Wilco

I have been trying to write about Wilco for ages. I've tried writing a long piece about why Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is my favourite album, why it's the greatest album of the century, how it's about everything, how it's the defining document of modern anxiety and dislocation, how it came together, what it means etc but gave up, because I wasn't doing it any justice.

I've wanted to write about, though I've seen 100s of bands down the year, Wilco and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are the Ronaldo and Messi of the whole thing - just better, on a different level, from the other bands I've seen.

I've wanted to write about the funny phenomenon of a band being in its recording prime while it was still coming together as a live act. Wilco didn't hit on their great settled live line up til about 2004, by which arguably they'd made most of their most acclaimed albums. Who else does this apply to? Belle and Sebastian? The Rolling Stones? Lots of others, I expect.

I've wanted to write about the steady genius of the frontman Jeff Tweedy, about his great memoir, how he's a bit of an American Damon Albarn, an enabler, a bandleader more than a talisman, but that's not to underestimate his prodigious gifts. How one interview with Tweedy is worth more than some band's whole recorded career.

But anyway, hopefully I'll do all those things, but for now, reverting to type, here are my 100 favourite Jeff Tweedy songs

1. She's a Jar
2. Misunderstood
3. Radio Cure
4. Hummingbird
5. Jesus Etc
6. Reservations
7. On and On and On
8. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
9. Candyfloss
10. The Late Greats
11. Ashes of American Flags
12. You Never Know
13. Random Name Generator
14. Spiders (Kidsmoke)
15. I Might
16. What Light
17. Sunken Treasure
18. Monday
19. Theologians
20. Hate it Here
21. Either Way
22. Via Chicago
23. Impossible Germany
24. New Madrid - Uncle Tupelo
25. Say You Miss Me
26. California Stars (with Billy Bragg)
27. Wilco
28. Pieholden Suite
29. Dawned on Me
30. I Got You (at the end of the century)
31. How to Fight Loneliness
32. I'm a Wheel
33. Can't Stand It
34. ELT
35. I'm the Man Who Loves You
36. I'm Always in Love
37. You Satellite
38. Everlasting Everything
39. Nothing's ever Gonna Stand in My Way Again
40. Standing O
41. When You Wake Up Feeling Old
42. Bombs Above - Jeff Tweedy
43. I Must Be High
44. Outtamind (outtasite)
45. Shot in the Arm
46. Company in My Back
47. Screen Door - Uncle Tupelo
48. Poor Places
49. Country Disappeared
50. Heavy Metal Drummer
51. Taste the Ceiling
52. Side with the Seeds
53. Summerteeth
54. Kamera
55. Magnetized
56. At Least That's What You Said
57. One Wing
58. We Aren't the World (Safety Girl)
59. The Joke Explained
60. Pot Kettle Black
61. Looking Forward to Seeing You - Golden Smog
62. What's the World Got In Store
63. Box Full of Letters
64. You and I
65. Born Alone
66. Art of Almost
67. Happiness
68. Diamond Lights - Tweedy
69. Some Birds
70. Locator
71. I'll Fight
72. Handshake Drugs
73. Normal American Kids
74. Far, Far Away
75. I Know What It's Like - Jeff Tweedy
76. Cry All Day
77. Less than You Think
78. One Sunday Morning
79. Just Say Goodbye
80. My Darling
81. Passenger Side
82. The Lonely 1
83. Low Key - Tweedy
84. Wishful Thinking
85. Muzzle of Bees
86. We've Been Had - Uncle Tupelo
87. You Were Wrong - Loose Fur
88. Summer Noon - Tweedy
89. Having Been is No Way to Be - Jeff Tweedy
90. Casino Queen
91. We're Just Friends
92. Shake It Off
93. Watch Me Fall - Uncle Tupelo
94. Gun - Uncle Tupelo
95. Lost Love - Golden Smog
96. One by One - with Billy Bragg
97. Shouldn't Be Ashamed
98. In a Future Age
99. Please Be Patient With Me
100. Kingpin

It's already wildly inaccurate, but I hope it tells you how much I love Wilco. That's all I want to do for now.