Wilco return to us with their 7th full length release quasi-eponymously and with camel. Alfred.
Two years since Sky Blue Sky, (The Album) offers us eleven tracks of Wilco goodness. There isn't really anything big and bold or sleek and groundbreaking. Many or all sides of Wilco can be heard on this release, over which Tweedy himself mused he "kinda hates all of Wilco's six prior albums, because none of them are a statement that I would be comfortable making right now at this point in my life."
Indeed this album which he is comfortable with now is a comfortable album. From an outside perspective it would seem most of the past dramas have subsided for the time being. (Recorded before the death of Jay Bennett). Content with being a catch-all with sides of the alt-country, Wilson-esque compositions, clever lyrics and instrumental innovation which Wilco have earned them an army of adoring fans. There is marmite-like opposition, though.
Eponymous album opens with eponymous track, a pleasant gentle rocker that kind of gives a contented, accepting nod to all the prior dramas while offering a warm and comforting "Wilco will love you baby". Deeper Down is nice, lush musical texture where everything is ok at the end with a kiss. Next up One Wing returns to showcase Wilco's lyrical wit, repeating "one wing will never ever fly / neither yours nor mine / I fear we can only wave goodbye". Bull Black Nova is written from the perspective of a guy who has just killed his girlfriend. This attempt at the surreal takes about four minutes to build-up to the break down you'd imagine such a song would entail, while it does evoke a range of emotions on the way. Maybe the only time Tweedy leaves the comfort zone, vocally anyway on the album, however brief. That a great song does not make however.
Collaboration hussy Feist turns up (almost for the sake of it, says or sings little) on You & I, which ponders the relationship-side struggle of a couple. "I don't wanna know/ and you don't need to know/ that much about me". Typical mellow acoustic number that doesn't really go anywhere. You Never Know shakes us to wake us a bit comparatively, at the same time chanting "I don't care anymore". Country Disappeared takes a bit of a nature yearn turn in the lyrics the conflict between urban and rural, a critique of modernism and lets us hear Tweedy's singing skills try to match his lyrical talents and is one of the better tracks. I'll Fight is another waker number, up tempo with imagery of the complexities of a soldier's sacrifice/crucifixion . From then it gets a bit monotonous to continue listening to. Easy listening that's too seamless and doesn't challenge enough. Using the word "boring" would be ignorant, it just doesn't grab your attention or when it does it doesn't hold it.
It is a good album. A solid album. Tweedy specificied that the studio would be used more "as an instrument" and every track is produced to pretty perfection. That is the problem maybe. The corners, the edge has been stripped off everything. The songs don't have character. Instead the album has a running character collectively and the songs have a share in that. It's nice. It's pleasant. It's seamless. The lyrics can be brilliant as you'd expect. The music is well measured, succinct. For all that though it's too safe and is for lack of a better word; a tough listen-through start to finish. Solid easy listening that all too much resembles the cover, of a fuzzy, warm, complacent, mammal. Forgive me for the comparisons I am about to make, I am not trying to break your heart but, cute is not the same as attractive. Wilco (The Album) is not Yankee Foxtrot Hotel.
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7/10
www.wilcoworld.net
Shane Fitzgerald
WILCO is available from ROAD RECORDS