All My Lies Are Always Wishes...

I was prepared this morning to write that I like Wilco's A.M. better than Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (a claim that would surely lose me points with the hipster community at large) but I have spent the morning dancing around the kitchen in my underwear while making my bacon and eggs and listening to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Damn, they're both such good albums. How many bands do you know of that have 2 full albums that, between the two, have only one song that gets skipped, and that song gets skipped only because it was written and sung by the bass player (a bad idea in general, for all you young bands out there...)? Unfortunately, this kind of only serves to hilight the fact that Wilco's most recent two albums (A Ghost is Born and Sky Blue Sky) are mild disappointments (but still pretty damn good).

So anyway, all this thinking about Wilco has got me thinking about ALBUMS. About how a good ALBUM is a really rare thing. You know, most CD's that you buy, you're happy to get 6 or 7 good songs, but what about those wonderful albums where you get 10 or 11 good songs, nary a clunker among the bunch? And now I'm going to go through my Itunes library and pick out some good ALBUMS, in no particular order:

*Wilco, A.M.
*Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
*Afghan Whigs, 1965
*Counting Crows, August and Everything After
*Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks
*Mike Doughty, Haughty Melodic (although I have to skip "Busting Up a Starbucks," perhaps the most annoying song ever)
*David Bowie, Low (actually, some of the songs aren't that great, but the whole of the ALBUM is definitely more than the sum of its parts.)
*Nick Drake, Pink Moon
*Emmylou Harris, Red Dirt Girl
*Sonny Rollins, Sonny Rollins, Volume 2
*U2, The Joshua Tree
*Greg Brown, The Live One (actually, I usually skip "Moondance." I fucking hate that song.)
*Midlake, The Trials of Van Occupanther
*Bruce Springsteen, The Wild, The Innocent, and the E-Street Shuffle
*Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots


So there you have it. Out of 609 albums I have found 15 that I would consider "Great Albums." And Wilco had 2 of them. Way to go, Wilco! With honorable mention going to:

*Michael Jackson, Thriller
*David Gray, White Ladder
*Tom Waits, Nighthawks at the Diner
*Beck, Sea Change
*U2, The Unforgettable Fire and Achtung Baby
*Bruce Spingsteen, The Rising


At work today I HAVE to start giving people their reviews, which I hate. Here's my idea of what giving someone a review should be like:

"You're doing a good job, keep up the good work. Here's your raise."

or

"You really screwed the pooch this year, but I'm sure you'll do better next year, Here's your raise."

or

"Go away."

But unfortunately, I have to write up these reviews that are in Company-speak and then take time and go over the reviews with the employees and then have them sign it and lots of other B-crap. Oh well. I guess that's why it's called "Going to Work," and not, "Going to Fun."

Well, I've wasted to much time going through my Itunes library and now it's time to get ready for work. Shout out to A. Akester, from back in the college days!


Oh, and one more thought about albums: double-albums are pretty much universally a bad idea.