I'm A Wheel

SONG: I'm A Wheel
ALBUM: A Ghost Is Born
TRACK: 9

While most of A Ghost Is Born takes itself very seriously, this weird little rocker begs to be taken with a grain of salt. The lyrics are random, nonsensical, and don't seem to be "about" anything. Tweedy toys with rhymes like a tenth-grader in lines like "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven-eight-nine/ once in Germany someone said 'nein' ". I can't help but chuckle when I hear one of America's finest songwriters sing, clearly and with great emphasis, "Umm...". It reminds me of Pavement's carefully-crafted I-could-care-less slacker vibe. When he grunts "uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh", I get the feeling he just ran out of words - but then, as if to prove it was an intentional choice, he repeats the line.

The tension of the music, felt in the chromatic riffs and screechy, raspy vocals, is reflected in the venomous lyrics of the chorus:

I'm a wheel
I'm a wheel
I'm gonna turn on you

The song propels with a chugging intensity for about two and a half minutes before stomping to a close. Despite the tension and grit, it provides a nice upbeat break between the the mellower, more lyrically dense tunes "Company In My Back" and "Theologians".