The Wake

I have always thought of Wilco albums as works of art, congruent in their entirety, and packed with layers upon layers of meaning. When I heard they were releasing a live album I thought, “This is great, I love Wilco.” When I finally got the double-disc set in my hands, I was confused. The songs were all out of order! There were people trying to sing along to Jeff Tweedy! Anarchy, in a sense.

As I meandered my way, bewildered, through the first disc, it hit me: There is something here that I had not yet considered. Wilco may be taking old songs and giving them new meaning through this new arrangement. A majority of the songs are taken from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002) and A Ghost is Born (2004), both of which were perfect in their original contexts. Meticulously timed and deliberately sequenced, these CDs are music for musicians. Many of my favorite recent songs were used for Kicking Television in a context which caught me off guard. “Hummingbird,” “At Least That’s What You Said,” “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” and “I’m the Man Who Loves You” all place themselves well within the collection, preformed as expected favorites and used to showcase the enormous talent of the musicians.

The first song on the album, “Misunderstood,” is lyrically derived from another song by Peter Laughner called “Amphetamine.” “Misunderstood” references one of Laughner’s most chilling songs, written during a period of extreme drug dependency. On the contrary, the live disc is concludes with “Comment (all men are truly brothers),” originally by 60s and 70s funk icon Charles Wright. So what I have before me is a compilation of Wilco songs, all fucked-up, sloshy, and graceful in their own right. On either side, I am confronted by mixed messages, one of heart break and early death, and on the other side, hope, brotherhood, and funk. To me, this contradiction is what Wilco is all about, and what is contained within Kicking Television. With this new live disc, Wilco continues to enthrall me with their ability to be in a drunken melancholy while at times still exercising its listener friendly classic rock sound.