Summerteeth

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The record starts brightly with “Can’t Stand It,” music basking in a pure pop solar glow while Jeff Tweedy sounds like he’s about to flame out: “You know it’s all beginning/To feel like it’s ending,” he sing, convinced that he feels fine. You start to wonder about that even keel, though, as the words on <i>Summerteeth</i> get sadder and the pop tunes reveal a new, and desperate, patina. Gram Parsons and cowpunk were no longer Wilco’s avatars; Ric Ocasek, Jeff Lynne, and Brian Wilson loom large here. The twang is gone. Meanwhile, a lot of other stuff was going on with the band. Tweedy had become a father and his marriage was falling apart and he was writing candidly about it, as in “She’s a Jar,” where he finishes with a tossed-off “she begs me not to hit her” that leaves the listener wondering. Painkillers and antidepressants were in the studio with Tweedy and bandmate Jay Bennett, maybe more than was the rest of the group, who are downplayed in favor of Pro Tools and synthesizer. Here is the creative core of Wilco, breaking down and finding itself in the proce. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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