:en:Anodyne (album)

Uncle Tupelo's third album, March 16–20, 1992, was released through Rockville Records on August 3, 1992. On the release, the band eschewed the growing popularity of alternative rock by playing acoustic folk and country songs "as a big 'fuck you' to the rock scene".Kot 2004. p. 66 Drummer Mike Heidorn had a reduced role on the album; because it was an acoustic album, Heidorn added only brush-stroke percussion on a few songs. Heidorn wanted to leave the band to spend more time with his wife and two young children. Though band manager Tony Margherita announced that several major labels were interested in signing Uncle Tupelo, Heidorn decided to permanently leave the band.Kot 2004. pp. 68–69

Rockville Records refused to pay Uncle Tupelo any royalties, even though the band's first two albums, No Depression and Still Feel Gone, sold a combined 40,000 copies. Consequently, Margherita was trying to find a new recording deal for the band.Kot 2004. p. 70 On a recommendation by singer Gary Louris of The Jayhawks, talent scout Joe McEwen pursued the band for a contract with Sire Records. McEwen was impressed by how the band was willing to go against trends, calling the band "an alternative to the alternative".Kot 2004. p. 71 Executing an out-clause in their contract with Rockville, Uncle Tupelo signed a seven-record deal with Sire in 1992. The deal guaranteed the release of at least two albums, with a $150,000 budget for the first.Kot 2004. pp. 72–73

Before releasing their first album with Sire, Uncle Tupelo needed a drummer. Farrar and Tweedy interviewed twenty-four candidates and were both impressed with Ken Coomer and Bill Belzer. Belzer was chosen and Uncle Tupelo embarked on the European segment of the promotional tour for March 16–20, 1992 as the opening act for Sugar. Belzer was dismissed from the band after six months, and Coomer was hired as his permanent replacement.Kot 2004. p. 73–74 Coomer was not the only new member added after the tour—Uncle Tupelo sought to expand beyond a trio for the Anodyne recording sessions. They recruited multi-instrumentalist Max Johnston and bassist John Stirratt—Stirratt's presence enabled Tweedy to become a full-time guitarist on the songs that he wrote.Kot 2004. p. 75{{cite news|last=Hampel|first=Paul|date=August 5, 1993|title=Uncle Tupelo: Filling Out into a Quintet|newspaper=St. Louis Post-Dispatch}}

Anodyne was recorded from May to June 1993 at Cedar Creek studio in Austin, Texas. Uncle Tupelo liked the studio because it "just seemed really kind of homey and small and cheap".{{cite news|last=Gettelman|first=Parry|title=Uncle Tupelo Mines Rock's Country Vein|newspaper=The Orlando Sentinel|date=February 4, 1994}} The album was produced, mixed, and engineered by Brian Paulson. The now-expanded lineup inspired Tweedy to spend more time with his bandmates. After Tweedy wrote each song, he would play it to Stirratt, Coomer, and Johnston to get their opinions. Farrar interpreted these practice sessions as a sign of Tweedy's increasing arrogance. At live shows, during this time, tensions between Tweedy and Farrar increased and led to verbal altercations.Kot 2004. p. 77

The album was recorded live in the studio, and each song was recorded in only one take. As a result, the recording sessions for Anodyne were completed in two weeks.{{Cite news|last=Durcholz|first=Daniel|title=Are You Ready for the Country?|magazine=Request Magazine|date=November 1993}}{{Cite news|last=Fine|first=Jason|title=Heart of the Country|magazine=Option Magazine|date=November 1993}} Anodyne was the only Uncle Tupelo album to completely lack overdubbing.{{cite news|last=Masley|first=Ed|title=Mix of Punk and Country? Say Uncle|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|date=February 27, 1994}} Sire was pleased with the album; according to McEwen, "everybody [at the label] considered it a step up from what they'd done before."Kot 2004. p. 79 Farrar wrote six of the songs on the album and Tweedy wrote five, though all the new material was credited to both songwriters. While on tour, Uncle Tupelo met Texas Tornados singer Doug Sahm at the Hotel Phoenix in Boston, Massachusetts. Farrar invited him to join the band in the studio for a cover of Sahm's "Give Back the Key to My Heart",Anodyne album notes (re-issued version), 2003. Sire Records.{{cite news|last=MacQueen|first=Steve|title=Uncle Tupelo Taps Both Vintage Country and Punk Rock for a Winning Sound. The Band from Belleville, Ill., has a Loose, Spontaneous Sound|newspaper=Tallahassee Democrat|date=February 4, 1994}} which Sahm contributed lead vocals to.

The lyrical content of Anodyne was influenced by 1950s and 1960s country music, particularly Ernest Tubb, Buck Owens, and Lefty Frizzell. Tweedy included several songs referencing aspects of the music industry. One example was "Acuff-Rose", a paean on the music publishers of Acuff-Rose Music. He also wrote "We've Been Had", which was intended to chastise bands such as Nirvana and The Clash who were "all just show biz" in his opinion. Tweedy was also the author of "New Madrid", a song about Iben Browning's erroneous prediction of an apocalyptic earthquake in New Madrid, Missouri. Farrar was less comfortable discussing the lyrics that he wrote, claiming that his songs frequently change their meanings. Like other Uncle Tupelo albums, Farrar and Tweedy wrote their own lyrics, and played them for each other a week before the recording sessions. In comparison to the rest of the Uncle Tupelo catalog, Coomer described the music of the album as "some of [the band's] earlier crunch with the acoustic subtlety of March 16–20, 1992".{{cite news|last=Morrison|first=Mark|title=A Musical Mix Uncle Tupelo is a Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock 'N' Roll|newspaper=Roanoke Times|date=February 18, 1994}}

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1Score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}{{cite web|last=Ankeny|first=Jason|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/anodyne-mw0000102843|title=Anodyne – Uncle Tupelo|publisher=AllMusic|access-date=August 6, 2007}}

| rev2 = Chicago Tribune

| rev2Score = {{Rating|3|4}}{{cite news|last=Rothschild|first=David|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1993/10/14/uncle-tupeloanodyne-sire-starstarstaran-anodyne-is-something/|title=Uncle Tupelo: Anodyne (Sire)|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=October 24, 1993|access-date=June 14, 2013}}

| rev3 = Encyclopedia of Popular Music

| rev3Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite book|title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music|last=Larkin|first=Colin|author-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|publisher=Omnibus Press|edition=5th concise|year=2011|isbn=978-0-85712-595-8}}

| rev4 = NME

| rev4Score = 9/10{{cite journal|title=Uncle Tupelo: Anodyne|journal=NME|date=October 16, 1993|page=31}}

| rev5 = Q

| rev5Score = {{Rating|3|5}}{{cite journal|title=Uncle Tupelo: Anodyne|journal=Q|issue=86|date=November 1993|page=138}}

| rev6 = Rolling Stone

| rev6Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite magazine|last=Kemp|first=Mark|author-link=Mark Kemp|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/uncletupelo/albums/album/236800/review/6067452/anodyne|title=Uncle Tupelo: Anodyne|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=December 9, 1993|access-date=June 14, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927213824/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/uncletupelo/albums/album/236800/review/6067452/anodyne|archive-date=September 27, 2007|url-status=dead}}

| rev7 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev7Score = {{Rating|4|5}}Kot 2004b, pp. 836–37

| rev8 = Uncut

| rev8Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite journal|url=http://www.uncut.co.uk/this-month-in-americana-review-5|title=This Month In Americana|journal=Uncut|issue=73|date=June 2003|page=113|access-date=June 14, 2013|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130615202838/http://www.uncut.co.uk/this-month-in-americana-review-5|archive-date=June 15, 2013|url-status=dead}}

}}

Anodyne was Uncle Tupelo's only recording to appear on the American Billboard Heatseekers chart.{{Cite news|title=Heatseekers|magazine=Billboard|date=October 10, 1993}} Despite the lack of a single to promote the album, sales eventually surpassed 150,000 copies.Kot 2004. p. 80 A promotional tour for the album began later that year, including a sold-out show at Tramps in New York City. Most shows on the tour sold over one thousand tickets. The success of the tour encouraged the label; according to Sire executive Bill Bentley, "people here thought we were going to have platinum records from Uncle Tupelo."

Despite the label's aspirations, Jay Farrar announced his intention to leave Uncle Tupelo in January 1994. Farrar kept his reasoning secret until fall 1995, when he claimed in an interview that "it reached a point where Jeff and I really weren't compatible."{{cite news|last=Blackstock |first=Peter |url=http://www.nodepression.net/issues/nd01/sonvolt.html |title=Jay Farrar Traces a Path Away from Uncle Tupelo |magazine=No Depression |date=Fall 1995 |access-date=June 8, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070326024357/http://www.nodepression.net/issues/nd01/sonvolt.html |archive-date=March 26, 2007 |url-status=dead }} As a sign of loyalty to band manager Tony Margherita, who had acquired a $3000 debt on behalf of the band, Farrar agreed to do another promotional tour.Kot 2004. p. 82 Physical altercations between Tweedy and Farrar began two weeks into the tour and continued throughout—many were due to Farrar's refusal to play on Tweedy's songs.Kot 2004. p. 83 Despite Farrar's reservations, Uncle Tupelo performed Tweedy's "The Long Cut" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, the band's only network television appearance.Kot 2004. p. 84 The band played their final concert on May 1, 1994, at Mississippi Nights in St. Louis, Missouri.Kot 2004. p. 85 The remaining members of the Anodyne sessions formed Wilco a few weeks later.{{Cite news|last=Sheridan|first=Phil|title=Roger, Wilco|magazine=Magnet|date=February 1995}}

The band re-mastered and re-released the album on March 11, 2003, through Rhino Records. The new version included two previously unreleased songs: Farrar's "Stay True", Tweedy's "Wherever". It also included a cover of Waylon Jennings' "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?", with vocals by Joe Ely, a song previously released on the 1993 compilation Trademark of Quality. Live cover versions of "Truck Drivin' Man" and "Suzy Q" were also included on the re-issue.

Anodyne was well received by critics domestically and internationally. AllMusic writer Jason Ankeny wrote, "Uncle Tupelo never struck a finer balance between rock and country than on Anodyne". Mark Kemp wrote for Rolling Stone that the band "[has] an intuitive sense of the simplicity and dynamics of a country song." German music periodical Spex compared the album to Neil Young and to Little Feat's debut album.{{Cite news|last=Diederichsen|first=Detlef|title=Uncle Tupelo: Anodyne|magazine=Spex|date=October 1993}} CMJ{{'}}s Jim Caligiuri praised Anodyne as "another austere, inspired collection".{{cite web|last=Caligiuri|first=Jim|url=http://prod1.cmj.com/articles/display_article.php?id=22567|title=Uncle Tupelo: Anodyne|website=CMJ|access-date=June 12, 2009|archive-url=https://archive.today/20070624192321/http://prod1.cmj.com/articles/display_article.php?id=22567|archive-date=June 24, 2007|url-status=dead}} Karen Schoemer of The New York Times found that the album "is certainly derivative, but Uncle Tupelo isn't seeking to reinvent its sources, merely to honor them".{{cite news|last=Schoemer|first=Karen|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/10/arts/critic-s-choice-pop-mending-an-aching-heart.html|title=Critic's Choice/Pop; Mending an Aching Heart|newspaper=The New York Times|date=December 10, 1993|access-date=November 20, 2009}} At the end of the year, Anodyne placed at number twenty-eight on The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll and at number nineteen on the Spex critics' poll.{{cite news|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres93.php|title=Pazz & Jop 1993|newspaper=The Village Voice|date=March 1, 1994|access-date=August 10, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070716181630/http://robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres93.php|archive-date=July 16, 2007|url-status=live}}{{cite news|title=1993 Jahresabrechnung|url=http://home.rhein-zeitung.de/~tommi.s/spex92.htm#1993|magazine=Spex|date=January 1994|access-date=January 21, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080221222320/http://home.rhein-zeitung.de/~tommi.s/spex92.htm#1993|archive-date=February 21, 2008|url-status=dead}} Greg Kot praised Max Johnston's contributions in the 2004 book The New Rolling Stone Album Guide and called the album "Tupelo's finest effort." Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet listed Anodyne in 1999 as one of "The Best Albums of the Century".{{cite magazine|author= |title=Århundrets album|url=http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/1999/12/28/187359.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080501181049/http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/1999/12/28/187359.html|archive-date=May 1, 2008|magazine=Dagbladet|page=|date=December 28, 1999|access-date=January 24, 2024|lang=no}} In 2008, Rolling Stone critic Tom Moon listed Anodyne among the 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die.{{cite web|url=http://www.1000recordings.com/music/anodyne/|website=1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die|title=Anodyne|last=Moon, Tom|publisher=Workman|access-date=October 31, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130628085812/http://www.1000recordings.com/music/anodyne/|archive-date=June 28, 2013}}

Although the majority of the album's reviews were positive, some critics disagreed. Q's reviewer gave the album three stars out of five and noted that the band needed to "shed some of the Neil Young obsession." Tom Moon of Rolling Stone gave the 2003 re-release all five stars, but commented that the bonus tracks there were "pleasant but inconsequential."{{cite magazine|last=Moon|first=Tom|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/236800/review/6067942/anodyne|title=Uncle Tupelo: Anodyne|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=April 8, 2003|access-date=December 28, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001091720/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/uncletupelo/albums/album/236800/review/6067942/anodyne|archive-date=October 1, 2007|url-status=dead}} Robert Christgau perceived the album as neither a "dud" nor worthy of "honorable mention".{{cite book|chapter-url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=9224|chapter=Uncle Tupelo: Anodyne|access-date=December 28, 2007|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|title=Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s|publisher=Macmillan Publishers|year=2000|isbn=0-312-24560-2|url=https://archive.org/details/christgausconsum00chri_0}}

In 2016, Paste ranked Anodyne at number one in its list of "The 50 Best Alt-Country Albums".

Songwriting credits from the 2003 reissue.

1. "Slate" (Farrar) – 3:24
2. "Acuff-Rose" (Tweedy) – 2:35
3. "The Long Cut" (Tweedy) – 3:20
4. "Give Back the Key to My Heart" (Doug Sahm) – 3:26
5. "Chickamauga" (Farrar) – 3:42
6. "New Madrid" (Tweedy) – 3:31
7. "Anodyne" (Farrar) – 4:50
8. "We've Been Had" (Tweedy) – 3:26
9. "Fifteen Keys" (Farrar) – 3:25
10. "High Water" (Farrar) – 4:14
11. "No Sense in Lovin'" (Tweedy) – 3:46
12. "Steal the Crumbs" (Farrar) – 3:38

13. "Stay True"* (Farrar) – 3:29
14. "Wherever"* (Tweedy) – 3:38
15. "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way"* (Jennings) – 3:01
16. "Truck Drivin' Man (Live)" (Fell) – 2:13
17. "Suzy Q (Live)" (Hawkins/Lewis/Broadwater) – 7:13

:*Tracks 13–15 previously unreleased studio outtakes.

;Uncle Tupelo

• Jay Farrar – vocal (1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15–17), guitar (1, 3–17), mandolin (2), backing vocal (8)
• Jeff Tweedy – vocal (2, 3, 6, 8, 11, 14), bass guitar (1, 7, 9, 10, 12–17), guitar (2, 4, 6, 11), rhythm guitar (3, 5, 8), backing vocal (4, 5, 16)
• Max Johnston – fiddle (1, 2, 4, 12, 14, 16), lap steel guitar (3, 7, 8), banjo (6), Dobro (9)
• John Stirratt – bass guitar (3–6, 8, 11), guitar (7, 9)
• Ken Coomer – drums (1, 3–17)

;Additional musicians

• Doug Sahm – guitar, vocal (4)
• Lloyd Maines – pedal steel guitar (7, 10, 11)
• Joe Ely – vocals, guitar (15)
• Brian Henneman – guitar (16, 17)

;Technical personnel

• Dave C. Birke – graphic design, art direction
• Dan Corrigan – photography
• Scott Hull – mastering
• Brian Paulson – production, engineering, mixing

{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• {{Cite book|last=Kot|first=Greg|author-link=Greg Kot|chapter=Uncle Tupelo|editor1-last=Brackett|editor1-first=Nathan|editor2-last=Hoard|editor2-first=Christian|year=2004|title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide|edition=4th|place=New York City|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=0-7432-0169-8}}
• {{Cite book|last=Kot|first=Greg|year=2004|title=Wilco: Learning How to Die|edition=1st|place=New York City, NY|publisher=Broadway Books|isbn=0-7679-1558-5}}

• {{Cite magazine|last=Beaugez |first=Jim |date=2018-10-05 |title=Uncle Tupelo's 'Anodyne' at 25: An Oral History |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/uncle-tupelos-anodyne-at-25-oral-history-wilco-733327/ |access-date=2023-10-01 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927005344/http://www.rhino.com/rzine/pressrelease.lasso?PRID=153 Press release for Anodyne re-release], by Rhino Records, February 21, 2003.

{{Uncle Tupelo}}

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Category:1993 albums

Category:Albums produced by Brian Paulson

Category:Sire Records albums

Category:Uncle Tupelo albums