Music will save us all.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Wilco - Wilco (the album)
Chicago rises again (and not too soon either).
I reject this notion that the sound of a band’s music must stay static record to record, I also reject the notion that a band’s sound must change or that a group must release an experimental or “concept” record to be relevant. Since when did we start judging ourselves on what has been done or not done rather than what is good vs. what is bad? Perhaps the lines have gotten much too close for even the audiophiles to discern.
Yet, With a new Wilco album, there are a few things that you can consistently count on. Every record is fastidiously planned and executed. Every note, lyric, and drum beat has a home, and it is difficult to say that anyone else could do Wilco better than Wilco does. Sure, the band isn’t perfect. There are moments in the discography and track listing in which the band may get lackadaisical, but on their new self-title LP, there is an energy present here missing since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and to a larger extent, Being There.
In spirit, however, the record is closer to Summerteeth than anything else—and while comparisons to an artist’s back catalogue don’t often portray the personal and introspective effort made for a new release, there are many comforting things about this album. From the confident and straightforward opening “Wilco (the song)” to the curiously Americana “You Never Know” to the sacharrine “You and I,” there seems to be something for everyone here. However, the high points seem to be when lead singer/songwriter Jeff Tweedy gets out of his Alt/Country comfort zone and gets honest lyrically, (see a reflectively humble and apologetic “Solitaire” or when the entire band has a little fun and sounds like a bunch of high school seniors fucking around with old instruments in a garage (see “Bull Black Nova” with its low-end guitar flourishes over a backdrop of hypnotic eighth note hypnotic organ sounds, 70’s style prog rock guitar riffs punctuate the verse-chorus-verse-solo, and Tweedy much more excitable and vocally expressive than other ventures).
Critically, one could argue that many of the songs pander to more “traditional” fans who may not have liked Yankee or A Ghost is Born, however, it is hard to deny that when Wilco does something, it’s high art every time—see the big and driving “One Wing” and the delightfully manic “Sonny Feeling.”
When the world has gone to shit, we can count on Wilco to make a solid record better than most new releases; and where there have been critics and fans alike who called this record “bland,” it sounds more like an olive branch to American music (and symbolically America in general). Times are tough, most of us are sad, and we need—and Wilco provides—a good and light escape.
After having such an extensive and varied catalogue over a career spanning more than 15 years (and that doesn’t even include the Uncle Tupelo years!) Wilco still manages to get up the energy and put out a well-performed and well-written LP.
So thanks, Wilco.
In a time when it seems everyone around us wants to pass off laughable and inferior music (the class clowns of art), you still give a damn about solid musicianship and songwriting.
Get Wilco the album, available in lots of places, but you can find it on iTunes, Amazon, and Lala.com
