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- Summary: After recording two well-received albums of Woody Guthrie covers with Wilco, the anti-folk pioneer returns to recording original material, this time with his touring band, the Blokes.
- Record Label: Elektra/Asylum
- Genre(s): Rock, Alternative
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
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Positive: 8 out of 16
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Mixed: 6 out of 16
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Negative: 2 out of 16
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Alternative PressFeels like a jam session--bluesy keyboard lines and guitar riffs busk with soul-inflected harmonies, world-music percussion and complex, exotic rhythms. [Apr 2002, p.68]
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As ever, he's on point, and brilliant.
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MagnetAs his politics become more complex, his writing has grown subtler, the melodies more sophisticated and the lyrics more richly detailed. [#53, p.72]
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Q MagazineThe result is almost entirely vaudevillian. [Mar 2002, p.116]
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Unfortunately, his own lyrics are best when they're intimate and pointed, which they rarely are here.
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BlenderHere the pleas and tirades strive heavy-handedly, little aided by the Blokes' equally unsubtle barroom marches. [Apr/May 2002, p.112]
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Lyrically, I suspect that part of the problem is rust, while part of the problem is age — a song about bumping into an ex-girlfriend, then coming home to tell the wife about it ("Jane Allen") just doesn't stick to the ribs, while the more overtly political numbers feel heavy-handed and preachy.
Score distribution:
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Positive: 1 out of 1
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Mixed: 0 out of 1
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Negative: 0 out of 1
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Dec 11, 2013
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