Once again I find myself reviewing an album by an established band of which I've listened to nothing other than the current release. This can be tricky since I can't compare this to previous works, and from what I've read, Wilco's Sky Blue Sky is somewhat of a departure into mellower more straightforward territory. Regardless of what came before, I can tell you that Sky Blue Sky is a fabulous work of soulful, plaintive rock.
Most of the songs are pretty mellow, but certainly not dull. The instrumentation is varied and many songs--even the quiet ones--have crescendos of glorious middle eight sections of dueling electric guitars and strings. "Side with the Seeds" for example hums along as an earnest folksy number underscored by piano and guitar until it hits its instrumental section and the two guitars take over, soaring higher and higher with strings underneath. There's a brief return verse and then bam, another instrumental highlight, this time with piano too.
Good as that song is, the similar "Impossible Germany" has to be the album's best. The 6-minute track begins with fairly mellow guitar, bass and drums--typical reflective kind of rock. The lyrics are a bit mysterious, "Impossible Germany, unlikely Japan," whatever that means. Then about halfway through the instrumental section begins, first quietly with electric guitar over piano, but then building into a melodic section of dueling guitars, with the more prominent one coming out only in the left speaker.
Lead singer and guitarist Jeff Tweedy doesn't have the greatest rock voice, but it does have a sort of honest quality to it that suits the material. The emphasis generally isn't on the singing anyway, as many of these songs have long instrumental sections that sometimes take up more than half the track. On opener "Either Way" his delivery and the lyrics are very matter-of-fact "maybe you still love me, maybe you don't; either you will or you won't." The searching simplicity is nice, because it allows the lovely guitar and string work underneath to shine. Second track "You Are My Face" has a very similar sound at first, although the guitar solo takes a harsher, more insistent tone, followed by a more upbeat section with piano and organ.
Wilco is generally described as landing somewhere between alt-rock and alt-country, and while I don't hear much country influence here, it does come out in the lovely title track "Sky Blue Sky." There's a bit of twang in this reflective, atmosphere number, as well as a lyrical emphasis on setting that feels very country. The country sound also comes through on "What Light," which helps lift the album's downtrodden spirit toward something more hopeful near the end.
The varied nature of many of the songs is another highlight, providing striking musical contrasts. "Shake It Off" shifts between quiet soft rock and harsher '70s classic rock sections. "Hate It Here" has a more upbeat sound with prominent piano and fuzzy guitar, but its subject is downbeat loneliness. "Leave Me (Like You Found Me)" has a depressive quality at first, but then gets a dose of hope in the more upbeat middle section and following verse. Not every song does this though, as "Please Be Patient with Me" starts mellow and just stays that way. After several woe-is-me numbers, jaunty "Walken" is a needed reprieve from the misery, even if it doesn't quite fit in musically because it's so upbeat. "On and On and On" though provides an appropriately uplifting conclusion.
Sky Blue Sky really impressed and surprised me, enough so that I'm planning on checking out some of Wilco's other works such as their 2002 album Yankee Foxtrot Hotel, their most famous work. The music is rich and interesting, and although lyrically many of the songs are about post-break up sadness, there's also a reassuring note of hope and strength.
Best: Impossible Germany, Side with the Seeds, Sky Blue Sky, Either Way, You Are my Face, Shake It Off, Hate It Here, On and On and On
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