5
Written, Directed and Produced by Kiko Jones
A Ballsy Production
Just reviewed an important upcoming release and thought we'd share it with you now, instead of waiting to put a whole issue together. Yeah, we're trying to get used to it, too.
-KJ
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WILCO Sky Blue Sky (Nonesuch-2007)
It always seemed that while Wilco’s breakthrough album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, was nothing short of a defiant statement of purpose on various levels, its Radiohead-meets-Whiskeytown sonic landscape may have been a bit much for the fans that had embraced their earlier country-rock records. Sure, the band—basically Jeff Tweedy and whoever else is in the room, it seems—didn’t spring this on them overnight, but one always got the impression that those who had come late to the party were the ones enjoying the most cake. Wilco rocked out on a couple of tunes but toned down the added noises and textures on Yankee’s follow-up, 2003’s A Ghost Is Born. After a live album that demonstrated—sometimes, painfully—how much of a studio construct Yankee was, Tweedy and co. have gone back to their roots with a sparse, mostly mellow record that recalls the sprawling fan favorite Being There (1996). Think of Sky Blue Sky as a concise, better written Being There, with little or none of the power pop elements of Summerteeth, the experimentalism of Yankee, or the kraut-rock affectations of Ghost, but with some of Neil Young’s Harvest-era influence, as well as some Eagles-approved harmonies, touches of old school soul, and latter-day Sonic Youth clean guitar workouts. (This is also the first album with avant jazz guitarist Nels Cline on board, who shines on a breathtaking solo towards the end of “Side with the Seeds”.)
Has Tweedy had his fill of experimentation and returned to safer roots/country-rock ground for good? No one can predict that, especially not about a band that has consistently made a different record each time out. In the meantime, it’s a good idea to sit back, enjoy this batch of Tweedy’s latest and ponder the future. Theirs and ours.
Highlights: “Either Way”, “Impossible Germany”, “Side with the Seeds”, “On And On And On”.
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