Baker’s Dozen 001 — Wilco

People that follow my Twitter account frequently ask for recommendations on what to listen to. They’re either asking for new bands to listen to or more often than not, what songs or albums to start with for a band they already have in mind, but are unfamiliar with or intimidated by where to start because of the size of a band’s discography. That’s turned me into a frequent playlist maker. With that in mind, I’ve decided to start a series over here called Baker’s Dozen, where I’ll choose 13 songs by a band and give a brief rundown of the songs and a link to a Spotify playlist. The typical pop/rock song runs 3–5 minutes so most of these playlists will be in the 45–60 minute range. Some shorter, some longer though. Enough to get an ample sample of a band’s sound, but not so overwhelming that you can’t get through it in one sitting.

Wilco has become one of my favorite bands over the last several years, though I’ve been into them for nearly 20 years now. I’ve always admired them, but they’ve sunk their hooks into me deeply more and more with each passing year. They recently announced a new album, Cruel Country, due out in late May, so I figured they were a good place to kick this series off since I’ve been listening to their back catalog a ton in anticipation of the new release. It’s also a great opportunity to sneak all 13 of these tunes in just in case I have to drop one or more for some of the new material! Without further adieu, a baker’s dozen for Wilco…

You can find the Baker’s Dozen: Wilco playlist on Spotify here. Listen along as you read!

1. “Handshake Drugs”: Taken from their 2004 album, A Ghost is Born. I feel like this song is the perfect intro to their vast sound world. Some earthy folky vibes, but also with a splash of weird noises which came to be their signature sound. I always get a thrill when this comes on the stereo or when they play it live
2. “Random Name Generator”: Fast forward to 2015’s Star Wars album and this great hook/riff. If this doesn’t get your head bopping, I’m not sure I can help turn you onto this band.
3. “Bull Black Nova” 2009's self-titled record, BBN is a song that’s great on record but really shines live. Wilco is sometimes referred to as America’s Radiohead (and I think that discounts what both bands have achieved), but that said, I can kind of see it with this song. It swells, it swirls, it squalls. It’s beautiful, it’s subtle, it’s noisy.
4. “Via Chicago” from 1999’s Summerteeth. Few opening lines from a song will grab your attention more than this one. I often kind of tune lyrics out, but it’s hard to ignore Jeff Tweedy singing, “I dreamed about killing you again last night and it felt all right to me.” Go see them live and hope they play this song. Nothing can replicate it live.
5. “I Am Trying to Break You Heart” is one of a few tracks I’ve included from what’s universally acclaimed as their masterpiece, 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I love that their record company hated this album when it was delivered to them, but that fans immediately lapped it up and realized what a work of brilliance it was. Love the stop/start busted sounds of some of these sections. They played a series of 20th anniversary shows for this recently in New York and Chicago. Super jealous of those that got to see one of them.
6. “Impossible Germany” from 2007’s Sky Blue Sky has one of the best ever studio recorded guitar solos on it. Just sublime work from Nels Cline. The live version from Mobile, Alabama that they included on a DVD release is just next level stuff IMO.
7. “I’m the Man Who Loves You” finds us back at Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. They’ve never made a bad record, but this is the album that reeled me in and I could’ve chosen a million songs off it. This one is short and sweet and gloriously captures their sound to a T.
8. “If I Ever Was a Child” from 2016’s Schmilco might be a curious inclusion for some folks, but I’ve really been getting into some of the quieter, more straightforward later Wilco records lately. I feel like this is a great example of that sound.
9. “Ashes of American Flags” is another from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Seriously, go listen to that whole record.
10. “Love is Everywhere (Beware)” from 2019’s Ode to Joy is a cut from their (as of this writing) most recently released album. I was quite hesitant about the album when it came out, but it’s really grown on me over the past few years. Also seeing the material live really helped bring it to life for me. I think this is the best song on the record and I bet you would think so too.
11. “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” is the second tune I included from A Ghost is Born. YHF gets all the headlines, but this is my favorite album by them. I realize the other might be “better” from a critical perspective, but this is the one I reach for the most when I want to hear Wilco. A hypnotic, sprawling 10 minute tune, this is the noiser side of the band that fans from their earlier more “alt-country” days struggle with from time to time.
12. “Art of Almost” from 2011’s The Whole Love might be my favorite Wilco song. It’s certainly my favorite jam/shred tune. The studio version is phenomenal, but it melts faces in the concert hall. This is the delightfully weird/heavy Wilco that I love so much. The live version they played on Letterman is bonkers good.
13. “California Stars” from 1998’s Mermaid Avenue. I was hesitant to include this song for roughly 10,000 reasons: it’s a collaborative album with Billy Bragg and so not 100% a Wilco record. The premise of the project is that they wrote music for Woody Guthrie lyrics that he never wrote music for. That said, this song has very much become absorbed into the Wilco universe and it’s an undeniably wonderful tune and one I’m always happy to see live. It seemed like the perfect send off for this baker’s dozen as well.

So yeah, I didn’t include something off of every record and I’m ducking the stones and rotten tomatoes some of you would be hurling at me if you could. That said, I think this is a wonderful intro to the band and quite representative of what they’ve achieved so far. What would you have included?