Wilco (The Album)
I think that what Wilco is trying to say through their new album title is, "Hey this is us. This is what we are all about. Listen to this album and know you have heard Wilco." I must say I like that idea. I like Wilco. I like where they are as a band. They are rocking AND melodic, they are simple AND complex, they are jammy AND precise. To those critics out there complaining that Wilco have failed to build upon or evolve from the sound on their last album, Sky Blue Sky, I say, so what? I actually like that! It’s as if they have found the sound and working relationship that makes them the most comfortable and are going to enjoy it for awhile. They’ve done enough experimenting and evolving over the past fifteen years and rotated through enough band members that it’s time to revel in the fact that they’ve found a dynamic that clicks. Listening to this album makes me feel happy and bouncy, even though not every song on it is happy and bouncy. Some of it, like Bull Black Nova, is actually quite dark and scary. But in my heart it’s Wilco itself that makes me feel happy and bouncy. I’m just going to put the entire album on repeat for the next few weeks, and, as they proclaim in Wilco (The Song), let Wilco love me, baby!
