Wilco

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

essential

Review Score:

(10/10)
This might not have been my favorite release of the year but it was deffinately the most important. Mythology aside, this is a tremendous leap foward for a band that has made a habit of taking tremendous leaps foward with each album since their debut. At this point, Wilco are pretty much invincable, tackling alt-country, roots rock, Beatlesque pop, and Classic rock all with stagering results. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot combines each of these elements (well not so much the country) with super-producer Jim O'Rorque's work which is both vaguely familiar and entirely new and brilliant. The band opens the album with I am Trying to Break Your Heart which sets the same kind of atmosphere that characterized Grandaddy's awesome debut Under the Western Freeway. This album is far from being a downer though with songs that are both uplifting and upbeat. I don't think that the Radiohead meets Johny Cash comparison is valid but YHF is equally as important as both those artist's best album. An event like this only comes around once every three or four years so please don;t miss out. But waht am I talking about, its almost 2004. You should know all this by now.

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