Uncle Tupelo broke up in 1994 soon after releasing their fourth and final album 'Anodyne' (their first for a major label) which sold an impressive 150,000 copies. The band was gaining a loyal following, but personality conflicts and power struggles between Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy finally took their toll. They agreed to do one final tour before calling it quits, and then they immediately got to work with their new bands, with Tweedy taking the rest of Uncle Tupelo with him to form Wilco, and Farrar teaming up with Uncle Tupelo's original drummer Mike Heidorn to form Son Volt. Both bands rcorded albums in the autumn of 1994, and both were produced by Brian Paulson, who also produced 'Anodyne', so we have two separate albums, one containing four members of Uncle Tupelo, and one with two, and if we combine them we get - an Uncle Tupelo album! I call it 'Nothing Lasts' after the lyrics on Son Volt's 'Route', which state 'we're all living proof that nothing lasts'. Uncle Tupelo's first four albums clock in at under 45-minutes each, as do both 'A.M'. and 'Traces', so I keep the tradition of staying within an LP length despite already being in the CD age in 1994, and we end up with two 23-minute sides on a slightly longer fifth album from Uncle Tupelo. We open up with 'Live Free', which eases us into the next three uptempo tracks, before taking it down again with a couple of ballads before concluding with 'Route'. Side two opens up with the rocker 'Casino Queen' before mellowing out with two slow numbers, along with the more edgy 'Catching On', with both of the final two songs each sound like closing tracks. Uncle Tupelo are now one of those legendary bands that ended before their time, and their influence is greater than their commercial success, with their albums being out of print for many years. While commonly thought of the pioneers of 'alt-country', they were merely a continuation of a long tradition of American music going back a very long time. There's really nothing alternative about it, unless simple, honest music is considered to be out of the ordinary, which I suppose it is. The truth is that all that crap on the radio is alternative, and this is the real deal.
Track listing
01 Live Free02 I Must Be High03 Drown04 Box Full Of Letters05 Windfall06 Pick Up The Change07 Route08 Casino Queen09 Tear Stained Eye10 Passenger Side11 Catching On12 Blue Eyed Soul13 Mystifies Me
From The Album Fixer March 2015. All notes and opinions are his.
