Album Reviews

Wilco’s return to intimately drawn electro-acoustic folk and away from electronic experimentation gives the latest outing a comforting organic coherence and an intensely direct sense of musical purpose. The more tightly constrained concept yields greater discipline and a compelling concentration of useful ideas, tune after tune.

Musicians who treasure their record collections are easy to spot. Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy is one, and Spoon’s Britt Daniel is another. Subtle references to the very familiar and iconic bubble to the surface, whether purposefully or via unconscious absorption. Whiffs of an Allman Brothers instrumental break, the subtle suggestion of a Beatles arrangement or a Hendrix riff and the like float through the tunes, never coming down far enough to be attached to a familiar tune.

There’s a buoyancy to the execution of a breezy pop song like “Impossible Germany” yet that’s tempered and anchored by a lengthy, elegantly laid-out, guitar-driven instrumental coda that meshes Beatlesque pop intricacy and Neil Young/Crazy Horse fuzz to produce substance and abandon. It’s a great track as is the shuffling title tune whose sentiment and the delivery of same can only be available to a veteran.

There’s a sense of satisfaction and occasional genuine optimism in both the music and the lyrics. “What Light” has Tweedy in about as optimistic a spirit as you’re going to hear him on record as he advocates

Even a break-up song like “Hate It Here” is more about acceptance and less about whining. And boy does the influence of John Lennon punch through on that tune. Lennon and Neil Young. In places it’s an homage to The White Album.

Sky Blue Sky demonstrates a late career growth spurt for both the band as a whole and leader Jeff Tweedy. It’s a thoughtful, mature work that deals with adult concerns expressed with great confidence and intimacy.

The recording is brilliantly honest and cast in dry, revealing clarity. Images are as big and direct as they are transparent and dry-to-pleasingly gritty. I don’t know if this is being sold as a AAA production but it sounds like high resolution AAD to me as if Stan Ricker worked from a high resolution file provided by Bob Ludwig. Whatever it is, it sounds better than the free CD you get with the double vinyl so you can easily upload the album to your iPod. I like that. If you’re paying the bigger bucks for vinyl why not be rewarded with an easy hi-rez upload?

If you haven’t picked this one up yet, do so. You’ll get up in a far better mood than you were when you sat down. And so what if Wilco licensed the opening tune for a Volkswagen television commercial? When you can’t get airplay you do what you have to, to get heard. Spoon lent a tune to Jaguar.