Album Review: A.M.*

* - Note: I'm getting on this album review train, and I'm not getting off until I finish them all or I die. Ladies and gents, place your bets. Anyways, I'm starting off utilizing some algorithm (you'll never figure it out) which involves the first letters of albums, so perhaps unsurprisingly, you get Wilco's A.M. first. You also get an album that I don't have any kind of huge emotional attachment to / investment in, so this is kinda the prototype of what I'd call a short review. I'm also trying to standardize these things a little, so I'm going to make some kind of recommendation at the end and note which song made it onto my illustrious "Nyet's Faves" list. Anyways, here's a short review of an alphabetically first album. Enjoy, or don't.

Wilco - A.M. (1995)

This is Wilco, alt/indie/experimental (kinda) band supreme, still mired in its alt-country Uncle Tupelo roots. That's not a bad thing, as they have pretty much mastered that hipster country-rock sound, and on A.M. manage to subvert a whole lot of poor man's music cliches with wry wit and real-sentimet-laden melodies. So it's good, but something about it (especially vis a vis their other albums) feels like a bit of a novelty album. It also suffers a little bit from a front-heavy structure, meaning that there are some very good songs up front that progressively fade into some rather mundane, country-rock formulaic songs. All good, to be sure, but after the first half of the album or so there's not a lot to write home about. Highlights: the rollicking drawled "I Must Be High," the bar room rocker "Casino Queen," the trod-upon ballad "Pick Up the Change," and the electric finger-picker "That's Not the Issue."

Status: Recommended (solid)*
Nyet's Fave: "Pick Up the Change"

* - Just to clarify the stati: we're gonna go with the scale of Not Recommended, Recommended (solid), Recommended, and Desert Island Recommended. That'll (hopefully) keep me from driving myself insane over whether a certain album gets a 70 or a 75. So this album is not one that makes me think "hey, that's a great album!" or "really good album," but if pressed, sure, I would say it's good.