ramshackle by comparison on most songs. That may make the music seem more cohesive or less interesting depending on how you feel about those things. Either way, "Easy Hearts" fails in both respects as a pretty melodies and instrumentation are wrecked by the forced and nonsensical chorus. Closer "Bar Lights" seems similarly muddled, though the fiddle riff is enough of a hook to make the song kind of addictive.
Comments