Somewhere there's a war, somewhere there is art

I'm still infatuated with Sky Blue Sky. It rewards you more and more with each subsequent listen. I also watched the DVD the other night which shows the band performing some of the songs, interspersed with Jeff Tweedy and the other band members discussing the album's writing and construction. I like the story about the title track. It's apparently about Tweedy's home town where there's a main street seventeen miles long and whenever there's a parade it gets closed off, so if you're stuck on the other side you can't get across. The lyrics of this album are a lot more direct which is deliberate too. The only criticism I'd make of the DVD is that the camera focuses on Tweedy, John Stirrat and the drummer and ignores the other guitarist/s and the keyboard player... you don't get a sense of the band feeding from each other's energy like they do in Walken.

I think Shake It Off and Hate It Here are both great songs. They start off kind of low and mellow and end up with another collaborative rock effort from the whole band. I also like most of the other tracks as well. It's living in my CD player, playing on both my iPods and background music to my essay marking. It's playing right now in fact...