Wilco
Wilco (The Album)
Nonesuch; 2009
I was first introduced to the music of Wilco with the album Being There, which came to me at a very prescient time in my musical development. The heady days of college were upon me and I was spreading my musical wings by exploring those sounds and styles that I had previously ignored and/or dismissed. With one fell swoop, I went from laughing at the country and pop music my parents subjected me to in my childhood to falling in love with great hooks and harmonies. From then on, I became a diehard fan of Wilco, throughout all of Jeff Tweedy’s idiosyncrasies, the fall and rise of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (complete with Jay Bennett’s departure from the band), and the various (and often misunderstood) sonic steps the group has taken.
Thus, in the wake of the “Dad Rock” pejoratives heaped upon 2007’s Sky Blue Sky, Wilco has responded with a record that might be the most wholly “Wilco” album yet. Wilco (The Album) is a collection of songs that almost magically finds a way to address the complaints of the critics and still ignore them. The countrified ‘70s rock of Sky Blue Sky remains, but Tweedy and Company find ample time to revisit the delightful pop sounds of Summerteeth and the arty weirdness of A Ghost Is Born. What’s most notable in my ears is that, while the voice and abstract lyrics of Tweedy inculcates a deep sense of familiarity, the superb guitar work of Nels Cline and the superior drumming of Glenn Kotche are more prominently featured than on any past release.
What’s most important, at least to me, is that it seems that this now-iconic band appears to be having fun once again. Many critics and long-term fans derided Wilco for becoming too “serious” in the wake of the notoriety brought to them by the success of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. While there might be some truth to those claims, you can’t listen to tracks like “Wilco (The Song)” and “You Never Know” without hearing the smiles and grins on the faces of the guys. Sure, I might never again hear Wilco record a raucous track like “Dreamer In My Dreams,” but the bright tones of “Sunny Feeling” certainly do elicit sunny feelings.
The only low point in the record occurs in the second half with the languid ballad tempos of the introspective crooners “Country Disappeared” and “Solitaire.” It’s obvious that the overt looseness of Wilco’s early work is long departed, but that spirit has certainly not been forgotten. There is abundant room in songs like “One Wing” and “Bull Black Nova” (most definitely my two favorite songs on the record) for plenty of tweaking, vamping, and spontaneity when performing this new material live.
When my friends asked mw to summarize this record for them (as they can be a bit lazy when it comes to reading record reviews), I responded as such: it’s about one-third Sky Blue Sky, one-third A Ghost Is Born, and one-third Summerteeth, with the occasional bit of Being There sprinkled in for good measure. And while I am aware that such a description might be a bit simplistic (not to mention hagiographic), I remain firm in my declaration that Wilco (The Album) is the most sonically comprehensive album in the Wilco canon, a beautiful blend of classic rock, pop, and country textures as only Wilco can create.
