Wilco The Album

Seven albums in and you’d think by now you’d be able to second-guess Wilco, but Wilco (The Album) suggests Jeff Tweedy and friends have made a neat job of exploring their field and surrounding territory--loosely, a cosmic-tinged Americana--without ever sounding like they might be in danger of getting stranded for keeps in any one particular ditch. Certainly softer than earlier, errant albums such as 2004’s A Ghost Is Born, Wilco (The Album) sees the band working towards a soft, luxurious AOR sound, albeit one dotted lightly with moments of characteristic invention. The opening "Wilco (The Song)" is a neatly self-referential beginning, one bound to find a cosy place in future live setlists, while "Bull Black Nova" adds a liquid Krautrock undercurrent and "You And I", a duet with Feist, is a love song with a difference: "You and I, we might be strangers / However close we get sometimes, it’s like we never met". Grown-up? Certainly--but Wilco make a good case for it. "Every generation thinks it’s the end of the world",croons Tweedy on the sweet, Dylan-esque gospel of "You Never Know", and he couldn’t sound happier. --Louis Pattison