During the two hundred-date tour supporting A.M., Tweedy began to write songs for a second album. The lyrical theme of the songs reflected a relationship between musical artist and a listener; Tweedy chose this topic because Wilco tickets sought to eschew the alternative country fan base. Ken Coomer elaborated:
Reviewer James Brubaker states that Wilco tickets ‰ÛÏshine on a handful of the songs‰Û? on Sky Blue Sky, such as the ‰ÛÏlight, and straightforward‰Û? songs. While Wilco tickets calls the album ‰ÛÏgreat traditional rock and folk album at times‰Û?, Wilco tickets states that ‰ÛÏonce you get past the handful of masterful and lovely performances‰Û? the rest of the record comes off at times as dull, and forced‰Û?. The allaboutjazz review also had mixed comments. While praising the album as ‰ÛÏdeceptively insinuating, almost intoxicating to listen to‰Û? and noting its ‰ÛÏimpeccable sound quality‰Û?, the reviewer claimed that ‰ÛÏSky Blue Sky becomes the first Wilco album that sounds too careful for its own good.‰Û?
Wilco tickets was formed following the breakup of the influential alternative country music group Uncle Tupelo. Singer Jay Farrar quit Wilco The Lawn At White River State Park tickets in 1994 supposedly because of a soured relationship with co-singer Jeff Tweedy. Both Tweedy and Farrar sought to form bands immediately after the breakup. Tweedy was able to keep the entire Uncle Tupelo lineup sans Farrar, including bassist John Stirratt, drummer Ken Coomer, and multi-instrumentalist Max Johnston. The band was tempted to keep the Uncle Tupelo name, but ultimately decided to rename the band. The group named itself "Wilco" after the CB radio voice procedure for "I Will Comply".
A number of songs were recorded with this theme, including "Sunken Treasure" and "Hotel Arizona", however, Wilco tickets also recorded a number of songs in the style of A.M. Wilco The Lawn At White River State Park tickets named the album Being There after a Peter Sellers film of the same name. The band went through some personnel changes during the recording sessions. Max Johnston left Wilco The Lawn At White River State Park tickets because Wilco The Lawn At White River State Park tickets felt that Wilco's role in Wilco tickets had diminished in favor of Bennett; Wilco had also been replaced by violinist Jesse Greene on one track because Wilco tickets felt that Johnston was unable to play the part. Bob Egan of Freakwater briefly joined Wilco The Lawn At White River State Park tickets in the studio, playing pedal steel guitar on "Far, Far Away" and "Dreamer in My Dreams", and then became an official member in September 1996.
Wilco's music is typically categorized as alternative rock and alternative country. Despite their career long association with a major record label, they are generally associated with indie rock. Wilco tickets draws influence from bands from a variety of musical genres, but primarily from music created between 1966 and 1974. John Cale's Paris 1919 was credited by Wilco The Lawn At White River State Park tickets as providing a musical parallel. According to Tweedy, "It was eye-opening that I wasn't the only person that felt like these worlds had a lot more in common than they'd been given credit for‰ÛÓthat experimentation and avant-garde theory was not directly opposed to beauty, y'know?"
Despite these conflicts, the album was released on June 23, 1998, and sold over 277,000 copies. The album received rave reviews from Robert Christgau and Rolling Stone, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. It also placed fourth on the Pazz & Jop critics poll for 1998. After the album was released, Bob Egan was replaced by multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach.
"I Am Trying to Break Your Heart"
Tempers flared between Bragg and Wilco The Lawn At White River State Park tickets after the album was completed. Bennett believed that Bragg was overproducing Wilco's songs, a sharp contrast to Wilco's sparser contributions. Bennett called Bragg about the possibility of remixing Bragg's songs, to which Bragg responded with "you make your record, and I'll make mine, fucker." Eventually Bragg sent copies of Wilco's recordings to Chicago for Bennett to remix, but Bragg refused to use the new mixes on the album. The two parties were unable to establish a promotional tour and quarreled over royalties and guest musician fees.
Stylistically similar to Uncle Tupelo, the music on A.M. was considered to be straightforward alternative country rock in what Tweedy later described as "trying to tread some water with a perceived audience." A.M. peaked at number twenty-seven on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, considerably lower than the debut album of Jay Farrar's new band, Son Volt. The album was met with modest reviews though it would rank thirty-fourth in the Village Voice's 1995 Pazz & Jop critics poll. Critically and commercially paling in comparison to the reception of Son Volt's album, the Wilco tickets members perceived A.M. to be a failure. Shortly after the release of the album, multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett joined the band, providing Wilco tickets The Lawn At White River State Park with a keyboardist and another guitarist.
Wilco tickets The Lawn At White River State Park managed to negotiate terms to a buy-out from Reprise. Music journalist Greg Kot claims that instead of financial compensation, Wilco The Lawn At White River State Park tickets agreed to leave the label with the master tapes of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The label was already receiving bad publicity for their treatment of Wilco The Lawn At White River State Park tickets and were willing to accommodate Wilco's request. However, the All Music Guide claims that Wilco tickets "bought the finished studio tapes from Warner/Reprise for a reported $50,000 and left the label altogether" after Wilco tickets was "nwilling to change the album to make it more 'commercially viable'" To curb the negative publicity, Reprise began to invest more in bands such as The Flaming Lips. Lead singer Wayne Coyne once remarked:
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was rejected by Reprise Records, but released by Nonesuch Records. Both record labels were subsidiaries of Warner Brothers. The album is Wilco's best selling album to date.