I know I'm skipping AM, but that was really a pretty generic contract-filler album, and I consider Being There as Wilco really coming into their own. Anyway, have at it.

jason from volo wrote: Thu Aug 12, 2021 2:05 pm I am a HUGE fan of the first two Uncle Tupelo records. Of the options in the poll, Anodyne is the closest to those records, so it gets my vote.

Of the subsequent bands, early Son Volt > early Wilco. Later Wilco is better for me.

Me, too. All four, really. Whiskey Bottle is possibly the most perfect "alt-country" song ever written, if that's what it is. I was kind of comparing the transition time of Jay and Jeff and their last collaborative effort.

jason from volo wrote: Thu Aug 12, 2021 2:20 pm

kicker_of_elves wrote: Thu Aug 12, 2021 2:14 pm I was kind of comparing the transition time of Jay and Jeff and their last collaborative effort.

Yeah, around that time I definitely favored Jay's material.

That record Anodyne sounds impeccable BTW.

Hard yes. It's like the perfect balance of the three previous records. Not a dud on it. Jay's solo on Chickamauga is amazing.

Anodyne

Anodyne has some gems but lord does it drag in places. It's always fascinating to me how any sane listener would hear Son Volt out of the gate and rightfully think that Wilco was the little brother only to have them blossom while SV stagnated. Curiosity is important to artistic development and I think Farrar fell short on that for years.

losthighway wrote: Sat Aug 14, 2021 12:25 pm Anodyne has some gems but lord does it drag in places. It's always fascinating to me how any sane listener would hear Son Volt out of the gate and rightfully think that Wilco was the little brother only to have them blossom while SV stagnated. Curiosity is important to artistic development and I think Farrar fell short on that for years.

I dunno, man. High Water is about as poignant and heartbroken as Jay has ever sounded, and it's beautiful (if a little plodding). That pedal steel solo? I'm tellin' ya.

I loved Uncle Tupelo, but in hindsight Anodyne feels like the sound of a great band on their last legs, with Jay Farrar clearly eager to move on. I think Trace may be the best thing Farrar ever did, but it didn't really push him past what he was doing in Uncle Tupelo, and he's never moved much further forward; he's talented, but he's been following the same template with diminishing returns for decades now. With Being There, Jeff Tweedy broke free from his past and made a record that was exciting, adventurous, and joyously diverse, with a mind and personality all its own. I'm a bit wary about saying Being There is the best of those three albums, but it's the most interesting and for me the one that has best stood the test of time. (Wow, this is just like being on Postcard again. When do we start arguing about Whiskeytown?)

Anodyne definitely meant the most to me, Trace second, Being There third. Agree with Mark above about Farrar and Trace being his best work or definitely best post-Tupelo album.

UT was probably my fave band for a stretch of my teenage/high school years. I didn't stick with Wilco and I stopped following Farrar's output, too. All three are great albums but I've never listened to Being There or cared to since I sold/traded my copy in the 90s. Tweedy's poppy, rave-up songs don't land with me for whatever reasons. I'll admit to being turned off by the NPR totebag vibe and middlebrow hype around the band as the midwest Radiohead or whatever.

Going with Trace here, even though I haven’t put in on in a while.

Being There sounded to me like outtakes from the last Replacements record. The first Mermaid Avenue is the only Wilco project I’ve ever returned to with any regularity, and that’s largely on the strength of Billy Bragg’s career-best songs.

Anodyne, but holy shit Trace is excellent and a close call. I still listen to both regularly.