I’ve got to say that, so far, this Pop Matters review of Wilco’s new disc, Sky Blue Sky, gets it. (I used to write for Pop Matters, but have not in about a year.)
The new disc, which I purchased from iTunes last night (I plan to buy an actual CD copy at some point, but wanted more than the stream available on the band’s Web site for now), doesn’t break any new ground — perhaps a rarity for this iconoclastic band — and is one of its most unified collections the band has released to date.
It has been compared to Neil Young’s Harvest — which seems apt, though not because the disc sounds anything like Young’s masterpiece. Harvest was more of a folk record than this is — Sky Blue Sky is in many ways a traditional middle-of-the-road rock record, but infused with a sense of lyrical dissolution, the disintegration of a relationship giving way to some level of hope.
Where the Harvest analogy holds water, however, is in its sudden departure from earlier sounds. Harvest was the quiet Neil Young record, coming on the heels of bigger, more explosive records — and captured a need among the rock listening audience for this kind of sound.
Sky Blue Sky fits this mold — though, I am doubtful that it will strike the same kind of cultural nerve. And that is OK. The band makes great records and puts on an explosive live show (I’ve got tickets for the June 22 show in Red Bank) that has a loyal fan base coming back for more and more.
But back to the record at hand. Sky Blue Sky is the band’s breather record — a step away from the angular guitar lines (though not too far) and experiments with feedback and noise that characterized their most recent efforts.
But perhaps that’s too simple — and doesn’t give this gem of a disc enough credit.
The resignation and acceptance of the opening cut, “Either Way” (“I will understand / everything has its plan /either way”), repeats itself through out, trying on different guises, sometimes in the same song (the apologetic whisper that opens “You are My Face” is cut through with a surprisingly twisting guitar line before settling back into its contemplative mode; “Impossible Germany” letting its musical explorations carry the song, keyboard giving way to guitar and then second guitar with Jeff Tweedy’s restrained vocal almost acting as supporting instrument, hanging there but never getting in the way).
Eric R. Danton, writing in the Hartford Courant, sums up the record this way:
It’s a gentler record, split between breezy ’70s-style pop arrangements and folksy songs that are relaxed and sometimes even playful. Tweedy’s lyrics are … well, “happy” isn’t quite right. But he sounds far less anguished, and there’s an undercurrent of philosophical acceptance to much of his wordplay, as if he’s content for perhaps the first time in his career to simply let things be.
The music, though, is more complex than the ’70s sounds it implies, occasionally rising above itself as it does in “Side with the Seeds,” with Pat Sansone’s keyboard driving the first half and Nels Cline’s subdued frenzy of a guitar lead taking the song home (yes, subdued frenzy may seem like an oxymoron, but there is no other way to explain it).
“Shake It Off” shifts in shape and sound, at times jaunty, at times contemplative, while “Please Be Patient with Me” offers a brief look into brittleness and the R’nB-influenced “Hate It Here” explores the pain of being left behind and the way that loneliness infects even the most mundane of daily occurences.
The disc’s emotional core — and its best song — is the single “What Light,” a fresh piece of folkish rock that I’ve been listening to for several weeks (sometimes when I’m running I hear it and then replay it).
It is hopeful and independent and true, and its placement near the disc’s end allows it to act as commentary on all that has come before: “If you feel like singing a song / And you want other people to sing along / Just sing what you feel / Don’t let anyone say it’s wrong.”
I wouldn’t call Sky Blue Sky the band’s finest disc — but then, I wouldn’t make that claim about any of the previous five studio albums, each offering its charms and challenges. Sky Blue Sky does the same, expanding on an impressive body of work.
I can’t wait until June 22.
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Wilco’s newest — and seventh — album, a self-titled disc, hits the stores June 30 and it promises to be a different experience than its previous six. This review in the Chicago Sun-Times, which says the disc offers a summation of a career, is a good one. (A stream of the disc will be available on a sporadic basis until the disc comes out on Wilcoworld.net.)
Wilco is in the studio
Hank Kalet 