Yankee Hotel Foxtrot touches on the feelings of a loss of communication and isolation over experimental instrumentation rooted in traditional rock ‘n’ roll. Every song on this record has a very distinct and unique instrumentation, keeping the listener engaged.
This album has one of the most interesting and completing themes that I have ever listened to. Many people have written about loneliness and isolation, but not quite like this. Using codes and experimental instrumentation, Wilco creates a sense of urgency and desperation in trying to get their message across. This theme and tone is not something that comes easily to the listener. To fully understand and appreciate the purpose and drive behind this album, it requires many listens and careful observation. I believe that this only adds to the theme of coded messages and communication. Listeners must have a keen ear, and must be listening for very specific messages, much like a hidden message or code.
- “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart”
This track combines a droning keyboard, sporadic drum fills and various other percussion instruments to create a floaty and free sensation within the backing track behind Jeff Tweedy. Tweedy’s clever vocals show his intentions of “trying to break your heart” very clearly, while leaving his more strange lines up for interpretation. The instrumentation combined with sardonic tongue in cheek lyrics create an eerie tone to the track, making the listener feel as though something bad is bound to happen; something that is unavoidable. This track sets the tone of the whole record: unpredictable, strange and uncanny.
2. “Kamera”
“Kamera” returns to Wilco’s rock roots and inspiration. Compared to “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” this track is much more grounded in traditional musical practices. A steady drum beat, lightly strummed guitar and a predictable catchy melody allow the listener to catch their breath after the experience that was the previous track. We do see the creative percussion return, with many smaller instruments buried in the mix, like cowbell and xylophone. Lyrically this song is more reigned in than the last. Tweedy sings about isolation and frustration, using his creative metaphors and storytelling to engage the audience.
3. “Radio Cure”
We once again return to the eerie feelings of isolation of the first track. The slow beat of the drums over a simple picked guitar creates a feeling of loneliness and isolation exacerbated by Tweedy’s lyrics and strained delivery. Distortion and studio effects phase in and out of the mix, like a faulty connection between people trying their best to communicate. The lyrics of this song speak about a disconnection between Tweedy and the outside world. Tweedy attempts to reason with himself and find a reason for his own isolation, desperately trying to understand: “Oh, distance has no way/ Making love/ Understandable.” Tweedy’s feelings and emotional state are clear through these lyrics. He desperately is trying to find answers and reasons to his worries, issues and problems.
4. “War on War”
“War on War” presents the listener with a false sense of security. Upbeat guitar and drums combined with a happy melody, create a sense of safety in the track. However, this gradually fades as the studio effects and distortion grow into the mix, slowly overpowering the happier tones present from the beginning. This song does a great job of giving the listener a musical foundation to stand on, then ripping it out from underneath them. The ending of this track is a distorted mess, as if every circuit in the mixing board shorted, all at once. The lyrics also change from “You have to lose” to “You have to die” matching with the shift in tone within the instrumentation.
5. “Jesus, Etc.”
A nice string section combined with a rhythmic bassline create a sense of acceptance in the track. This is the first track on this record to present any sort of reassurance to the audience. Tweedy makes promises to the listener, making sure they know that everything will be alright. In contrast to the previous tracks, this song is a beacon of hope. “Jesus, Etc.” acknowledges the isolation and loneliness present in the other tracks and pushes back with hope. Tweedy’s lyrics shine here, painting distinct metaphorical paintings for the listener to gaze into, “Voices escape, singing sad, sad songs/ Tuned to chords/ Strung down your cheeks/ Bitter melodies turning your orbit around.” This is brilliant lyricism. The lines perfectly balance metaphor and reality. Tweedy grounds the lyrics in real life while also giving them room to float away.
6. “Ashes of American Flags”
This track is a ballad about the struggles of the average American life. Tweedy contrasts his own lived experience with a ‘so-called’ American dream. Droning backing tracks with sorrowful guitar licks give the listener a feeling of intense sorrow, and once again, isolation. The lyrics of this song are truly heartbreaking. “I know I would die/ If I could come back new,” “All my lies are only wishes.” The song ends with another overwhelming surge of studio curated distortion, casting the song away.
7. “Heavy Metal Drummer”
This track does not fit in with any other on the record. Instead of ballads about isolation, failures to communicate and loneliness, this is a happy track about heavy metal bands Tweedy wishes so dearly to see again as a younger man. This track feels like an intermission to the play that is this record. A pit stop on the emotionally taxing highway that is Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
8. “I’m the Man Who Loves You”
This song is a classic love song in perfect Yankee Hotel Foxtrot style. A love song filled with regret and missed opportunities. This song is full of ‘could’ve, would’ve and should’ves’. The distorted guitar tone and the disjointed riffs played create an intense tone of frustration with either past hesitation or current impossibility. Tweedy and his band make the listener feel the same way you do when you suddenly remember a horribly awful and embarrassing moment of your past. There’s nothing you can do about it now, you just need to live with it. The guitar solo that plays out the track feels as though it is screaming into the past, begging a past self to act differently, to not be so stupid.
9. “Pot Kettle Black”
Another track that returns to rock ‘n’ roll roots. An upbeat rhythm section, a build up in the verse with a soaring chorus. However to keep things interesting, there are multiple switch-ups either in song structure or instrumentation. By throwing in strange rhythmic instruments and rapidly changing the tonality of the song halfway through, Wilco makes an otherwise run-of-the-mill rock song both meaningful and engaging. Lyrically, this track is a forceful assertion that even though Tweedy has been through a lot throughout this record, he still has a fiery attitude and endless self-respect. “But I’m not gonna get caught/ Calling a pot kettle black.”
10. “Poor Places”
Tweedy sings over a slowly building drone. As the song builds its momentum does as well. This song shows the true versatility of Wilco, using so many different instruments to great effect. This song goes from a low drone, into a piano solo, into an emotional acoustic guitar section, ending with a rock surge paired with studio effects creating a whirlwind of distortion. Over the chaos, you can hear a message. “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.” This dynamic encapsulates the theme at the core of the record. A desperate attempt to get a message across to someone who can’t hear you, or can’t understand you. “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” is code for something, yet we do not know what. We can hear Tweedy, and yet we cannot understand him. This is a brilliant example of not telling a listener how to feel, but forcing a listener to feel a certain way.
11. “Reservations”
This song is an emotional ballad about how there are so many stressors and worries in this world, yet there is one thing Tweedy is not worried about, the person he is singing about. Tweedy sings about how this person in his life only brings him good, a lighthouse in the storm that is his life. “I’ve got reservations/ About so many things/ But not about you.” This song is seven minutes long. For the final five minutes of the track, the band slowly fades away. I think this is the perfect ending to an album like this. Tweedy and Wilco got their message through, whether or not we understand it is not their problem. Now the band can slowly fade away as their work here is done.
