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Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2009 > June > 29 > Entry
CD review: Wilco ‘Wilco (the Album)’
Wilco
‘Wilco (the Album)’ (Nonesuch)
B+
Jeff Tweedy’s career thrives on twists. He changes up like a major-league pitcher, sometimes slow (there wasn’t too much aesthetic space between the end of Uncle Tupelo and the beginning of Wilco), sometimes faster (the transition from “Being There” to “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” was quite a leap).
“Wilco (the Album)” (which opens with “Wilco (the Song)”) is the former and probably the better for it.
The past few Wilco albums have had the smell of Big Statement about them. This has been an issue for the band since NPR fans turned “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” into “Sgt. Pepper” for people who remember where they were when the second plane hit the World Trade Center. “A Ghost is Born” got artier and oddly heavier, that live album just smoked and “Sky Blue Sky” had folks looking up Steely Dan clips on YouTube. The title of this new one is fitting: It’s the first Wilco record in a long time that sounds exactly like a Wilco album.
Opener “Wilco (the Song)” rewrites the riff from the Velvet Underground’s “I’m Waiting For the Man” and assures you that Wilco will love you (don’t think we don’t appreciate it champ).
“Deeper Down” feels like creepy ’60s L.A. kitchen-sink pop — you keep expecting Dennis Hopper to wander past with a 17-year-old gal in tow. “You and I,” a nuanced duet between Tweedy and Canadian singer/Sesame Street guest Feist, shimmers and “You Never Know” splits the difference between country-rock and Cheap Trick.
The secret weapon, of course, is still guitarist Nels Cline, who can move from crafty interplay to noise rock heckler-spray in the same song (“Bull Black Noir”) and figure out a way to rectify the Stones idea of country with the Kinks’ in “Sunny Feeling.”
Dear Wilco fans, they still love you.
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By Steve Murphy
June 29, 2009 5:34 PM | Link to this
Nice review but I think the song is titled “Sonny Feeling” (with an “o”), not Sunny (with a “u”). As if that mattered. And, what about the George Harrison vibe/riff of “You Never Know?” Cheap Trick? Nah, I’d say “All Things Must Pass” is more like it.
By JLM
June 30, 2009 11:08 AM | Link to this
I agree with Steve. “You Never Know” is much more George Harrison that Cheap Trick. Also, it’s not “Bull Black Noir.” It’s “Bull Black Nova.” The least you could do is get the song titles right.
By Jon
July 7, 2009 2:30 PM | Link to this
This is just another step backwards for Wilco since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. They keep grasping for new ideas and falling flat, unfortunately. It would seem that Jeff Tweedy needs an opposing creative force like Jay Farrar or Jay Bennett, rather than a band of followers.