Wilco “Wilco (The Album)” Review
With their new record, Wilco (The Album), Wilco have taken a step back from the guitar-god, dad-rock edge they nearly fell off with the tepid (and in my opinion boring) Sky Blue Sky. While the 11 song disc still falls short of their amazing early work, Wilco finds the band once again working to meld Jeff Tweedy’s natural gift for writing great songs with the band’s innovative sonic layers.
For a band led by a guy who has historically seemed to take things a little too seriously, Wilco seem to make a point to start their latest album with their tongue firmly in their collective cheek; kicking things off on their album titled after themselves, with a song named after themselves. “Wilco (The Song)” features the familiar guitar and keyboard jangle which the band perfected on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot; also melding an alt-country melody with some more abrasive noise background to form a canvass for Tweedy’s bruised soprano. The track, which the band described as an “upbeat song professing our love for our fans,” could have easily come across as cheesy or heavy handed, but serves as a great entry point for the disc. The warm atmosphere of “Wilco (The Song)” leads into the more mellow and serene “Deeper Down,” which starts out with the dour lyrics “By the end of the bout, he was punched out” and features some haunting strings and guitar lines to match the broken down spirit Tweedy employs with his vocals.
Things brighten up a slightly with “One Wing,” which starts with some laid back guitar strumming before slowly building over its three and a half minute life span. By the end, the track becomes a full blown pop explosion and is easily one of the best on the record. On the pulsing keyboard driven “Bull Black Nova,” Tweedy sings about “not going far,” right before the band goes pretty far with a jammy sonic burst that hearkens back to Ghost is Born. In typical Wilco fashion, the band does a complete 180° after “Bull Black Nova” with the simple and sweet “You and I,” a tender love song that finds Tweedy duetting with a female singer while being accompanied by an acoustic guitar and a sparse rhythm section.
(photo by Autumn de Wilde via MySpace)
On “You Never Know” Tweedy professes to “not care anymore” while singing lyrics that sound like a commencement speech over the mid tempo song. Things slow down with the piano ballad “Country Disappeared” and “Solitaire,” which features some emotive slide guitar alongside some sullen lyrics. After the two more downbeat songs thing pick up ever so slightly with the sprite and soulful “I’ll Fight,” a track which finds Tweedy promising to not only fight, but to die, for the lucky person this song was written for. The twangy “Sunny Feeling” has the band reaching back to their rootsy past with some wobbly slide guitar which darts around Tweedy’s trembling falsetto. The song jaunts along for the first half before turning into a full on classic rock stomper at the end. The album closes with the stunning “Everlasting,” which sounds like it could have come straight from the YHF sessions and is a breathtaking view into the dynamics that make Wilco such a great band. The piano on the track sounds like a saturnine funeral march while the drums jump in and out to great effect. When Tweedy sings “everlasting love is all you have,” his genius shows through in that you can’t tell if he is saying that this this happens to be a good thing or a bad thing. Like other moments where the band is at its best, “Everlasting” gives you the sense that the band is truly in the game of trying to break our hearts.
While the disc is a definite improvement over Sky Blue Sky, Wilco still finds a band that doesn’t seem to be entirely sure of what direction they want to take their music. Maybe I am expecting too much to hear another disc as strong as some of their classic past work, but the albatross of creating such great music hangs on the band members’ necks and, for better or for worse, is the benchmark that people will continue judge their work by. Unfortunately for the band (and their fans), while Wilco is a good album, it poses little threat to unseat their classic work atop their catalog and probably will be a mere footnote in their history when things are said and done.
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Interesting you thought that. The new disc hasn’t grown on me yet and my first thought was “wow, this isn’t even as good as Sky Blue Sky.” Not great, but good…ya know?
I hadn’t been much of a Wilco fan, myself, but I enjoyed Sky Blue Sky. “Impossible Germany” was a great track… wasn’t anything on this record that jumped out at me the same way.
I find myself in the minority of people who really like the more alt-country Wilco (first two albums) and don’t really care for anything past that. I haven’t really heard the last couple though.
as someone who runs Wilco’s fansite (viachicago.org) you’re not in the minority Adam… not at all actually.
it’s just the people who jumped aboard with YHF and latter albums are more vocal usually
their most popular albums on Via are def YHF, Being There, Summerteeth, followed by A Ghost Is Born, then the latest 2 and AM
Hm I never knew. Everyone else I really know thought anything past Being There was way better and thought the earlier ones were “less evolved” or something like that.
Although I am not part of Kyle’s Hoighty Toight Wilco website and therefore my opinion may be worth less
…..I would say their first three discs come in right after YHF on my list of fav Wilco albums.
I think YHF was the lightning in a bottle where they perfectly melded their great alt country sound with something a little more experimental and since then they haven’t seemed to be able to do much that really grabs my attention.
Maybe it’s just the font or something, but the cover always makes me think of this and I don’t know why:
Guess I can’t post the picture.
This
That guest female vocalist on ‘You and I’ is Feist, by the by.
While I adore all their albums, I thought Sky Blue Sky was their best work. Fretting that it was boring seems to miss the point. It was really more an album about the importance of sustained attention to certain heartfelt truths/sentiments than about abstractions that fizzle out quickly–even if these sentiments in question are banal/cliche. Wilco (the album) I think has this same qualities of sustained attention and directness, but it also manages to be a bit more visceral, which is a welcomed change, I suppose.
I agree with Christopher here. I feel Sky Blue Sky is superior to this mediocre collection of not-quite previous hit songs.
I agree and I think they came to a cliff there in totally embracing the work of Cline, now feeling they needed to return to more familiar territory. In the process they’ve produced their first non-progressive album, deciding instead to cool their heels and stick to what they know.
How boring.
The new work hasn’t grown on me yet either. Although I do already like You Never Know. Personally I think YHF was their masterpiece and the musical arrangements missed Jay on further albums. So sad Jay is gone.
I agree with Steve. Wholeheartedly. Sky Blue Sky is Wilco’s definitive album so far.
I would say Sky Blue Sky is probably the best in their current formation, at least post YHF, but the new record is solid, although it took some time to grow on me as well. It’s probably about time for Jeff to make some major lineup changes to keep Wilco fresh.
Wilco is one of those bands that has this dedicated following where no one is ever fully happy with what the band is doing at any given moment in time. Taking the arc of the band’s career, “A.M.” through the new CD, I’d say they’ve continued to evolve, produce great music, and remain germane in today’s music scene. For, the new, self-titled CD is another great offering with a different feel than the one before it, or the one before that, and (as they said in “Sky Blue Sky”) on and on and on.
I like all their albums and for all different reasons. I also love the Mermaid Ave. albums. Wilco is so multilayered that I hear something new every time I listen to any one of their albums. What can I say, my nuerons love them.
Uncle Tupelo
They’re all great albums. This one has grown on me slowly. Which for me means, it’s a keeper. Listen to it with headphones, while washing your car, or just relaxing. Has a 70’s vibe that I really can dig!
this record took a little longer for me to “get”, but i gave it a go & now it’s one of my favorites. it’s got a mature, confident vibe which i can dig. these guys know how to play together & you’ve got to respect that. i do often wonder though what things would sound like say Jay was still involved???…
Wilco is not U2, it doesn’t need to satisfy everyone (critics and all) and obviously that has never been their intent. The Wilco catalog is legendary. Support them! Tastes change. I am growing old with Jeff Tweedy, that is ok, I love it all!
/Peter
I like the way Wilco have a fan base who stick with them despite indifference to some of their work. I enjoy the laidback Sky Blue Sky vibe for totally different reasons that I like Being There or the paranoid YHF. The only one I havent really got a place for is the latest. Its “Wilco by numbers”. Despite, there are still some gems. Kudos to Nels and Glenn for not turning Wilco into Weather Report.
Sandman