Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
30/05/07 22:12 Filed in: Music
I preordered
my copy of the new Wilco album "Sky Blue Sky" in the
hope of having it as soon as it was released, and
saving a few €s over what I'd pay for it in the
shops. There was a special edition for €23.49 on
play.com, consisting of the album and an accompanying
DVD called "Shake It Off", so I ordered that. It was
released last Tuesday week, but by Thursday my copy
still hadn't arrived. I wandered into Tower Records
in Wicklow Street that afternoon, and there it was on
sale, CD + DVD edition for €21.95. D'Oh! It
eventually arrived on Friday.
I started listening to Wilco ten years ago, with the album "Being There", and have followed them ever since. Their sound has evolved a lot in this decade, over the course of four more studio albums and a live album, plus several side projects. In my opinion, 2001's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" is a masterpiece, and it really marked their departure from the alt.country scene, with which they had been associated from their beginning. "A Ghost is Born" released in 2004 took them even further along that route, but to me this was a less satisfying piece of work, with quite banal lyrics on several tracks and a self-indulgent use of noise on tracks like "Less Than You Think."
"Sky
Blue Sky" is much more immediately accessible than
YHF or AGIB. In some ways it is almost harking back
to Being There (the title track itself is quite
similar to "Far, Far Away".) The sound is much more
mellow overall, but it does have twists and turns as
we might expect from Jeff Tweedy and Co. Tweedy's
fellow band members are much more to the forefront in
this album, particularly guitar virtuoso Nels Cline.
Some hardcore Wilco fans may see this album as a regression. Like any other album by the band, it requires several listens in order to absorb it properly. Standout tracks so far for me are "You Are My Face", "Side With The Seeds" and "Walken."
It's well worth spending the extra few euros for the special CD + DVD edition, which features eight of the album's twelve tracks performed live by the band in their Chicago studio, plus numerous interviews.
I started listening to Wilco ten years ago, with the album "Being There", and have followed them ever since. Their sound has evolved a lot in this decade, over the course of four more studio albums and a live album, plus several side projects. In my opinion, 2001's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" is a masterpiece, and it really marked their departure from the alt.country scene, with which they had been associated from their beginning. "A Ghost is Born" released in 2004 took them even further along that route, but to me this was a less satisfying piece of work, with quite banal lyrics on several tracks and a self-indulgent use of noise on tracks like "Less Than You Think."
Some hardcore Wilco fans may see this album as a regression. Like any other album by the band, it requires several listens in order to absorb it properly. Standout tracks so far for me are "You Are My Face", "Side With The Seeds" and "Walken."
It's well worth spending the extra few euros for the special CD + DVD edition, which features eight of the album's twelve tracks performed live by the band in their Chicago studio, plus numerous interviews.