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Wilco - 'I'm Trying To Break Your Heart'

Repeat Prescriptions....The Top 100 Classic Albums Of All Time that you keep coming back to!


Like doing a university course as a mature student, I am returning to my musical education and filling in the gaps. I intend to revisit The 100 Best Albums Of All Time (see them all here) as recommended by Q Magazine back when the poll was last done in 2006. Some I will know and love, some I will have skimmed and some I will not even have given time of day. This will all change when I listen to every album in full as it was intended, from 100 to 1, and choose my favourite song from each.

Album Number 100: Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (2001)


I know of Wilco and I know I know some of their stuff, but when I tried to think of a song or album, oops, I couldn't! So the journey to reinforce my musical foundations has officially begun. It was a gloriously sunny day and myself and LS had just set off for home from Bognor Regis having just visited the mother in law. The start of the journey is through rolling hills and farmland which had fresh bails of hay everywhere. This album couldn't have been more perfect for the scenery and now won't be forgotten. In a nutshell I enjoyed it from the off and actually listened to it several times over the week (I only set myself the task of listening to it twice but it was that good). In my opinion, it has the right balance of folk, pop and electric sound with too many highlights to mention without fear of leaving a song off the album out! 

Although I did try to pick a favourite that wasn't the first track on the album, (don't know why, just felt like a cop out!) I couldn't deny that I enjoy it the most. It reminds me of Beck or Badly Drawn Boy. I just love the rattly bamboo clicks and echoey piano, perfect sunny day music despite the break up sentiment. It's great when the last lines of the song are the guy admitting he is 'the man that loves you'. I shall now be watching the Wilco documentary of the same name!


Shell Hunter's seal of approval.



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Comments

Old Pa's Corner said…
What a great idea...My fav Wilco album and prob the best track on it. Weird that the record company did not want to release the album as they did not think it good enough.
16 August 2014 at 12:50
The Swede said…
This is a brilliant idea - I'm really looking forward to reading your thoughts and hearing your selections. To make it even more enjoyable, I'm not going to follow the link to that old Q list to find out what's coming up, although we can all probably guess at quite a few of 'em.
Wilco are a consistently great band, whose albums are all well worth delving into and 'I Am Trying to Break Your Heart' is an excellent choice from 'YHF'.
16 August 2014 at 13:24
Anonymous said…
Fine idea which I shall look forward to following up. I have mixed feelings about Wilco (probably because any band so consistently praised must, somehow, be overrated in my warped thinking) but do own a fair number of their albums even if more recent ones have passed me by. This song, however, is definitely great and the album it comes from right up there. Bring 'em on.
17 August 2014 at 08:52
flycasual said…
It's a good idea and I'll look forward to your takes on those albums. It's true that, given the choice, you probably won't be bothered checking some of those out but you'll miss out on countless gems. I'm a bit dubious about these lists anyway and I agree with Old Pa that the votes go the way with whatever is popular. Anyway boring. Wilco are great though I only got into them through Summerteeth, particularly 'A Shot in the Arm'. But I didn't really follow them that much afterwards including missing out on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Fabulous epic track.
24 August 2014 at 18:19
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