Rockin' Our Turntable: Wilco (The Album)
By Lizz Kannenberg in Arts & Entertainment on May 13, 2009 8:40PM
I got a group email yesterday from a music geek friend who needed to get something off his chest: He was afraid of the new Wilco album. Afraid of another collection of "New York-y art crap" from one of his favorite bands, devoid of all the angsty alt-country stomp 'n' roll that spoke to him 15 years ago.
He should be afraid - afraid that he's finally going to fall for some good ol' fashioned art crap. Is this Wilco’s best album? No, it’s not. Does it prove that this band is not yet ready for the old-timers’ pass, where anything passably good is hailed as brilliant based on icon status (See: Bob Dylan’s Love and Theft)? Absolutely.
That assessment begs a very important question: What do we expect of Wilco in the year 2009? This is a band that's at the pinnacle of success as it is defined in the music industry environment of today - they play exactly what they want, when they want and with whom they want, and they can command a price that keeps them comfortably ensconced in vintage gear and the tamer trappings of a semi-celebrity lifestyle. So when the creative process of songwriting has to be carefully balanced with a "Honey Do" list, what should we realistically expect?
If anyone can fit writing and recording a masterful pop record into a schedule packed tight with lawn mowing and PTA meetings, it's Jeff Tweedy. It hasn’t been an easy balance to find, though - the lean hardwood floor-bed and gas station-meal years of the mid-90s were once Tweedy's muse. Then it was the evil empire of the recording industry in the early '00s that kept him snarling in the face of conventional pop music. But the middle of this decade, he got comfortable. A Ghost Is Born and Sky Blue Sky were good records, but the phoned-in lack of palpable emotion implied that the albums, and their creator, couldn't be bothered to stand for much of anything. If Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was the mid-80s hardcore movement, SBS was W'burg hipsters.
On Wilco, however, Tweedy is taking a stand for a cause that's close to home: His band. It’s no wonder Wilco's’s seventh album is self-titled - the influence of five other guys is finally coming through loud and clear. The album’s 11 tracks are laid back, meandering at points and occasionally working up to polite rocking, but the collaborative spirit of Wilco is as dynamic as the knob-twiddling on YHF. “Wilco The Song” kicks off the record in what has been true Wilco fashion for the past five years - loud-soft dynamics and rollicking, rootsy piano leads that came straight from New Orleans in multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone’s suitcase. “One Wing,” which has been appearing in live sets since Lollapalooza last year, is a Tweedy soft rocker that might have been lost to the B-side of the record if not for Glenn Kotche’s incomparably dynamic drumming. John Stirratt’s bass, the often-unheralded bedrock of Tweedy’s musical whims, is as important melodically on Wilco as it is rhythmically.
Releasing anything is a loaded proposition for a band like Wilco that has weathered so many lineup changes and stylistic shakeups, and there’s ample opportunities on Wilco for the throwbacklashers to stoke the growly hater fire. “You Never Know” tickles the soul of past rollickers like “Box Full of Letters” and “Monday” without ever quite climaxing, ultimately digressing into well-mannered pop. “Bull Black Nova” teases with the prickly energy that made “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” sizzle but never climbs out of the comfortable, lumbering pace that pushes it along. Even the high points have that familiar feel, like the band looked to its own future greatest hits record for cues.
But ask Jeff Tweedy if he cares what you think. He doesn’t, because he’s finally checked his ego at the door to the band’s Northwest side loft and made a record that showcases the formidable collaboration that is Wilco. The moves may be familiar, but there’s more character buried underneath the sunny, 70s AM radio shine than we’ve heard in years.
Jeff Tweedy has finally found something new to stand for: Having fun.
Want to form your own opinion? Go listen to Wilco and tell us what you think.