Wilco – summerteeth (Deluxe Edition) (2020) [FLAC 24bit/44,1kHz]

Wilco’s Summerteeth, released in March 1999, will be receiving a deluxe edition more than 20 years later.

Summerteeth: Deluxe Edition will be released as a four-CD set on November 6th via Rhino, featuring a 2020 remastered version of the band’s third album by Bob Ludwig, along with an entire disc of unreleased studio outtakes, alternate versions and songwriting demos.

Along with classic Wilco tracks such as “I’m Always in Love,” “A Shot in the Arm” and “Via Chicago,” the deluxe edition of Summerteeth includes 24 previously unreleased recordings with the demos “No Hurry” and “I’ll Sing It,” outtakes for “I’m Always In Love” and “Viking Dan,” and alternate versions of “Summer Teeth” and “Pieholden Suite.”

The two remaining discs on the CD version of the album feature a previously unissued live show, recorded on November 1, 1999 in Colorado at the Boulder Theatre. The concert includes most of the songs from Summerteeth as well as songs from Wilco’s previous two albums, 1995’s AM and 1996’s Being There, and tracks from 1995’s Mermaid Avenue, the first volume of the band’s Woody Guthrie side project with Billy Bragg.

After the demise of the much-beloved Uncle Tupelo in 1994, Jeff Tweedy regrouped with three of his four bandmates as Wilco and promptly cut A.M., a debut that sounded like he had been stashing a bunch of his best songs. It was followed by the expansive and successful Being There which dropped the alt-countryisms for a more mainstream rock tone, indicating aims for a larger canvas. Those ambitions further morphed into experimental impulses on Wilco’s third album, summerteeth, signaling a band transcending genre and turning consequential. Now remastered and re-released with a selection of demos, outtakes, alternative tracks and an entire 1999 live show, summerteeth’s internal churn—a pain and passion struggle between happy pop music and troubled, downbeat lyrics—begins immediately with the tuneful but bleak “Can’t Stand It,” where “Our prayers will never be answered again.” Uncomfortable autobiography mixes with gorgeous baroque pop in “She’s a Jar,” where Tweedy ends with, “A pretty war/ With feelings hid/ She begs me not to hit her.” Even the violins and rising chords of “A Shot in the Arm,” don’t hold any joy, as he wishes for “Something in my veins bloodier than blood.” It would all be just scary narcissism if it wasn’t for exuberant melodies like “Pieholden Suite” where a banjo flickers through before a blast of Beatles-y brass, or the jumpy Anglo-pop of “ELT.” The light-dark dichotomy persists even in the album’s hookiest moment, the Magical Mystery Tour-esque outtake, “Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway (Again)” where “love’s a weed” and “a kiss is all we need,” but in the end, “I’m a bomb regardless.”

summerteeth’s musical success owes much to multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett’s production and arrangement skills, and his added textures of Moog synthesizer, Farfisa organ, lap steel, drums and tambourine. In the post-Max Johnston and Ken Coomer, pre-Nils Cline and Pat Sansone version of Wilco, Bennett supplied the voltage that brought Tweedy’s melodic though murky material to life. Never the excruciating struggle that the next album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot became, these are Bennett’s finest moments on record, and along with Mitch Easter, he contributed to summerteeth’s more defined mix and heightened sonics.

While the demos are not revelatory being mostly guitar and voice—although Tweedy’s dry, low tone on “Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway (Again)” is ominous—some of the alternates are choice, like the shrieking rant “Viking Dan.” A funky, slow Fender Rhodes-led version of “Summer Teeth” is lounge jazz. The stripped down alternate take of “ELT” is the equal of the released take. And the “We’re Just Friends / Yee Haw” soundcheck is a full tilt goof. The well-recorded live show is a telling snapshot of a band known for its roaring virtuosic performances, as they play most of their first three albums, delivering an especially strong “Passenger Side”, “I Got You (At The End of the Century)” and “California Stars.” A charismatic peek into an innovative, inspiring rock band evolving from eager contender to conflicted champion. – Robert Baird

Tracklist

1. Wilco – Can’t Stand It
2. Wilco – She’s a Jar
3. Wilco – A Shot in the Arm
4. Wilco – We’re Just Friends
5. Wilco – I’m Always in Love
6. Wilco – Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway (Again)
7. Wilco – Pieholden Suite
8. Wilco – How to Fight Loneliness
9. Wilco – Via Chicago
10. Wilco – ELT
11. Wilco – My Darling
12. Wilco – When You Wake up Feeling Old
13. Wilco – Summer Teeth
14. Wilco – In a Future Age
15. Wilco – 23 Seconds of Silence
16. Wilco – Candyfloss
17. Wilco – A Shot in the Arm (Remix)
18. Wilco – Tried and True (Demo) (2020 Remaster)
19. Wilco – I’m Always in Love (Demo) (2020 Remaster)
20. Wilco – All I Need (Demo) (2020 Remaster)
21. Wilco – I’ll Sing It (Demo) (2020 Remaster)
22. Wilco – Two Guitars (Instrumental) (2020 Remaster)
23. Wilco – Candyfloss (Demo)
24. Wilco – In a Future Age (Demo) (2020 Remaster)
25. Wilco – No Hurry (Demo) (2020 Remaster)
26. Wilco – She’s a Jar (Demo) (2020 Remaster)
27. Wilco – Can’t Locator It (Guitar Riff Demo) (2020 Remaster)
28. Wilco – Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway (Again) [Demo] (2020 Remaster)
29. Wilco – Summer Teeth (Slow Rhodes Version)
30. Wilco – Pieholden Suite (Alternate) (2020 Remaster)
31. Wilco – I’m Always in Love (Early Run Through) (2020 Remaster)
32. Wilco – My Darling (Alternate) (2020 Remaster)
33. Wilco – Tried and True (Alternate) (2020 Remaster)
34. Wilco – She’s a Jar (Alternate) (2020 Remaster)
35. Wilco – Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway (Again) [Alternate] (2020 Remaster)
36. Wilco – Candy Floss (Intro)
37. Wilco – Every Little Thing (Alternate)
38. Wilco – Viking Dan (Outtake)
39. Wilco – We’re Just Friends / Yee Haw (10/29/99 Minneapolis Soundcheck)
40. Wilco – Summer Teeth (Alternate)
41. Wilco – In a Future Age (Take 3)
42. Wilco – Via Chicago (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
43. Wilco – Candy Floss (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
44. Wilco – Summer Teeth (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
45. Wilco – I’m Always in Love (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
46. Wilco – I Must Be High (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
47. Wilco – How to Fight Loneliness (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
48. Wilco – Hotel Arizona (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
49. Wilco – Red-Eyed and Blue (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
50. Wilco – I Got You (At the End of the Century) (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
51. Wilco – Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway (Again) (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
52. Wilco – She’s a Jar (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
53. Wilco – A Shot in the Arm (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
54. Wilco – We’re Just Friends (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
55. Wilco – Misunderstood (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
56. Wilco – Hesitating Beauty (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
57. Wilco – Christ for President (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
58. Wilco – Passenger Side (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
59. Wilco – Can’t Stand It (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
60. Wilco – Forget the Flowers (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
61. Wilco – New Madrid (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
62. Wilco – California Stars (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
63. Wilco – Kingpin (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
64. Wilco – Casino Queen (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
65. Wilco – Outta Mind (Outta Sight) (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
66. Wilco – Hoodoo Voodoo (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)
67. Wilco – Monday (Live at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO 11/1/99)