Wilco – Ode To Joy

hmm … all in all I can understand most of the comments here but for me musically it is one of
their weaker albums. I am sorry. I am not talking about the lyrics. they may be more personal, more intimate as other wilco records. my pink copy is flat but some noises and pops are hearable. the record sounds not bad but far
away from „great“. at the end not my favest release of them. but that everyone has decide for himself.

very slight warp. plays and sounds great! a grower of an album.

Another one here with a nice pressing. Amazing album, once again from Wilco!

Just got the slight "Splatter Pink"version. Sounds great...no noise on the vinyl. One of Wilco's strongest works upon 1st listen.

My pink copy is excellent, flat and sounds nicely. It's a very enjoyable album and my favourite Wilco release since Sky Blue Sky. However, the packaging feels a bit flimsy and the fact that the record comes without a download code is a real shame.

I’m thinking that Ode To Joy is a new beginning for Wilco, a fresh start, a turn in the road for these indy rock elder statesmen, featuring an assemblage of laidback half-light dreamy songs that find a perplexing comfortable warm spot.

That said, there’s an inescapable hypnotic crumbling effect that’s woven into the fabric of every song, creating a boundless fabric of sensitivity with an ethereal jubilation that at times is almost perverse in its beaten down spent nature and being. First time Wilco listeners are gonna wonder what all the past hype was about, because Ode To Joy comes across as a lament, lacking all the edges and expansiveness we’ve come to know and expect from this band, which in turn, makes this album sound for all the world like a much more complex and musically inspired solo outing from Tweedy.

With that in mind, each song melts before you, leaving listeners nothing to hold, no memories to cherish when the record’s over, leaving me to wonder how many times I’ll be playing these hazed bits of ennui meanderings, and in turn, wondering if I’ve gotten old enough for these weary somber sobering songs to be the sort of music that’s going to inspire and nurture me. The oblique moody atmospheric underpinnings swirl like smoke throughout most of the songs, while other numbers are laced with fatigued sonic textures, yet all are nothing more than rambles, sounding incomplete, as if they’re the slowed down comfort zone heart of larger songs that Wilco are as of yet unwilling or unable to deliver.

This is a record, like it or not, that exist entirely in the background, an album that would have been perfect for sitting on the floor, passing around a joint and feeling the essence of this record creep ever so slowly into our souls, but those days are over, and that’s a real shame, because Ode To Joy requires a set of sensibilities that have gone out of fashion, out of favor, where today’s private listeners will eventually find themselves realizing that something larger than themselves, something larger even than Wilco is missing … that being a communal embrace that would allow these delicate numbers to linger with a sense of buoyancy, along with an undercurrent of joy, not just for the music, but for the friends we once share music like this with.

*** The Fun Facts: The album’s title was taken from “Ode to Joy” by Schiller, is a fairly thorough examination of the emotion of joy, its origins and its purposes. It is inextricably linked now with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and its distinctive “Freude” melody, but it's a fairly straightforward poem, and on its own it endeavors to create a feeling of, and appreciation for, the emotion of joy in the reader. It's also all-inclusive, since Joy is literally a character in this, its own ode. Perhaps most importantly are the implications to Jeff Tweedy and his sobriety, where joy is needed for life and motivation, where joy is heavenly in origin and available to mankind though a loving god.

Review by Jenell Kesler

Mine is flat so if there are those wondering if flat copies exist, they do. Try for a replacement

My pink copy is heavily warped, otherwise sounds excellent. May try another copy. This is a mellow Wilco album so it benefits from a quiet pressing. The mastering is warm and open. The cover design is an ironic snore.

Amoeba currently has the pink vinyl for $26.98 and free US shipping so.....