Jay Bennett and Edward Burch
The Palace at 4am (Part I)
[Undertow; 2002]
Rating: 5.6
Objective: To use departed Wilco keyboardist Jay Bennett's debut album (with mystery man
multi-instrumentalist Edward Burch) to determine the importance/nature of his role in said
former band.
Introduction: Jay Bennett's always been something of a wild card in the Wilco deck. A renowned
session musician who joined up for the majestic double-album Being There, Bennett gradually
accumulated influence over the band's sound, and according to some, was primarily responsible for
the band's shift from twangy traditionalism to tentative pop experimentalism. However, at some
point during the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sessions, Bennett wore out his welcome as creative
foil to lead Wilcolyte Jeff Tweedy and departed for the wilderness of a duo career with longtime
confidant Burch. But, perhaps as part of his severance package, Bennett has thrown two YHF
leftovers onto his debut effort: rocker "Shakin' Sugar" (sometimes known on Wilco forums as
"Alone") and purty piano ballad "Venus Stop the Train." Now, thanks to the wonders of digital
technology, we can pit the Wilco and Bennett versions against each other cockfight-style, and in
doing so, shed some light upon Bennett's past and future.
Methods: Bring over a couple of CD players from last weekend's Zaireeka party, pop in your
copy of The Palace at 4am, and dig out that disc of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot demos and
outtakes you salvaged from the file-sharing rummage sale. It's time for a little compare and
contrast so that we might shake out just how important Jay Bennett was to current king-of-the-rock-galaxy
Wilco.
Results: The findings may be inconclusive (the completeness of the Wilco outtakes is unknown, not to
mention whether Jim "Pappy" O'Rourke was yet involved at the time of their recording), but it don't
look so good for Herr Bennett. "Shakin' Sugar" remains largely unchanged from its unremarkable
organ-driven barnburner Wilco version, a song that, were it included on YHF, would've been a
distracting stumble backwards to their less-rewarding A.M. days. On the other hand, "Venus
Stop the Train" is thoroughly pillaged, changed from the hauntingly spare Tweedy/piano/harmonies take
into a 64-track psychedelic dubfest of string sections and unnecessary organ embellishment, all behind
an uncomfortably greasy vocal performance.
Discussion: So, to analyze the data, it certainly appears that Bennett was not quite the forward-pushing
individual many hypothesized he was for the band. Comparisons on these two tracks reveal a complacency
with the traditional format of the rock song that may have actually been weighing Wilco down in their
evolution, rather than accelerating it. Both "Shakin' Sugar" and "Venus" are also mired in the same
over-overdubbing sludge that kept Summerteeth from being the album to infect the world with
Wilco Fever. Is a song not complete until it has four keyboards blaring on top of it?
These shortcomings can be expanded to the entirety of The Palace at 4am, explaining the album's
considerable mediocrity. Bennett and Burch obviously just want to make a rock album, and you can't really
fault them for it. But while YHF is a classic rock album with grease spots of laptop diddles and
noisy skrawk seeping through, Palace is perhaps more what Reprise was hoping for: FM-ready stuff
that at best resembles Tom Petty and at worst could be mistaken for the Counting Crows.
While there are certainly some good songs to be found ("Whispers or Screams," "Like a Photograph," "Talk to
Me"), most appear to have spent a little too long being kicked around the studio. The liner notes credit
Bennett with at least nineteen instruments (Burch gets eight), and most songs appear to have utilized each
and every one of 'em: mellotrons, omnichords, orchestral bells, and all. Most of the layering sounds more
like camouflage than innovation, particularly on the useless remake of Summerteeth's "My Darling,"
complete with head-scratchingly superfluous electric sitar and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" muted
trumpet.
"My Darling" also highlights why Bennett was restricted to backup vocal duties by his former employer, as
any song that's been previously given a treatment using Tweedy's signature rumpled rasp highlights
unfortunate shortcomings in Bennett's forced-emotion warble. The excessive length of Palace
doesn't help matters either; at nearly seventy minutes, there's far too much filler material diluting
the good stuff. It's as if, freed from the parental reigns of bandmates, he's lost all sense of tasteful
restraint.
Right: bitch, bitch, bitch, Wilco, Wilco, Wilco. Can't I examine The Palace at 4am (Part I) on its
own terms? Well, frankly, no. Nobody who isn't already a Wilco fan would probably consider buying this
record, and as the above research shows, Bennett himself isn't quite yet out of the band's considerable
shadow (I haven't even mentioned the appearances of Ken Coomer, John Stirratt, or a couple Mermaid Avenue
outtakes). For the same reason, it's probably too soon to tell who'll win the Tweedy-Bennett showdown;
without their former keyboard maestro keeping a rock foundation, Wilco's follow-up to YHF could launch
too far into outer space, and Bennett & Burch supposedly already have a stripped-down version of Palace
ready to go (Part II, perhaps?), indicating that Bennett recognizes his tendency to over-tweak.
Bennett's future may not be you-gotta-wear-shades bright, but we probably shouldn't write him off just yet.
Keep in mind that nobody thought Tweedy was the talented Tupelo.
-Rob Mitchum, July 29th, 2002