This Album Changed My Life: Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)

"Find yourself a woman that likes Wilco Daniel," was my father's advice when he caught me looking at two girls much older than I was browsing the Wilco section in HMV. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot had just come out. I ignored my dad and went downstairs to buy Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

It’s weird what fragmented memories your brain chooses to feed you at defining moments in your life. I remembered that moment of Wilco wisdom in March 2015 when Jesus. etc featured in my Discover Weekly Spotify playlist. I was after going through a tough break-up and was in need of some music therapy. Such have been the trends of the music industry since 2002 that it was an algorithm that suggested what my heart needed and not a human.

Tweedy’s dark lyrics, Bennett’s mechanical synths and Klotche’s off-kilter drumming was the therapy I needed. It reinvigorated my love for music and refocused my attention towards our own band. We just needed a drummer.

Wilco were conveniently playing Iveagh Gardens that summer. I had never been more prepared for a show; the only thing I had overlooked was the denim outfit and cowboy hat. Someone who didn’t overlook the denim was a friend of a friend called Gary The Drummer. He introduced himself and the band was made.