Tuesday's Recommended Release

Recommended Release:
Welcome to the summer months folks. In case you've forgotten since last year let me take a moment to remind you that the music industry sort of goes on hiatus at this time. Sure, there are all sorts of fun festivals and free shows going on throughout the world but if you want some new albums you're gonna have to really dig for what you want or wait patiently for one of the few good weeks to come around. This is not one of those weeks, though we are pretty fortunate to be getting the new album from Wilco, brilliantly titled Wilco (the album).

As fun as the album title is though this is not the greatest Wilco album of all-time, nor is it their worst, what it is is an album that takes all of what the band have done for the last 15-years and packages it into one cohesive whole. On Wilco (the album) we get to see Wilco the alt-country band, Wilco the Americana band, and Wilco the Dad-rock band at various points throughout the record. They show us their rocking, catchy songwriting side and they keep everything sounding continuous and whole thanks almost entirely to Jeff Tweedy's voice and songwriting. But then they've been doing the same think to varying degrees of success for years.

There are distinct periods where it all works wonderfully. Opening track "Wilco (the song)" is a fun introduction that wipes out the sour taste Sky Blue Sky left in our mouths and allows us to let our guard down for the rest of the album. From here tunes like "You Never Know" and the Feist duet "You and I" provide some of the finest individual songs Wilco has ever released, but amid the really good songs there are more then a few duds to fill out the time.

This is the first album where Tweedy has brought back all the major players in the history of Wilco. That's a pretty remarkable feat, but whenever Tweedy turned over the lineup in the past he did so to tweak the sound and make subtle changes to keep us interested. Here it seems the band managed to gel a bit, but they also retain a lot of the stoicism that brought down Sky Blue Sky. It's a tough week for record buyers, but let's face the truth you all probably spent your record allowance purchasing new copies of Michael Jackson records over the weekend and when it comes down to it that was probably a better use of your money. Download the good songs, get rid of the rest!
Wilco - "Wilco (the song)"
Wilco - "You and I"
Wilco - "You Never Know"