Wilco — Wilco (The Album)

Wilco (The Album)

Nonesuch/Warner

Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

07/08/2009 2:04pm

Wilco (The Album) is a pretty straightforward title, and appropriately, Wilco's seventh studio album is their most straightforward and poppiest release since 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

That's not to say Wilco (The Album) is boring — it's not. Like 2007's Sky Blue Sky, it's far less experimental than 2004's A Ghost Is Born, but unlike the former album, it takes less time to make a point. There are no long, drawn out guitar solos from Nels Cline a la "Impossible Germany" on here, and you're more likely to find songs like "War On War" than anything remotely like "Spiders (Kidsmoke)."

The band start off with pop on "Wilco (The Song)" and move through brief flirtations with their alt.country roots on "Deeper Down" and "One Wing," but the rest of the disc is all pop. Jeff Tweedy's duet with Feist on "You And I" is an obvious standout, as is "I'll Fight," which is probably the best love song Wilco have ever written (and it's also got what's probably the bloodiest imagery they've ever used).

While there's nothing on here as catchy or even as good as anything on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco (The Album) will appeal to fans of that disc, since it's probably their best since that release. Sure, it's stuff they've done before, but there's something to be said for a formula that works.

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