Art of Almost

This is about someone with a fear to step out of the mold he's created for himself and live a more fulfilling life. For instance:

No, I froze I can't be so Far away from my wasteland

There is an opportunity to change his situation for the better but he has a fear of being away from the familiar wasteland he's created for himself.

Here is another similar line:

tomorrow I'll have all the love I could ever ache And I'll leave almost with you

He's telling himself that tomorrow he'll find the love that is absent in his life. But in the end he knows he'll chicken out like he always does and he'll comfort himself by telling himself that he almost succeeded.

Here are the correct lyrics:

No, I froze I can't be so Far away from my wasteland I'll never know when I might ambulance Or hoist the horns with my own hands Almost

Almost

I heard a faint ole', true love But I had other ways to hurt myself Like calling I could open up my heart and fall in I could blame it all on dust The art of almost

Almost

Almost

Almost

I hold it up, shake the grail Dissipate across the waves, tomorrow I'll have all the love I could ever ache And I'll leave almost with you Art of almost

Almost

Wasteland is the most striking lyric, so I will start with that. I believe he is referring to one of the greatest poems of all time of the same name: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waste_Land. As a poetry buff, Jeff Tweedy surely is aware of this poem and the weight of that word in writing. In this lens, the wasteland is where he is trying to get to. He is almost there. This song is the art in reaching for that greatness. Trying to make his own "wasteland" or his own great masterpiece. He feels he is getting closer, and this develops through the song.

He is full of fear in this song, but presses on in wilco fashion. One of the more famous lines in "The Wasteland" reads as follows: "I will show you fear in a handful of dust" This line was echoed for me by the line "I could open up my heart and fall in I could blame it all on dust" as if to say he could blame fear for his shortcomings (almost) but he is smarter than that. He writes his way through it. Chanting "Almost" like a mantre, like his version of "Shantih shantih shantih" from T.S. Eliot's poem, he uses "Almost" as the vehicle and motivation to get to where he is going, making his struggle into art. Nearing the end of the song, he is closing in on what he hopes will be the art he has been searching for (shaking the grail).

"Tomorrow I'll have all the love I could ever ache" Tomorrow when the song has been written, he will be repaid with the love he sorely lacks in the painstaking writing process "and I'll leave almost with you" Once the song is over he will no longer be almost there, he will be there. He will have succeeded in his quest, leaving with "you" from almost into being.

That being said, I wanted the whole album to be like this. This being the first track, wilco was almost there, on the brink of making the next Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and they stumble into a mixed bag in the style of their last album, a smattering of their styles in albums previous, trying to please everyone. For me "Art of Almost" was close to the grail, and the rest of the album was a sharp left turn. Hope they make more like this.

I think this song might be about bringing yourself to the brink...almost dying in order to create compelling art.

Wilco covers Nine Inch Nails.