Summerteeth

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. plus...

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.

Q (1/00, p.86)
- Included in Q Magazine's "50 Best Albums of 1999."

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...."

Mojo (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."

New Musical Express (4/3/99, p.41)
- "Perhaps the most cheerful record about dreaming of killing your girlfriend ever made..."

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."

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 (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..."