Friday, July 09, 2004

AGIB - "Neil Young-like tone and frenzied fretboard manglings"

Wilco's A Ghost Is Born sounds like Neil Young chapter 47...

From BBC review by Chris Jones:

"While certain tracks on Yankee Foxtrot Hotel only revealed their glories in the quiet moments where small sounds shifted and unravelled in front of your ears, Ghost attempts to give you a more focussed audio verite. This could explain why, on the two tracks that extend beyond the five minute mark, they really stretch out, for nigh on quarter of an hour each. It's as though Tweedy and pals have shifted their faith from craftsmanship to the power of repetition. ''Spiders'' can't help but remind you of the motorik experimentation of Neu! crossed with the freeform guitar of Tom Verlaine.

In fact it's guitars that are the album's touchstone. Tweedy, describing his style herein as: 'inspired amateurism' is being typically modest. His Neil Young-like tone and frenzied fretboard manglings make the perfect subversive backdrop to the traditional song formats the band work within. One can only guess at how good this will sound when combined with new member Nels Cline's even further-out extemporisations.

The band never forget their Americana roots, however. A song like ''Muzzle Of Bees'' can still remind one of wide open spaces (but still undercut with brooding electric menace) and, when it comes to tracks like ''Hummingbird'' and ''Company In My Back'', there's no denying that Tweedy still has an almost Beatlesque eye for a tune."


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