*note* I’m currently being attacked by a cold of monstrous proportions. In that previous sentence alone, I misspelled 5 different words. One of them was “by.” I’ll clean this post up and add a song tomorrow, as the nyquil is quickly going to worhuiiiiiiiiewU;EF
I’m not going to try to hide anything. I’m a huge fan of The Wilcos. If you’ve been here for a while, you already knew that—I welcomed in Day 100 with an entire week dedicated to the band. More recently, I gathered my entire family around our laptops in a quest to snag tickets to Wilco’s upcoming Chicago show at the Civic Opera House. We got ‘em, and will be laughing at all of the suckers that got sold out from our seats in the third row from the back in the upper balcony.
Just figured I should let you know that this post will be anything but unbiased. Now, it should not come as a surprise to you that I believe that The Whole Love is yet another fantastic record by a fantastic band. However, I understand why some fans have been a little disappointed after listening to the record’s stream. The Whole Love will be the first record released on Wilco’s own label, and they did take a few “artsy” liberties that they might have stayed away from in the past. Songs are a bit longer than usual, with a little static and fuzz finding its way in every now and then.
None of that should keep any fan of Wilco from finding something to like about this album. The Whole Love acts as a summation of everything that Wilco has ever done. They go back to their countrier-than-recently roots, hit on some of the more abstract stuff from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and there’s plenty of the poppier stuff that they’ve leaned on over the past couple of records.
Swole Ear 
Hahaha, this is essentially the TMBG’s-Join-Us-Fiasco only our roles are reversed.
As much as I hate to admit it, you may be right. Hometown pride and the nostalgia factor mean I’ll never dislike these guys. If you find a song as bad as “2082” on this record, though, I’d be shocked.
I think you are onto something with regard to the lack of record company oversight leading to possible self-indulgence. I saw Wilco a week ago Sunday. Don’t get me wrong, they were very good. I am sure that you will enjoy the show. However, the part in the song where they stop playing notes and bash at their instruments to a crescendo was part of maybe 8 of the first ten tunes. I admit they did it artfully – no two were exactly the same. Still, I don’t need that much artful bashing and I don’t think the audience did either (Mr. Tweedy actually thanked the audience for their “patience” with all the new numbers – coincidentally containing most of these bits – see http://www.montrealgazette.com/Review+Wilco+Metropolis/5424431/story.html). Nels Cline at times was conspicuously (gulp) Robert Fripp-like (but in a good way, to me at least).
Now, Mr. Ear, you need to do some show prep. You have already heard all of Wilco’s studio albums. Time to research the opening act. I recently got Nick Lowe’s re-released first album (under its British title) “Jesus of Cool” and contains the original of the song Wilco covered on the b-side of “I Might”, “I Love My Label”. Most excellent.