Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is one of those albums that is known more for the circumstances of its release than its actual music. Initially the suits at the label refused to release it because they found it too arty and inaccessible, so Wilco offered it up for free on its Web site. After thunderous critical acclaim, the same parent company bought the album back and gave it an official release.
A win for The Artists vs. The Man. And a hell of a great album to boot.
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot first hit the world a little after September 11, 2001 (which was its intended release date before the delay). And though the songs were all written months before that horrible tragedy, some of the lyrics were eerily prophetic.
None more so than these lines from ‘Jesus Etc.’:
Voices escape singing sad sad songs
Tuned to chords
Strung down your cheeks
Bitter melodies turning your orbit around
Voices whine
Skyscrapers are scraping together
Your voice is smoking
Last cigarettes are all you can get
Turning your orbit around
This is a lovely, bittersweet song and a powerful album, especially with those echoes of 9/11 resonating throughout (even the album cover, a snapshot of Chicago’s “twin towers” of Marina City, seems like more than an eerie coincidence).
I haven’t taken much to the albums Wilco has put out since this one, but Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and its two predecessors (Being There and Summerteeth) are more than enough to elevate them to a very special status in my book.
Meet Me In Montauk 
BOOOOOOORRRRRINNGGGGGG! 🙂
I admit that I knew nothing of the story of their release or the eerie September 11th links, so I find this entire entry fascinating. I love the sound of this song, though the lyrics are slightly disturbing in light of the album’s intended release date. I don’t have this group on my radar at all, but this song has captured my attention enough that I’m going to check them out. Very nice sound.