Leave me (like you found me) Tue. Mar 20th, 07
I mentioned the other day that I’d been listening to the new (unreleased) Wilco record quite a bit. I don’t have the energy to write a full review of the record—something I’ve avoided doing in general—but I would like to share with you one of my favorite tracks on the record.
Leave me (like you found me).mp3 is the kind of song that is great no matter the mood you’re in, but is magnificent when you already feel what he’s singing about.
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Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself; why is it great? You know, when I sat down to type this out, I thought it would be a snap, but my thoughts are much more mangled than I anticipated.
Okay, take two:
This song delivers one of the most honest and more rarely spoken desires a lover has for another. It occurs around 1:26: “Can you believe it? I’m somebody just like you: content with being blue.” I can’t recall a singer ever admitting this sentiment, and Tweedy’s confession here feels like sigh of relief for all the lovers who could never admit that they were really only in love with their sadness and perhaps how their sadness was reflected in their lover.
What I find most incredibly sad about this song is the request made in the title & chorus, “Can you leave me like you found me?” I think this almost unbearably sad because at the end of an affair, even a mediocre one, if the lovers are still the same, if they have not grown, changed, become more themselves, or learned what not to do next time around, then what the fuck? I mean, then what the fuck is the point? I know, the cynics will say there isn’t one—well, the cynics’ predictability is impossibly boring and not useful in any way. What I mean to say is that the sentiment expressed in the title & chorus reveals a heart/mind that has wholly given itself over to self-congratulatory sorrow and a longing for an extended period of quiescence, during which they hope no one will ever question why they are being so quiet.
For the music: The watery guitar in the background gives the song a 70s feel, which permeates throughout much of the record and is bound to be mentioned countless times in the future. The piano that accompanies the rhythm guitar is boring in an unobtrusive way—which is to say you might notice it, and if you don’t then you’re not missing anything. The shimmering cymbals help add to the melancholy of the song, but I can’t help but long for a bass drum to come in at some point (unless I just can’t hear it). I think this song reveals a great deal of restraint on Wilco’s part, and they show this type restraint throughout Sky Blue Sky. I think the song is restrained, in a good way, because you can almost hear how they could have taken the bridge in the song (around 2:00) from the thoughtful pause it is to a much more confused moment, which might have sounded perfect on YHF or “Ghost,” but Tweedy & Co. have grown past their inchoate experimentalism, which was indeed brilliant, and have instead opted to take the forms that songwriting was stretched into on those records (and previous ones) and make a record that is a quiet as an azure sky and as occasionally inspiring—whoops, I lapsed into reviewing the record. I just can’t keep my focus straight.
Anyways, enjoy.
technorati tags:Wilco, Sky Blue Sky, mp3
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I have a few Wilco albums on my computer, but I’ve never been able to listen to them…OK, just listen to the track. I’ll probably continue not listening to Wilco. These days, anyway.
That’s fair. I know a lot of people, who’s taste I respect, that don’t like Wilco. I often muse on what why that is. In a way, even when they’re “experimenting,” Wilco is a very midwestern band, which doesn’t really explain anything, but it might be a clue.
I have noticed that Wilco is very much a “dude” band — meaning that a lot of musician dudes love the band and force their girlfriends to listen.
let me know what you think of this one though, when you’ve had time to listen.
Haven’t had time to listen to it yet. Super busy at work. I will.
That was a typo. It should have read “just listened.” I guess I don’t really like them. Wait, I’ll listen one more time…
No, I don’t really like it. But I can’t stop listening to that Liechtenstein single, so you know where I’m at.
definitely. the liechtenstein single, which is quite cool, is a very different place to be.
but i’m glad that you at least gave it a couple of shots.
I gave this a whirl. I can definitely see myself listening to this one good and loud while I wash dishes or clean up some clutter in the other room. I suspect that I would have the same problem with Wilco that I’ve alwalys had, though (and that I have with so many bands. Wilco is no exclusive to this problem. Among these are great bands like Cat Power and Sleater Kinney) where I just can’t listen to a whole album. Not because it’s too “heavy” or depressing, but simply because it doesn’t hold my interest.
I’m curious, now that I’m really thinking about it, why it is that some bands can hold my attention and others can’t, even bands that I like. Why is it that I can listen to some bands that have their own “signature sound” (i.e. their songs have a similar format or sound throughout an album and are similar to previous albums) and I don’t get tired of it, whereas other bands that I like, I can only tolerate two or three at a time?
Maybe this is really something to be analyzed on more of an individual basis and not on so broad a spectrum, but it does seem to be a persistent thing for me.
i was thinking you might like this one, bojrya. i think you’re right: it would prove fruitful to closely look at why some forms of “repition,” if you will, work for you while others don’t. maybe it’s just the way they do it, but that’s saying a lot in a few words, and isn’t too clear.
and, we’ll meet up in the digital phone waves soon, i promise.
Go here to download the whole album:
http://crewmusiczine.blogspot.com/2007/03/wilco.html
nice one.
One has to assume music released on CD will spread quickly. I wish it were so for stuff released on vinyl. I would die for the rest of the Liechtenstein single!
I’ll give it a listen this afternoon. Did I tell you yet today that you’re super rad?
Correction: I will not be listening to it this afternoon ’cause I can’t download non-work related things. Damn.
hi Rodney, thanks for supporting my website
A beautiful song in all ways. You left out, in your discussion of the music, the bass. This song has one of the most melodic bass lines to come around in a while. And it truly supports the mood of the song and the emotional shifts that come with a relationship as it moves from high to low over and over.