Wilco
Wilco (The Album) (Nonesuch)

On Wilco’s seventh studio album, original members Jeff Tweedy (vocals) and John Stirratt (bass)—here joined by guitarist Nels Cline, multi-instrumentalists Pat Sansone and Mikael Jorgensen, and drummer Glenn Kotche—stick with what they’re best at: solid rock tracks fuelled by a bit of country sass.

The album starts off with “Wilco (The Song)”, an aural reminder to listeners of the love of a good rock band. Even the album’s title suggests a sort of tongue-in-cheek approach to the album-making experience.

It would come as a surprise if Jeff Tweedy wasn’t listening to Dark Horse’s greatest hits while making this album (or Wilco’s earlier albums, come to think of it). There’s an easygoing yet insistent late ’70s-early '80s rock vibe plastered all over this record. This is especially apparent on “You Never Know”, which has guitar licks cribbed straight from George Harrison’s “All Those Years Ago”.

However, that belies the undercurrent of sadness and anger permeating many of the songs on this album, whether it be in the longing suggested by the aching slide guitars in “Deeper Down” or the tragic imagery painted in songs like the mildly malevolent “Bull Black Nova”, a first-person narrative from a man who’s just committed murder (“It’s in my heart/There’s blood in the sink/I can’t come down”). Graphically unsettling subject matter aside, “Bull Black Nova” is certainly the standout song on this album, featuring an insistent piano line that leaves you anxious for a break in the tension.

Even sunshine-coated songs like “Sonny Feeling” feel, well, a little sad; however, the noise-happy guitars and the playful organ lines strike a balance between the joyful and the morose. Thankfully, Canadian indie-folk darling Leslie Feist adds some much-needed brevity on the charming, country-tinged ditty “You and I”, trading lyrics with Tweedy about the difficulties of modern romance.

The final song on this offering, “Everlasting Everything”, is punctuated by unexpected melancholy chimes, adding to the epic feel of the track, but then the album is over just as it’s hitting its stride, leaving fans to wonder if they are going to have to wait yet another two years (and untold levels of band drama) just to hear something new from these guys.

Wilco (The Album) succeeds if only because it sounds like a natural extension of 2007’s Sky Blue Sky—piano-laden floor-stompers, string-infused epics, and grown-up guitar rock that doesn’t take itself too seriously. This 11-song album is solid, polished, and ridiculously listenable. It’s not nearly as experimental as previous offerings (there are songs on both Sky Blue Sky and 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot that feel much more progressive, technically) and Wilco doesn’t really give the listener anything new—but the band certainly reminds us of what makes it so enjoyable in the first place.

Download This: “Bull Black Nova”