Wilco (the Album) Continues Solid Career

Leslie Feist Guests on Wilco's 7th Album

Few American rock bands have the ability to combine readily listenable pop melodies with jarring tonal shifts and avant-garde instrumentation. Wilco has been doing it best for years. Building on their reputation as boundary pushing visionaries, Wilco (the Album) is a solid entry in the band's formidable catalogue.

Exceptional First Half of Wilco (the Album)

Wilco (the Album) opens, fittingly, with "Wilco (the song)." The playful title anticipates the bubbly rhythmic vibe of the opening track. "Deeper Down" follows immediately and the table is set for Wilco to build up expectation in order to tear it down. Clocking in at the same three minutes as "Wilco (the song)," "Deeper Down" is marked by sudden stops in the song's core harmony that start up again with increased sonic lushness. Steel guitar and harpsicord combine seamlessly with synthesizers and electric guitar to form a tight synopsis of the band's sound: traditional and progressive all at once.

These first two songs give way to the astonishing one-two punch of "One Wing" and "Bull Black Nova." "One Wing" places Jeff Tweedy's frail voice at odds with the rhythm section in measured breaks, before the rest of the band gradually joins in to replicate the emotional dissonance of which Tweedy sings. "Bull Black Nova," the album's longest song, is reminiscent of Wilco's strongest rock tracks, such as "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" or "Shake if Off." Bare piano and sparse drums are violently juxtaposed with Nels Cline's furious guitar mayhem, bringing with it the question as to why Cline is not considered the best guitar-sideman working in music today.

Canadian Chanteuse Leslie Feist Guests

The album's tone slows for the sweet ballad "You and I." Leslie Feist guests on this song concerning misunderstood lovers. The song is remarkable for the interplay between the voices. Feist's tenor is lost under Tweedy's grumble for the first half of the song, mimicking the me-first attitude that ruins many relationships. But by the song's midpoint, both lovers have come to the realization of the importance of needing one another, and Feist's voice thus becomes more prominent. It is a simple concept expertly delivered.

Wilco Uneven on the Back End

Given Wilco (the Album)'s first five songs, it might be somewhat of a letdown for listeners to reach the album's second half. While the songs are well-constructed and give solid interpretations of the themes Tweedy conveys in his lyrics, there seems to be an overall lack of spark that lights up the first half. Perhaps if these songs had been interspersed between the strongest tracks, a la 2007's Sky Blue Sky, the album would not feel as uneven as it does.

This is not to suggest that Wilco (the Album) is fully lopsided. "Solitaire" is a fantastic example of Wilco's cohesion as a band. Loneliness and creating music as a band are generally two mutually exclusive concepts, but the resulting song effectively captures the weight and want of timed seclusion. Likewise, "I'll Fight" pits a sunny country-twinged melody as a backdrop for an obsessed man's declaration that "he'll kill, he'll kill, he'll kill" if his lover asks or needs him to.

Title as Identity

Wilco (the Album) is a fitting summation of Wilco's success as a musical entity. Tracks such as "Wilco (the song)" or "I'll Fight" recall the best of 1996's Being There or the aforementioned Sky Blue Sky, while the convention-defying musical chaos of "Bull Black Nova" would fit perfectly on 2004's A Ghost is Born. One can only hope fans are treated to an extensive dose of Wilco (the Tour).