Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Super Deluxe Edition) (2022) [FLAC 24bit/192kHz]

Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Super Deluxe Edition) (2022) [FLAC 24bit/192kHz] Download

Wilco do not do things by halves and bring to the 20th birthday of “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” no less than seven different variants of their album milestone on the market.

The release of their fourth album marks a watershed in the band’s history. While the first three albums more or less continued the alternative country sound of the previous band Uncle Tupelo, band head Jeff Tweedy had some changes in mind for “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”. It was to be more experimental and more broadly based, more indie rock and less Americana. After some internal disagreements, he finally prevailed, which brought one or the other personnel change in the band around the release of the album.

The reaction to “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” proved Jeff Tweedy right. It was the band’s most commercially successful album to date and also made it into the charts in Germany, reaching number 29. The critics also agreed that it was an unusually mature and important album. It hailed top marks and euphoric reviews, as well as placements in the best lists of the year. The American Rolling Stone, for example, ranked the album #3 in its “One Hundred Best Albums of the 2000s” and #225 in its “500 Best Albums of All Time.”Great artistic transformations are by nature traumatic, but rarely has a single musical statement been the source of more controversy and change than Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, now remastered and reissued for its 20th anniversary. Anyone who’s seen the documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart witnessed the project’s two creative engines, Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett, driving themselves mad in the process. Arguably, Wilco’s best work were products of the Tweedy-Bennett partnership. Bennett, who came off as unduly obsessive and off kilter in the film, was fired from the band after the album’s completion (and sadly died in 2009 from an accidental overdose at age 45); original drummer Ken Coomer was also let go during the recording process. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot also stands as yet another instance where Jim O’Rourke, who eventually mixed the album, continued to build his considerable reputation as a musical influencer. The turmoil continued after the album was finished when Warner Music Group-owned Reprise Records, which had undergone staff changes after a merger with AOL, didn’t hear the album’s commercial potential, and refused to release it. This led to a lengthy battle during which the band streamed the album for free on its website, gained control of the master tapes, and after a bidding war signed with another WMG label, Nonesuch Records, where the band remains to this day. (As a final complication, the album’s cover features a photo of Chicago’s Marina City— two corn cobbed-shaped high-rise buildings—and had an original release date of September 11, 2001.)

Artistically, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot marks the moment where Wilco left its Uncle Tupelo alt-country past behind and stepped deep into bold sonic exploration. Although Tweedy has always made it clear that he considers it a “pop album,” he’s also said, “I was learning about contrasts. A lot of the songs on Yankee aren’t particularly abstract. But they benefit from being in a disorienting landscape of language … I needed to find some experimental music with a bigger heart. That’s what I was looking for my whole life.”

In a telling sign that it’s something special, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot still sounds fresh, an artistic evergreen. While the lyrics veered off into nonsensical land, the music, in songs like the “I’m the Man Who Loves You,” “War on War” and ever sublime, “Jesus, Etc.” are tuneful in timeless ways, untethered to any genre or current of popular music. It’s ageless art rock that stands to this day as the band’s most lasting work. The original mix has been refreshed by famed engineer Bob Ludwig without any major changes. The tracks that appear under the heading of Unified Theory of Everything are taken from the mountain of tape (much of it ADATs) that the band recorded for the album. At their most revealing, Wilco show the expansive vision of experimentation they brought to the project and the struggle to translate that in the studio. While “Jesus, Etc.” is nearly the same as the released take, this version of “Kamera” is slower and has a big buzzy guitar at its center. The “Stravinsky mix” of “Ashes of American Flags” opens with flutes. None is more telling however than “Remember to Remember,” which later became “Hummingbird” on 2004’s A Ghost is Born. It’s much heavier than the original version, the mix based around an insistent drumbeat, wavering keyboards, and an electric guitar part. The live show from 2002 at The Pageant in St. Louis, which benefits from generally good sound, shows the band bouncing back, playing stripped down versions of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot tunes and getting a handle on playing the material without the multi-talented Bennett. There was a time back before the band became the extraordinary collection of virtuoso musicians it is today, when Tweedy was still hungry, desperate even, for success. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is the sound of a band reaching and finding something unforgettable. – Robert Baird

Tracklist:

1-01. Wilco – I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (Remastered 24-192) (06:57)
1-02. Wilco – Kamera (Remastered 24-192) (03:30)
1-03. Wilco – Radio Cure (Remastered 24-192) (05:09)
1-04. Wilco – War On War (Remastered 24-192) (03:49)
1-05. Wilco – Jesus, Etc (Remastered 24-192) (03:51)
1-06. Wilco – Ashes Of American Flags (Remastered 24-192) (04:44)
1-07. Wilco – Heavy Metal Drummer (Remastered 24-192) (03:09)
1-08. Wilco – I’m The Man Who Loves You (Remastered 24-192) (03:56)
1-09. Wilco – Pot Kettle Black (Remastered 24-192) (04:00)
1-10. Wilco – Poor Places (Remastered 24-192) (05:18)
1-11. Wilco – Reservations (Remastered 24-192) (07:21)
2-01. Wilco – Anniversary (Nothing Up My Sleeve) (American Aquarium 24-96) (02:46)
2-02. Wilco – Venus Stopped The Train (American Aquarium 24-96) (04:11)
2-03. Wilco – Poor Places (American Aquarium 24-96) (03:24)
2-04. Wilco – I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (American Aquarium 24-96) (05:38)
2-05. Wilco – American Aquarium (American Aquarium 24-96) (06:05)
2-06. Wilco – Cars Can’t Escape (American Aquarium 24-96) (02:32)
2-07. Wilco – Kamera (American Aquarium 24-96) (02:54)
2-08. Wilco – War On War (American Aquarium 24-96) (02:45)
2-09. Wilco – I’m The Man Who Loves You (American Aquarium 24-96) (03:59)
2-10. Wilco – Ashes Of American Flags (American Aquarium 24-96) (03:59)
2-11. Wilco – Not For The Season (Laminated Cat) (American Aquarium 24-96) (05:56)
2-12. Wilco – Shakin’ Sugar (American Aquarium 24-96) (03:31)
2-13. Wilco – Let Me Come Home (American Aquarium 24-96) (02:40)
2-14. Wilco – Poor Places (American Aquarium 24-96) (03:27)
2-15. Wilco – Reservations (American Aquarium 24-96) (03:27)
3-01. Wilco – Not For The Season (Laminated Cat) (Here Comes Everybody 24-96) (03:12)
3-02. Wilco – Remember To Rember (Hummingbird) (Here Comes Everybody 24-96) (04:17)
3-03. Wilco – I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (Here Comes Everybody 24-96) (06:13)
3-04. Wilco – Kamera (Here Comes Everybody 24-96) (03:13)
3-05. Wilco – Radio Cure (Here Comes Everybody 24-96) (04:40)
3-06. Wilco – War On War (Here Comes Everybody 24-96) (03:36)
3-07. Wilco – Venus Stopped The Train (Here Comes Everybody 24-96) (04:30)
3-08. Wilco – I’m The Man Who Loves You (Here Comes Everybody 24-96) (03:34)
3-09. Wilco – The Good Part (Here Comes Everybody 24-96) (03:09)
3-10. Wilco – Pot Kettle Black (Here Comes Everybody 24-96) (04:35)
3-11. Wilco – Ashes Of American Flags (Here Comes Everybody 24-96) (05:36)
3-12. Wilco – Poor Places (Here Comes Everybody 24-96) (03:49)
3-13. Wilco – Shakin’ Sugar (Here Comes Everybody 24-96) (03:10)
3-14. Wilco – Reservations (Here Comes Everybody 24-96) (03:20)
3-15. Wilco – Cars Can’t Escape (Here Comes Everybody 24-96) (03:57)
4-01. Wilco – A Magazine Called Sunset (Unified Theory Of Everything 24-96) (02:51)
4-02. Wilco – Remember to Remember (Unified Theory Of Everything 24-96) (04:47)
4-03. Wilco – I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (Unified Theory Of Everything 24-96) (07:03)
4-04. Wilco – Kamera (Unified Theory Of Everything 24-96) (03:21)
4-05. Wilco – Radio Cure (Unified Theory Of Everything 24-96) (05:39)
4-06. Wilco – War on War (Unified Theory Of Everything 24-96) (03:59)
4-07. Wilco – Jesus Etc (Unified Theory Of Everything 24-96) (03:52)
4-08. Wilco – Ashes of American Flags (Unified Theory Of Everything 24-96) (05:26)
4-09. Wilco – Heavy Metal Drummer (Unified Theory Of Everything 24-96) (03:31)
4-10. Wilco – I’m The Man Who Loves You (Unified Theory Of Everything 24-96) (03:39)
4-11. Wilco – Pot Kettle Black (Unified Theory Of Everything 24-96) (04:19)
4-12. Wilco – Poor Places (Unified Theory Of Everything 24-96) (03:46)
4-13. Wilco – Reservations (Unified Theory Of Everything 24-96) (03:43)
5-01. Wilco – Love Will (Let You Down) (Lonely In The Deep End 24-96) (05:16)
5-02. Wilco – Lost Poem Demo (Lonely In The Deep End 24-96) (03:05)
5-03. Wilco – I’m The Only One Who Let’s Her Down (Lonely In The Deep End 24-96) (04:02)
5-04. Wilco – Has Anybody Seen My Pencil (Lonely In The Deep End 24-96) (04:13)
5-05. Wilco – The Good Part (Lonely In The Deep End 24-96) (05:06)
5-06. Wilco – A Magazine Called Sunset (Lonely In The Deep End 24-96) (02:41)
5-07. Wilco – A Magazine Called Sunset (Backing Track) (Lonely In The Deep End 24-96) (02:36)
5-08. Wilco – Anniversary (Nothing Up My Sleeve) (Backing Track) (Lonely In The Deep End 24-96) (02:44)
5-09. Wilco – Kamera (Lonely In The Deep End 24-96) (02:44)
5-10. Wilco – I’m The Man Who Loves You (Lonely In The Deep End 24-96) (04:16)
5-11. Wilco – I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (Lonely In The Deep End 24-96) (04:53)
5-12. Wilco – Jesus Etc. (Lonely In The Deep End 24-96) (03:16)
5-13. Wilco – Reservations (Backing Track) (Lonely In The Deep End 24-96) (03:42)
5-14. Wilco – Let Me Come Home (Synth) (Lonely In The Deep End 24-96) (01:32)
5-15. Wilco – Ooby Dooby (Lonely In The Deep End 24-96) (02:08)
6-01. Wilco – I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (05:42)
6-02. Wilco – I’m The Man Who Loves You (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (04:20)
6-03. Wilco – War On War (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (03:58)
6-04. Wilco – Kamera (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (03:15)
6-05. Wilco – Radio Cure (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (05:37)
6-06. Wilco – A Shot In The Arm (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (05:10)
6-07. Wilco – She’s A Jar (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (05:31)
6-08. Wilco – I’m Always In Love (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (05:20)
6-09. Wilco – Sunken Treasure (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (07:09)
6-10. Wilco – Jesus, Etc (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (04:12)
6-11. Wilco – Heavy Metal Drummer (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (04:08)
6-12. Wilco – Pot Kettle Black (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (04:53)
7-01. Wilco – Ashes Of American Flags (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (04:42)
7-02. Wilco – Not For The Season (Laminated Cat) (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (08:35)
7-03. Wilco – Reservations (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (06:52)
7-04. Wilco – California Stars (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (06:29)
7-05. Wilco – Red-Eyed And Blue (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (02:19)
7-06. Wilco – I Got You (At The End Of The Century) (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (04:59)
7-07. Wilco – Misinderstood (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (06:47)
7-08. Wilco – Far, Far Away (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (04:53)
7-09. Wilco – Outtasite (Outta Mind) (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (02:35)
7-10. Wilco – I’m A Wheel (Live At The Pageant 07.23.02 24-44) (03:32)
8-01. Wilco – Interview pt 1 (Live In The Studio 24-96) (03:23)
8-02. Wilco – War On War (Live In The Studio) (Live In The Studio 24-96) (03:15)
8-03. Wilco – Interview pt 2 (Live In The Studio 24-96) (05:32)
8-04. Wilco – Interview pt 3 (Live In The Studio 24-96) (13:57)
8-05. Wilco – I’m The Man Who Loves You (Live In The Studio) (Live In The Studio 24-96) (03:53)
8-06. Wilco – Interview pt 4 (Live In The Studio 24-96) (20:11)
8-07. Wilco – Should’ve Been In Love (Live In The Studio) (Live In The Studio 24-96) (03:43)
8-08. Wilco – Interview pt 5 (Live In The Studio 24-96) (02:01)
8-09. Wilco – She’s A Jar (Live In The Studio) (Live In The Studio 24-96) (04:41)
8-10. Wilco – Interview pt 6 (Live In The Studio 24-96) (07:44)
8-11. Wilco – Ashes Of American Flags (Live In The Studio) (Live In The Studio 24-96) (04:38)