I have to be honest. My first thoughts when anticipating the new Wilco album were laced with trepidation. Not because I don't like the band. In fact, the reason was quite the opposite; I love the band. More than anything, I think I was somewhat afraid I'd be let down because I had only lukewarm feelings towards their previous record A Ghost is Born (despite a few standout tracks, like "Theologians" and "The Late Greats," both of which have become personal Wilco favorites). Too my extreme advantage, I was able to get my first listen to Sky Blue Sky unexpectedly about two months before its official release. I came into work one morning and it just happened to be playing in the office (apparently a guy I work with knows people who know people who know Jeff Tweedy, or something like that). Anyhow, the reason I believe listening to the record in this fashion worked to my advantage is because I had no time to become fixated on my own expectations. Either way, I liked the album the first time I listened to it, and by about the third or fourth listen I loved it. The following is an attempt to be a bit more succinct in the form of an album review.
On Wilco's sixth studio album Sky Blue Sky, Jeff Tweedy and company continue their conscious evolution both in sound and in personnel. There aren't too many other bands today who truly embrace the album concept the way this one does, because, while many other acts seem to be content with producing individual, likeable tracks, all the while being ever so careful not to alienate their fans by straying too far from the sound which won them over in the first place, Wilco seem to have made a virtue of the opposite approach. They make albums that are so cohesive they should come with a warning. And it's not just the cohesion of each collection of songs being released that makes their albums work, but also the respective sound held therein and the fact that it always seems fresh yet familiar with each go-round. On Sky Blue Sky, the boys put away the quirky studio effects which were so prevalently baked into their previous two efforts, and focus on the organic sound of a band at the top of its game. Gone is the psychadelic-pop motif, which has been replaced with a sense of controlled jamming. The new songs have room for each musician to sprawl, which works as a beautifully effective vehicle for new axeman Nels Cline. That's not to say that minus Cline's guitar wizardry the album doesn't work, but I would argue that the result of not having him on board would be an album best described as somewhat bland, or perhaps even lazy. Luckily that isn't the case. Cline wails on certain tracks and noodles on others, but somehow makes his presence felt throughout the entire collection, most notably on "Impossible Germany," a track that sounds like vaguely Television covering the Band, and in my opinion, is a brand new classic. Other standouts include "Hate it Here," "Be Patient with Me," and "Side with the Seeds."
Sky Blue Sky finds Wilco feeding off of a mellow 70's soft rock vibe, but that doesn't mean that the band is not moving forward. In fact, this album may be their biggest step yet, because for a band that had always seemed like a skewed singer-songwriter outfit, with this album they finally sound like a real band. Not to say that Jeff Tweedy's musical monarchy is necessarily dead, but maybe he just figured a little flirting with democracy wouldn't hurt. In my opinion, the results speak for themselves.
Wilco - Impossible Germany (Mp3)
Wilco - Hate it Here (Mp3)
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