Wilco Summerteeth CD

Live Recording

Wilco: Jeff Tweedy (vocals, acoustic, electric, baritone, bowed, tremelo & 12-string guitars, harmonica, toy harp, synthesizer, bass, tambourine, claps); Jay Bennett (acoustic, baritone, E-bow, electric & lap steel guitars, banjo, tiple, piano, organ, Farfisa organ, keyboards, synthesizer, Moog synthesizer, slide bass, drums, bells, tambourine, percussion, claps, background vocals); John Stirratt (piano, bass, background vocals); Ken Coomer (drums, timpani).
Additional personnel: Dave Crawford (trumpet); Leroy Bach (piano); Mark Greenberg (vibraphone).
Engineers include: Larry Greenhill, Mike Hagler, Dave Trumfio.
Jeff Tweedy once blazed the trail for the American rock underground's embrace of its country and folk roots, but as the decade draws to its close he's spearheading the return of classic pop; simply put, what once were fiddles on Wilco records are now violins -- the same instrument, to be sure, but viewed with a radical shift in perception and meaning. While lacking the sheer breadth and ambition of the previous Being There, Summer Teeth is the most focused Wilco effort yet, honing the lessons of the last record to forge a majestic pop sound almost completely devoid of alt-country elements; the lush string arrangements and gorgeous harmonies of tracks like "She's a Jar" and "Pieholden Suite" suggest nothing less than a landlocked Brian Wilson, while more straightforward rockers like the opening "I Can't Stand It" bear the influence of everything from R&B to psychedelia. Still, for all of the superficial warmth and beauty of the record's arrangements, Tweedy's songs are perhaps his darkest and most haunting to date, bleak domestic dramas informed by recurring themes of alienation, adultery, and abuse -- even the sunniest melodies mask moments of devastating power. If Summer Teeth has a precedent, it's peak-era Band; the album not only possesses a similar pastoral sensibility, but like Robbie Robertson and company before them, Wilco seems directly connected to a kind of American musical consciousness, not only rejuvenating our collective creative mythology, but adding new chapters to the legend with each successive record. ~ Jason Ankeny
Moving beyond A.M.'s Uncle Tupelo-oriented country-rock, Wilco's double-length BEING THERE explored the sonic vistas of the Stones and Big Star. SUMMER TEETH takes things a step further. A loose, inspired masterwork of rootsy power-pop in the grand mid-'70s tradition, it's the greatest album Alex Chilton never made. With perfect pop melodies and a knack for throwing things askew via left-field sonic elements, this is as far from the country as Wilco could be.
Jeff Tweedy's ragged-but-right voice is the essence of rock & roll--the travails detailed in the lyrics seem undeniably his own. Though his days of paying homage to Acuff-Rose seem long gone, Tweedy and his compatriots still sound engagingly organic on SUMMER TEETH. Even if they're closer to Badfinger after a few beers than to the post-Tupelo alt-country of Tweedy's former partner and Son Volt leader Jay Farrar, Wilco are still treading the same path they started years ago, obviously headed in the right direction.

Spin (4/99, p.160) - 7 (out of 10) - "...built from pieces found rusting by the roadside of the Americana Dream, seemingly at random....Tweedy's best songs are sweet as ever...."
Entertainment Weekly (3/12/99, p.70) - "...TEETH is packed with poignant mid-tempo ballads that would've seemed right at home on a top 10 list in 1975. These days, though, pronouncing them merely transcendent will have to suffice." - Rating: A
Q (1/00, p.86) - Included in Q Magazine's "50 Best Albums of 1999."
Q (4/99, p.107) - 4 Stars (out of 5) - "...Wilco's chiming bells, echoey piano, feedbacking guitar, mellotrons, handclaps, wafting strings, lounging horns, masteruflly directed harmonies and psychedelic swirls shoe-horned into three-minute symphonies..."
CMJ (1/10/00, p.3) - "...propels Jeff Tweedy & Co. out of rootsw rock canon and into the classic pop milieu, smartly investigating rock'n'roll's past...to elegantly invigorate its future. A complex, beautifully bedraggled masterpiece."
Mojo (Publisher) (3/99, p.87) - "Another winner from Wilco....Exuberant, uplifting and elegant all at once, SUMMER TEETH sounds like the perfect soundtrack for the coming spring."
NME (Magazine) (4/3/99, p.41) - "Perhaps the most cheerful record about dreaming of killing your girlfriend ever made..."