Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Released

The fact that we can listen to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot whenever we want is kind of a miracle. Documentary I Am Trying To Break Your Heart shows the tumultuous road Wilco dragged themselves down to make and break and remake the record into what we have today. Jeff Tweedy has migraine after migraine, Jay Bennett gets fired, Glenn Kotche replaces the original drummer, Reprise rejects the album, the band puts it online (unheard of in 2001), and through the Nonesuch label Warner Bros, owning both labels, pays for the album twice to finally officially release it in 2002. And Christ on the cross, it still feels as bold a curveball as it did 24 years ago (don’t think about that). Through rivers of static and overwhelming noise emerge some of the best folk songs of the half-century; “Ashes of American Flags” constantly threatening to fall apart under the weight of dying to come back new, “Radio Cure” and “Poor Places” exploring loneliness romantic and generational, Jeff’s voice dry like a mole in a riverbed about to flood. There’s not a single here and I say ‘good’. Put the whole thing on right now, you have no excuse. It’s here for everyone forever.

Amelia Riggs