Review - I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

I finally bought this acclaimed Wilco documentary. I don't know why I waited; I guess I was concerned it was going to be mainly about stuff I already knew a lot about, like their record label drama and the dismissal of band member and co-songwriter Jay Bennett. But not only is all that much more interesting to see play out chronologically during the film, the film is just great because you get to see this committed, creative band working out their music in front of the cameras. It's not phony, and none of the performances seen here end up being exactly how the CD sounds. Better still, this dvd is I believe a reissue, with bonus disc of more performances, and a very detailed booklet which features a David Fricke essay and film diary entries from director Sam Jones. It's one of the most content-heavy dvd booklets I've seen, almost in the realm of what Criterion includes in their releases.

I also picked up the CD/DVD version of Wilco's 2007 album, Sky Blue Sky, as the DVD is another short Sam Jones film (this time in color) of the current lineup rehearsing nearly all the tracks on the CD, along with some brief interviews with Jeff Tweedy and other band members about the CD. Essentially, Tweedy felt the times we're living in are some fraught and complex that he wanted to make some more direct music, lyrically and arrangement-wise, with few overdubs. He also wanted to make music for his wife that she could enjoy, free from references to painful times they'd been through together.