WERS 88.9 fm - Album Review: Wilco - Wilco (The Album)

August 27^th, 2009

How do you follow up your best-selling, most critically-acclaimed work? With Wilco (The Album. ) the Chicago-based sextet has been trying to answer that very question, three albums after their magnum opus, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

Despite a few heavy-hitters, Wilco (The Album) seems to trudge through its 40 minutes, as though the band is dragging their 14-year history along with them. Since their creative tipping point on Foxtrot, front man and principal songwriter Jeff Tweedy has been pushing for a more "back-to-basics" songwriting style, though that experimental side - a sort of sonic Mr. Hyde - will always find ways to peek out from behind their roots-rock banner.

These moments are certainly welcome. The hypnotic groove and piercing octaves of "Bull Black Nova" kicks off one of the album's most memorable stretches. "You and I," Tweedy's duet with Feist, ends with a tastefully reversed guitar solo (though it doesn't do nearly enough to showcase Feist). Lead single, "You Never Know," kicks the door in, doing double-duty as a punchy rock song with a jaunty, honky-tonk aesthetic. And the album opener, "Wilco (The Song)," is rife with the quirky self-awareness that's kept the band from taking itself too seriously. Take it from the refrain: "Wilco...Wilco...Wilco will love you baby."

Tweedy can strike gold in some of his more subdued efforts as well, but it's about 50/50 - "Deeper Down," and "Country Disappeared," are engaging and beautiful, while "Solitaire," and "One Wing," sort of slip out from under you. The closing track, "Everlasting Everything," is an especially big letdown.

Overall, Wilco's latest, sorta-self-titled release never quite takes off. Its wheels do leave the ground for a while around the halfway mark, an apex that is certainly worthy of mention. However, the push toward traditional musicality sort of works against the band, leaving them sounding confused as to which voice to employ - are they pop-rock? Are they alt-country? Freak folk? While these facets have all meshed well in the past, they don't form the coherent Wilco album everyone knows they could make.

- Mike Moschetto