Artist: Wilco
Album: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Author: Jeff Tweedy
Record Label: Nonesuch Records
Release: 2002
Thoughts:
The final track off Wilco's
third album, Reservations lasts all of 7 minutes and 22 seconds, though the singing ends at three minutes. With a
reverb-laden piano providing most of the backing for this song, along with some space-creating
sound effects, this song brings to the foreground Tweedy's voice - fortunately, he pulls it off with maybe the best
vocal delivery on the record.
The song's chilling, haunted beauty is furthered by the lyrics - introspective yet pointedly addressed to an unnamed lover. The mood of the song evokes some of Big Star's more subdued moments - Holocaust, maybe, or Blue Moon - and Tweedy's live cover of Thirteen (worth investigation - one of the few covers of the song that manages to capture the original's simple beauty)
suddenly makes sense.
Some have criticized the outro for being too Kid A-ish - I disagree. Where Kid A was sometimes guilty of instrumental space for the sake of space, Reservation's quiet unwinding makes complete sense in the context of the song as the final track on the album - closing with a sort of subtle optimism, the ending instrumental passsage something of a last sigh. This is one of Wilco's most beautiful songs and YHF couldn't have hoped for a better ending.
Musical notes:
Reservations is in the key of F. The verses go I - vi - iii - IV - V - I, or F Dm Am Bb C F. The choruses go I - iii - vi - iii - ii - V or F Am Dm Am Gm C. To play the song on guitar, do as Tweedy (I'm pretty sure) does and capo at the third fret. You then have to play the chord shapes in D but it will sound in F. If you have access to a piano, however, it sounds much nicer.
Lyrics:
How can I convince you it's me I don't like?
And not be so indifferent to the look in your eyes
When I've always been distant
and I've always told lies for love
I'm bound by these choices so hard to make
I'm bound by the feeling so easy to fake
None of this is real enough to take me from you
Oh I've got reservations
about so many things
but not about you
I know this isn't what you were wanting me to say
How can I get closer and be further away
From the truth that proves it's beautiful to lie
I've got reservations
about so many things
but not about you
I've got reservations
about so many things
but not about you
not about you
not about you
not about you
not about you