I thought we were talking about the artistic intentions when making the album, but I may be mistaken.

If you're comparing it to TWL, then yes, by a humongous margin!

I'm hesitant to defend my original call here because as I've already admitted I barely listened to The Whole Love (or any Wilco in the last 10 years). But I can give you an idea of what I had in mind and maybe Wilco fans can tell me if I'm wrong.

My recollection is that there was a growing sense of displeasure among Wilco fans about how their career was going after A Ghost is Born. Their next releases, Sky Blue Sky and Wilco (the Album), were seen as too safe, bland and dad-rocky. Wilco had established themselves as this experimental pop-rock band over the last several albums, and then those two seemed to be mostly staid and conventional. I distinctly remember conversations (probably even here) about how weird it was that they recruited this avant garde jazz guitarist guy and then proceeded to make some of the most boring and straightforward music of their career.

In this context, I remember The Whole Love coming out and the fanbase blowing a collective load about how "they're back!" and how cool it was that they opened with a weirdo glitched-out song like "Art of Almost". That is about as much as I got into the album, so I don't know if the rest of it follows in this spirit. I feel completely unconfident about everything I am writing in this post.

hey, you know what? You've convinced me I was wrong.

I wasn't prepared for this

Imagine how great my wife feels when she hears me say those same words a few times a year.

what people forget about wilco is that the arrival of nels cline coincided with jeff tweady taking full reins of the songwriting process (whereas before it was shared with jay bennett up until YHF, and with jim o'rourke on both YHF and AGIB). the direction that the band took after that is all jeff tweady.

so i blame jeff tweady.

you know the guy and you can't spell his name right?

In all seriousness, does O'Rourke actually get songwriting credit for those albums? Wasn't it just production and mixing?

Spellcheck

He definitely helped rearrange Spiders, Muzzle of Bees, Less Than You Think, and At Least That’s What You Said, but I think he only got compositional credit for LTYT.

I can’t wait for the next Loose Fur album. Tweedy said they’re still writing it.

Dave Matthews Band's Away from the World definitely falls into this category, even going so far as to work with the original producer that was at the helm of their big three releases.

whatever Garth Brooks released after that Chris Gaines crap

Wilco’s return to form was Ode to Joy. Most interesting record they’ve put out since AGiB.

Let the record show that spike got in an edit of "Not interesting record they've put out in years" before the clock ran out.

I think you misspelled Star Wars.

Ode to Joy is pretty boring. You have to be in exact right mood for it to hit you. That's not the same thing as putting on YHF or agib.

Is it going to be a zoom album though? Loose Fur by email has me a little concerned.