Wilco
Sky Blue Sky
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NATN Recommended
Wilco
Sky Blue Sky
Nonesuch, 2007
RiYL: John Lennon, Neil Young, Pink Floyd's Meddle, '70s Grateful Dead |
For Being There, the band agreed to a reduced royalty rate so they could put out the unexpurgated double album the way they saw fit. Summerteeth left alt-country in the lurch with a suite of misery ballads that delved dangerously deep into Tweedy and Jay Bennett's shared musical headspace. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot's troubled gestation period became the subject of both a film and a book, and the album's emergence as an underground hit after being shelved for months by an uncaring label became the art vs. commerce success story of the 00's. A Ghost Is Born smeared the thin line between ugliness and beauty yet further, both in Tweedy's painfully honest lyrics and its brace of desperate, atonal guitar scratchings. Even the 2005 live album Kicking Television was more of a revisionist history than a triumphant career summary, with Nels Cline's outré guitar playing forcing dramatic reassessments of established old favorites.
Sky Blue Sky continues Wilco's unequaled streak of breaking the house with every gamble. At first listen it sounds like the group is operating with one hand tied behind its back, as every track rides on a gentle, soft electric guitar groove and Tweedy's singing and songwriting is more weirdly insular than ever. How could a band this diverse make an album even more monochromatic than its cover art? But if you spend even a little time inhabiting Sky Blue Sky it opens up like a Chinese fan, revealing ever more detail with each spin. From the windy, chiming guitars of "Impossible Germany" to the instinctive, insistent chorus hooks of "Shake It Off" and "What Light," Tweedy has never seemed more in control of his muse, nor has he ever assembled a more suitable group of supporting players. Cline's playing on Sky Blue Sky is nothing short of a revelation; the frequently overindulgent former member of Scarnella and the Geraldine Fibbers doesn't waste a note for the whole of the album. He's like every hired-gun axeman Steely Dan employed for the entirety of the 70's rolled into one costume-changing magician.
The restrained feel of these songs means there's less of a spotlight shining on drummer Glenn Kotche and bassist John Stirratt, but just like Tweedy's songs here, the closer one listens, the more there is to find. Stirratt's fluid groove on "Leave Me (Like You Found Me)," in particular, is worthy of praise. Multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone finds a similar sweet spot on Sky Blue Sky in terms of laying back at most points and really picking his spots to add flourishes, like the barrelhouse piano of "Walken" and the torch-song organ of "Side With the Seeds."
While Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born in particular perhaps overemphasized the morose side of Tweedy's musical personality, Sky Blue Sky demonstrates enviable balance. There are challengingly open songs here as you would expect, like the defeatist opener "Either Way" and the lachrymose "Please Be Patient With Me." But thematically the record is more well-rounded, more human, than anything Tweedy has produced since Being There and the inclusion of chipper numbers like "Walken" and "Side" puts the more dour tunes into the kind of sharp relief that the last two albums largely lacked. The most stirring songs are tracks like "What Light" and "Impossible Germany," where the uncertainty of the lyrics is undercut by the undeniable joy and assuredness of the instrumental performances.
This is a truly great record from a band from whom we should expect no less at this point. There has always been some nagging doubt in the back of my mind about naming Wilco the best active rock band in America, but I'm finally ready to take the plunge.
MARK T.R. DONOHUE | Mark T.R. Donohue is a prolific freelance writer whose areas of expertise include Rockies baseball, video games, genre television, English soccer, and pub rock. He lives in Colorado, where he cultivates the largest and creepiest private collection of Alyson Hannigan memorabilia in the Mountain West.