Customer Reviews

Chelsea Walls

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have not seen the movie, but bought this album simply on the strength of Jeff Tweedy's reputation as a gifted, daring and innovative musician. I was not disappointed!

9 of the 12 tracks aqre Tweedy penned, most of them instrumentals performed by Tweedy and Glenn Kotche. Several of them are truly mesmorizing, including the "Opening Titles", with guitar-distorts all over, "Frank's Dream", "The Wallman" and, best of all, the 11 min. "Finale" with it's haunting guitar riff and overlaying piano playing.

There are 2 tracks attributed to Wilco: the "new" track "Promising" sounds like Tweedy solo, and the other one "When The Roses Bloom Again" is from the Mermaid Avenue sessions with Billy Brag, quite beautiful actually.

As with many movie soundtracks, this is a "mood album", and I find it very engaging, altough it's probably not for everyone.

This is a great CD even if youre not a Wilco/Uncle Tupelo/Alt country completist. The songs are all good, from the "weird" stuff by Tweedy down to the haunting beautiful WIlco track to the non-Tweedy stuff on here...If yopure reading this review you should probably own this or at least give it a listen, even if the movie didn't work for ya.

If someone turned the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot into a film, then wrote a score to that film, it might sound like this. Deeply evocative and richly textured, this soundtrack plays like a dream-movie in itself. There are a dozen songs. Seven of these are Tweedy solo instrumentals, with one new Wilco song, and one new Wilco/Billy Bragg song. The film's star, Robert Sean Leonard, sings another Wilco song, 'The Lonely 1' from Being There. This might be the most affecting song for fans because it's haunting even in its mediocrity. RSL tries to morph the song into some Viper Room lounge ballad, and the fact that he fails works brilliantly somehow. The main riffs from the song, pained and sobbing, work as a main theme for the score, too, emerging in various parts of the instrumentals. The Jimmy Scott version of 'Jealous Guy' sounds nothing like you'd imagine. Instead of Lennon revised as blues, you get Jimmy Scott imitating Brian Ferry, with minimal instrumentals. And the other RSL song is so low-key, it implodes. I'm sounding hypercritical here, not I don't mean to. It all comes together beautifully somehow. This is true night music, more so than summerteeth. Plus you get this cool, weird picture in the booklet of Frank Whaley dressed as a lounge singer, and Wilco as his backing band. I wish there were instumental credits in the booklet, because I'm sure exactly what Steve Zahn does on the RSL songs, since he doesn't sing. This isn't just some old-fashioned rock star movie instrumental like Neil Young's 'Dead Man' or Leonard Cohen's 'McCabe & Miller.' This is a wonderful piece of work in in itself, with deeper reverberations for hard-core Tweedy/Wilco fans.

Not only is this film good, but the soundtrack explodes in Low-Fi sweet sensational sound. This is a great piece of work by Wilco's frontman Jeff Tweedy. His instrumental tracks often remind me of other work done by equally great bands like Mogwai, Tortoise, etc.

If you liked Yankee Hotel Foxtrot at all, you will enjoy this album. It has songs by Wilco and Tweedy by himself. It also has an Indie-Version of The Lonely One from an earlier Wilco CD. This is well defined Indie-Rock Album with a very subtle juice of Jazz.

There's some very nice work on this Soundtrack.

This is basically the first Jeff Tweedy solo album, although someday, who knows, I hope not, he might fire John Stirratt from Wilco (the only original Wilco member besides Jeff) and we'll discover Wilco was a Jeff Tweedy solo project all along.
The instrumental tracks on this album are very good, and feature good, jabbing guitar from Jeff Tweedy, and good, experimental percussion from Glenn Kotche, Wilco's outstanding drummer and percussionist.
"Promising" is wonderful Wilco song, downtempo, and "When the Roses Bloom Again" is a good outtake from the Billy Bragg and Wilco "Mermaid Avenue" sessions.
"Jealous Guy" is a John Lennon cover sung in a high, raspy voice by Jimmy Scott, and doesn't do much for me other than interrupt the flow of the album.
"The Lonely One" a cover of Wilco song, covered by actors Robert Sean Leonard & Steve Zahn is a sad, simple version of that song, made sadder if you've seen the movie this soundtrack is for and know the fate of the character singing it.
"Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling" is another nice guitar/vocals cover by Robert Sean Leonard and fits the feel of the rest of the album.
Overall, the instrumentals and "Promising" are the best tracks, and make this album worth owning for any Wilco fanatics out there. I like the soundtrack better than the movie it's from, and find it more interesting.

If it's Jeff Tweedy you know it's good. This soundtrack may not be what you're expecting on first listen. You'll appreciated the soundtrack much more if you see "Chelsea Walls". I also suggest you watch it twice. Be patient, give both a chance. It's well worth it. Oh yeah,and Robert Sean Leonard, let's hope to see and hear more of him.

I didn't think so much of the movie (pretentious, unrealized, with some good turns) but, boy, this is one heck of a soundtrack. Beautiful haunting melodies, that wonderful Jimmy Scott cover of Lennon's Jealous Guy. Tweedy Tweedy Tweedy. The music haunts my conciousness all the time. Great for driving. Great for yoga.

"when the Roses bloom again" a 5 star song if there was ever one - The rest of the CD is average by that song is GREAT

the atmospheric tracks on here are a TOTAL rip-off of mick turner's work, like tweedy should be getting sued type of rip-off. tweedy is a total hack; if you like wilco, you basically like jay bennet or now you like nels cline...the guy is just business savvy, i'll give him that. there is a reason that everyone who works closely with this guy ends up hating him. mick turner; genius. nels cline; genius. jay bennet; genius. tweedy; taking all the credit/never had an original thought...

I like Tweedy, most Wilco and all Uncle Tupelo stuff. This album I don't care for because there are really no solid tracks on it other than "Promising".