Through multiple incarnations and rebirths, Wilco has maintained critical and commercial success — no easy feat in the music industry today. With truly inspired songwriting and an elastic sound that has stretched throughout a multitude of genres, Wilco is easily my favorite active band. Below is a list of my top 20 favorite tracks released throughout their career.
20. “Box Full of Letters”
19. “Either Way”
18. “Can’t Stand It”
17. “Casino Queen”
16. “Wilco (The Song)”
15. “Impossible Germany”
14. “Wishful Thinking”
13. “I’m Always in Love”
12. “I Must Be High”
11. “Pick Up The Change”
10. “Walken” — Buy
I imagine Jeff Tweedy was sitting at the piano and said “Hey, how about this little diddy”, and out came “Walken”, Wilco’s “Martha My Dear”. Moving back and forth between rollicking guitar riffs and bouncy barroom piano, the band compliments Tweedy’s simplistic lyrics that harken back to 60’s love songs.
9. “Shake It Off” — Buy
I love the way this song builds. With a rising melody that mutates and grows as the song progresses, Wilco eschews the alt-country feel from their earlier work but manages to keep a downhome, rootsy essence. The track has an incoming tide that gets larger, louder and fuller without you really noticing the change until you’re neck deep in groovy gumbo.
8. “Radio Cure” — Buy
“Picking apples for the kings and queens of things I’ve never seen” is a first round knockout of a lyric. I’d love this song solely for that line, but there’s so much more. Soft static noise and mellow acoustic strums make this a meditative number that creeps and undulates like a psychedelic sea creature. “Distance has no way of making love understandable” is another bit of perfect poetry.
7. “Hate It Here” — Buy
Another track from the latter half of Wilco’s discography. Part country-tinged piano ballad, part bluesy romper, “Hate It Here” is another incarnation of “Walken.” The chorus is irresistible with it’s classic guitar hooks and hard hitting drum fills provided by Glenn Kotche. “I even learned how to use the washing machine” speaks to the helpless bachelor that’s inside many of us.
6. “Handshake Drugs” — Buy
Holy hamhockey does Jeff Tweedy write some good lyrics. Drawing inspiration from his bad experiences with prescription medication, Tweedy pens lines like “and if I ever was myself I wasn’t that night.” The mark of a truly great songwriter is the ability to create the feeling of harmonic travel with only a few chords. Tweedy and co. did it with three just like the good old blues boys from way back when.
5. “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” — Buy
Beautiful, beautiful noise. This was one of the songs that first got me into Wilco. The kaleidoscope collage of sound twitters and washes throughout this nearly seven minute masterpiece. Tweedy’s stream-of-conscience lyrics allow us to enjoy the melody of the words themselves as they play with the music. Oh yeah, and it has one of the best drum hook ever.
4. “Jesus Etc.” — Buy
The forlorn string parts in this song are absolutely incredible. Here, Wilco gives us true instrumental beauty. Lyrically, Tweedy is again achingly poetic and true. The way he sings “you can rely on me honey” is heartbreaking, and, of course, he gives us one of the finest lines on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: “last cigarettes are all you can get turning your orbit around.”
3. “I’m a Wheel” — Buy
The swagger in this song is unstoppable. Two guitar parts (both so freaking badass I can’t even handle it) carry the tune through brilliant, inventive song structure. Lyrically, this song is one of Tweedy’s best. “I’m a wheel/Gonna turn on you” ends up being pretty vicious with “Bitter sister/ I populate her with knives.”
2. “Heavy Metal Drummer” — Buy
A Wilco classic. Carried by sliding bass lines and sparse piano hooks, the tune glides along with effortless grace. Amid bubbling electronics, Tweedy ruminates on the freedom of youth “I miss the innocence I’ve known/ playing KISS covers beautiful and stoned.” There’s really something magical at work here. Listen and feel sublime.
1. “Hummingbird” — Buy
This song is instantly and forever likeable. It’s impossible not to love. The lyrical narrative meshed with the ne’er repeating chord changes showcases Tweedy in his most critical genius. There are too many lines to love. “The great fountain spray of the great Milky Way” or “the deep chrome canyons of the loudest Manhattans” that all float above the gorgeously constructed instrumentation bleeding to the chorus. I wish I could get this song bronzed and put it on my mantle.
