Bring Me the Head of Jeff Tweedy

I hate shit like this. If you don't feel like clicking, let me post the offending quote: "(Wilco's last album) features a lot of songs that didn't quite live up to their lofty legacy. So there's a little more pressure on the band to come through with goods on the still-untitled follow-up." Oh really? Says who? Most people I know love that album including Mothra, Jimbama and Big Red from Lucky Bitch. This happens a lot (and it happens a lot on Pitchfork) where one person, or one website's opinion, all of sudden gets deemed common knowledge. When I saw Wilco last summer, their fans were insanely excited about the new songs which all sounded incredible live. In my mind, there is no separation between their back catalog and their recent songs. I also find criticism that classifies Sky Blue Sky as soft, toothless rock to be missing the boat completely and not really listening to the album. It seems that often times critics come to a general conclusion about something (see: TV on the Radio) and all agree to unanimously pan or praise a certain band, album, etc. For some reason, Wilco has seen a mild critical backlash recently and Sky Blue Sky took a hit but to me it's all nonsense and makes me trust critics less and less with each passing day. And that part about needing to prove themselves this time out is laughably pretentious. You either like an album or you don't like it but no one's take on anything is universal. I'm sure most every shitty record out there has someone championing it, even if it's just the artist's parents. I hope for Wilco's sake that their forthcoming album is pleasing to Ryan Dombal for who knows what kind of shitstorm will rain down on them if it's not.