Category Archives: Spinning Plates

The remarkable thing about Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is that every single track plays a completely essential role within the album (and not in a heavy-handed, conceptual/rock opera sort of way). From Glenn Kotche’s drum fills on album opener “I am Trying to Break Your Heart,” through the post-cataclysmic conclusion of “Reservations,” the album offers one masterstroke of human experience after another. “War on War’s” waves of harmony prefigure the gentle lament of “Jesus, Etc.’s” bass line and strings, while the segue from “Ashes of American Flags” to “Heavy Metal Drummer” provides a near-perfect axis from which the mood of the entire album turns. When “Poor Places” finally crescendos and crashes and “Reservations” claws its way out from underneath the ambient wreckage, I am reassured that there are still some things worth believing. In the midst of great personal and professional strife, the band put together one of the quintessential albums of this or any other time. Who knew Wilco had it in them? I’m just glad that I gave the album a second listen all those years ago. Continue reading →