On That Note: One Bad Apple

[cyclones500]

Wilco
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Weak link (tie): Reservations; Radio Cure

My opinion, the album may not need BOTH of these; each is good enough to include, but placement/length is "off."

Reservations. The album-closer, this follows the fantastic “Poor Places,” which probably should/could have been the finale. If Wilco thought the ending of that track is too abrupt, this song works OK as a run-out, but it’s probably 4 minutes too long.




Radio Cure. Sort of the opposite problem of Reservations … the last half I like, it finally finds momentum.




A few high points (basically can pick from any of the remaining 9 songs):

 

[Cupped]

Neil Young, Rust Never Sleeps

• My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)
• Thrasher
• Ride My Llama
• Pocahontas
• Sail Away
• Powderfinger
• Welfare Mothers
• Sedan Delivery
• Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)

IMO Ride My Llama was a clunker



I loved the rest of the album, made special by seeing the Live Rust Show the night before it was recorded. Punctured my right ear drum but it was worth it!

 

[matclone]

Hard to meet the great album + one bad apple test. But here's a candidate. Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark is darn near perfect (I've included the title song) and then at the end there is Twisted--her take on an Annie Ross performance. It's well done and cute but only for a couple of listens and worse it just doesn't fit in with the mood of the rest of the record.

lGlQw

 

[madguy30]

Post-War was possibly my favorite album of my 20s and this last song to close it out was the only one I'd skip. Just didn't fit in very well for me.

 

[cyclones500]

R.E.M.
Lifes Rich Pageant
Bad Apple: What if We Give it Away?

—> My alternate title suggestion for this song: “What if We Decided This Doesn’t Add Anything to The Album?”

It’s a “generic “R.E.M.” song from that period.



“Underneath the Bunker” gets a nod for throwaway, but its duration is 1:25, and it’s an effective mood-releaser prior to heaviness of “The Flowers of Guatemala.”

Among the good apples: