Another SBS review.

[froggie]

havent seen this one posted... (no rehab content)

 

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=172...G=461&rfi=9

 

Sky Blue Sky the latest masterpiece from Wilco

 

By Matt Grisafi, ASSOCIATE EDITOR05/17/2007

 

Jeff Tweedy and his band, Wilco, have come a long way since A.M., their 1995 debut album. Only Tweedy and bassist John Stirrat remain from the original lineup (or from the lineup from 1999's Summerteeth for that matter).

 

 

Regardless of the lineup, Wilco has been and always will be about the songwriting of Jeff Tweedy. Like Bob Dylan before him, Tweedy has a knack for pairing beautiful melodies with relatable lyrics.

 

Advertisement

 

 

Also like Dylan, Tweedy continually surrounds himself with excellent musicians - be it former bandmates Jay Bennett and Leroy Bach, or current mates Nels Cline, Mikael Jorgensen, Glen Kotche and Pat Sansone.

 

 

Both Tweedy's songwriting and the band's handiwork are on full display in Wilco's latest masterpiece. Heavily influenced by Tweedy's solo acoustic tours, Sky Blue Sky is, for the most part, a very mellow album. That said, the transformation from the solo versions of the songs, many of which Tweedy debuted during his solo tour, to the album versions is nothing short of beautiful.

 

 

While the band's previous two albums - 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and particularly 2004's A Ghost Is Born (outstanding albums in their own right) - may have been a bit more loose and avante garde, Sky Blue Sky is decidely more focused. Instead of the meandering "noodling" that drives tracks like Ghost's "Spiders (Kidsmoke)," the band instead provides the perfect accompaniment to Tweedy's work with rich layers of sound in tracks like Sky's "Walken" (sure to be a live favorite), while still allowing the band space to strut its stuff.

 

 

The music isn't the only thing more direct in Sky Blue Sky, as it might be Tweedy's most straight-forwardly personal album to date. In the George Harrison-esque "Hate It Here," Tweedy laments the absence of his woman. Similarly, tracks like "Please Be Patient With Me," "Leave Me (Like You Found Me," and "On and On and On" all seem to deal with love and relationships.

 

 

In the beautiful "What Light," Tweedy gives an interesting take on his profession, singing:

 

 

"And if the whole world's singing your songs / And all of your paintings have been hung / Just remember what was yours is everyone's from now on / And that's not wrong or right / You can struggle with it all you like / You'll only get uptight..."

 

 

The band gave away MP3s of the song for free on its Web site in addition to streaming the entire album weeks before its release, knowing it would get ripped off. But they've always trusted their fans will do the right thing and buy the album upon its release.

 

 

Take that, Metallica.

 

 

If reasons like that, and like this album (easily the best of the year thus far), aren't enough to convince people that Wilco is one of the greatest bands of the current generation, then they're not listening hard enough or they aren't worth convincing.