Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Image
Metascore

Universal acclaim - based on 26 Critics What's this?

User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 165 Ratings

  • Summary: The long wait for this fourth album from Jeff Tweedy & co. is partially the result of the tumultuous recording process that left the band without its guitarist (Jay Bennett) and its record label (Warner/Reprise). Fellow Chicagoan Jim O'Rourke mixed the 11 tracks.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 26
  2. Negative: 1 out of 26
  1. 100
    Complex and dangerously catchy, lyrically sophisticated and provocative, noisy and somehow serene, Wilco's aging new album is simply a masterpiece; it is equally magnificent in headphones, cars and parties.... No one is too good for this album; it is better than all of us.
  2. It's a gripping darkness that doesn't often lift. It's hard going, but it's worth it, and that is undoubtedly their point.
  3. More time spent in the songwriting lab might have yielded material more suitable to the evident studio effort invested and brought Wilco closer to making a truly great album.
  4. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot's faceless, airbrushed production takes you back to the dead days of 1970s AOR radio. [#220, p.66]

See all 26 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 79 out of 86
  2. Negative: 5 out of 86
  1. 10
    Awesome, music from the rock and roll angels! Great songs jammed out to their max, along with slow and thoughtful sing-alongs. Instantly and unilaterally establishes the Tweedy legend. Expand
  2. KyleP
    8
    This CD is, simply put, a band and a songwriter at the top of their games. Wilco leaps headlong into musical experimentation and create a masterpiece. There is not a single weak track contained in these 11 songs. However, this is not easy-access listening. The music is dense, covering the inherent beauty of Jeff Tweedy's melodies. Upon repeated listenings, however, the beauty of this poignant country-rock album is revealed in all its stunning glory. "I am trying to break your heart" will be your least favorite song upon first listen and your most favorite after your tenth. This record only gets better. Expand
  3. KevinW.
    7
    Apparently Wilco spent a lot of time listening to Stephen Malkmus's debut before recording Yankee Foxtrot. Wiclo is a group that used to rag on Pavement and now offers us a mild imitiation. Expand
  4. JockT
    2
    How an album that contains such pedestrian and unmemorable music thoroughly gauzed over with electronic studio trickery and hampered by pretensions to poetry has fooled so many people continues to surprise me. This is an album implicitly and explicitly MADE FOR rock critics. Expand

See all 86 User Reviews

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