Kidsmoke
So, I hate to say it. I want to like it. I do. There are a few really good songs. It's probably a good record to get stoned to. But I just don't like Wilco's "A Ghost Is Born." I haven't listened to it in a while, and never actually bought it yet, but I listened to it on my iPod today. I want to like it. Glenn Kotche is probably my favorite drummer. I love Wilco. But this record just seems like them being "artsy" for arts sake. There's stuff that's just about to turn into a great part or great song. Hummingbird and The Late Greats are fantastic songs. The rest is just mediocre to me. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is such a great, fun record. However, to me, A Ghost is Born lakes purpose. I totally dig the "playing instruments we don't know how to play" and "just going in and making music," but I would think that the result would be a little better than 8 minutes of feedback and straight boring drum beats that could have just as well been programmed so that Glenn could just kick back and drink a beer*. There are fantastic pieces inside of this record though. Pieces that would have fit in on any of their previous records. But they just seem afraid to rock. Or to let the songs be something more than "art." I think if they wanted to do something far away from what they had done in the past, they could have gone more the way of a song like How To Fight The Loneliness... Something a little jazzier, or Latin feel even. I just feel like they're too good to make such a mediocre record. Have fun. Do ridiculous recordings or ridiculous songs. But don't get my hopes up so high.*The first time I wrote this I typed "drink a bear." Which would be funny.
posted by Paul @ 10:33 AM
3 Comments:
I guess I should point out that I have nothing wrong with "art" and that are doesn't have to have a purpose. But to me it seems like they wanted to make something sub-par. Maybe I'm crazy.
that ART doesn't have to have a purpose, not are
"I just feel like they're too good to make such a mediocre record." is an interesting statement...thats pretty much how I felt listening to that record, too. That it's a tremendous bummer because there's clearly so much more going on there than they managed to get onto tape. Or into computer. But if you think about it, it almost seems like the better a band is, the more likely they are to come up with a complete boner.
F art, though, man. And by that, I mean "Fuck art" and not "Fart." The record is just mediocre. I think that saying "they wanted to make something subpar" is never gonna hold water. Even "The Late Greats" is lame on the recrod for some reason, and that song PWNZ. So, yeah.
Plus, not that I've thought about it much, but I do think art ought to have a purpose purposelessness in something like that sort of implies thoughtlessness, and art without any thinking at all is going to be what Jordan Moyer used to call "Bunketyrunkus." Not to mention that if you set out to make purposeless, nonrepresentational art, then the fact that you're doing that sort of becomes your purpose, because you're already caught up in some pretentious metaphysical B.S. there.
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