By now, everyone should know the story of Wilco: Chicago alt-country pioneers-turned-alt-rock gurus record the most ambitious record of their career, their record label turns it down, it sits in limbo while the public consumes leaked copies on the web, another record label owned by the same entertainment giant as their previous one snatches it up, and suddenly it's one of the defining records of our generation. It's one of those classic stories just begging to be recorded into the annals of rock 'n' roll history, and for good reason: 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was a masterpiece, plain and simple. But has that fact gone to their heads?
Not so fast. While its follow-up, 2004's A Ghost is Born, was no doubt a step down, it was also unquestionably experimental, sometimes detrimentally so. Tracks like "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" and "Less Than You Think" pushed the ten minute mark, and the wankery contained therein quickly earned the group the dreaded "dad-rock" comparison. And while stripped-down rock with an emphasis on instrumentation is nothing new, it was for a group owing their new-found adoration to their in-the-studio tweaking, making 2007's Sky Blue Sky a bit of a bold experiment in its own right.
Neither of those albums, of course, reached the same level of mastery as their predecessor. A Ghost is Born meandered a bit too much, and Sky Blue Sky was too often just plain boring. But it's hard to deny the creative drive that must have been responsible for shaping both; a drive which is likely not altogether lost, but feels relatively toned down on this year's semi-eponymous Wilco (The Album).
Some tracks stand out. "Wilco (The Song)," the opener, is an upbeat and catchy anthem, perhaps destined to become the band's de facto theme song. "Deeper Down" is beautiful and layered, featuring Foxtrot-esque soundscapes and subtle, under-the-surface detail. "Bull Black Nova" recalls A Ghost is Born's darker moments, with a stream of escalating sound that progressively builds in intensity before exploding into a burst of noise at song's end. "You and I," vocalist Jeff Tweedy's duet with indie folk singer Leslie Feist, is a charming love song that will undoubtedly be the album's stand out track to some. And "Sonny Feeling" is an upbeat rocker, with a sound scarcely heard since 1996's Being There.
In fact, perhaps as the title suggests, Wilco (The Album) often sounds like it's trying to encapsulate the group's entire body of work into a single document. If that were the plan, then, perhaps a greatest hits compilation would have been more appropriate. While nevertheless cohesive, the album occasionally feels like it's trying to be too many things at once, eschewing a uniform sound in favor of hearkening back to bygone days. But perhaps the best thing the album has going for it is that not one song sounds like a dud; some feel a little too familiar, others relatively uninspired, but overall each one is perfectly listenable.
The problem, then, lies in the fact that Wilco (The Album) just feels too tame. Everything has been done before, and very few elements seem particularly innovative or adventurous. So is all that lauding going to their heads? I think it's doubtful, but it's hard to shake the fear that after seven albums in fifteen years and constant accolades, perhaps Wilco (The Band) are getting a little complacent. But if they've taught us anything over the years, it's that we can never be quite sure what to expect. I know I, for one, was expecting something more than this.
