Wilco - The Whole Love

The past two albums for Wilco, the Jeff Tweedy led alternative-country outfit well into their second decade, have not had the same impact as previous albums like the complete game-changer Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Critics and fans alike were concerned if the band had lost, ambition isn't quite right, but motivation for what had made their band great. Previous effort, Wilco (The Album), certainly was more direct and simplistic in nature when compared to their experimental past but was certainly lacking in energy. This isn't to say that the album was a bust or even 2007's Sky Blue Sky, but what had made Wilco the most interesting was how they could take pop songs and deconstruct them into something foreign and alarming, without losing the melody. That desire to confront the nature of a traditional song is what was missing. Tweedy recently defended those albums saying that "something straight-forward and direct was a goal on both of those albums." In that respect they were both well executed if rather uninspired ideas.

Fear not Wilco fans, the band and it's experimentation have returned with outstanding results! Opener Art of Almost have the band sounding the most Radiohead they ever have. First single I Might, is their best pop song since Kamera nearly a decade ago. For most listeners the temptation to compare to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot will be hard to resist. However, a key difference in both the albums is the attitude. Foxtrot always felt as if the band was fighting and pulling against something. Their label perhaps? The claustrophobic feeling of Foxtrot was fitting in a time so close after September 11th. The Whole Love differs greatly in that even though they are playing with the notion of conventional songs the attitude is much more relaxed and acceptance is a theme throughout these songs. Tweedy, the great songwriter he is, has always been concerned with trying to make sense of the world around him (see Ashes of American Flags). Here he sings, "I can't help it if I fall in love with you again / I'm calling just to have you dawned on me," on the song Dawned on Me. Set against the drop of an upbeat and hooky guitar melody you can hear the unrequited love this man has for a woman and the acceptance that it'll never be reciprocated, but that he's accepted this fact.

I would say that Wilco sound at ease. Perhaps that's because their running their own label and answer to no one or, it's the simple clarity with age. Whatever it is Wilco leave us with a comforting and terrific album. Where has this Wilco been?

Wilco - The Whole Love - A

September 27th, 2011

Hear first single "I Might" Here!