Music Review: Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Published May 17, 2007
"You Are My Face" begins and ends sounding like something America might have done. As the song progresses, it becomes more like a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song with the great harmonies and a little guitar racket. The middle section is infused with gospel, soul, and R&B sounds. There are some great uses of the organ throughout the record and "You Are My Face" is one of them. "Side With the Seeds" opens as a smooth soul/gospel number that evokes "Oh, Darling!" from Abbey Road and "Time is On My Side" before ending in a thrilling climax of frantic guitar.
Lyrically, Jeff Tweedy has not been this direct in years. There are no "American aquarium drinkers" on this record or other opaque images. Instead of opaque images, there are off-kilter melodies that do unexpected things. There are several instances where your ears and brain try to complete the melody a half beat before the band, only to find you've been left behind because they nimbly zigged when you prematurely zagged.
At its core, this is a '70s record. That might scare you because you associate this with disco and dickless, singer/songwriter crap. What is forgotten is that Dylan and the Stones each made one of their classic albums during the decade. The Allman Brothers, Zeppelin, Marvin Gaye, Floyd, Aerosmith, Bowie — just to name a few — were doing some of their defining work. It was not a vast wasteland of bad music.
The sounds and influences of Sky Blue Sky are vintage '70s. Don't buy one of those crappy Time Life anthologies that Greg Brady is schilling for if you want to hear the best of the '70s. Sky Blue Sky does a better job of summarizing the decade and you get it all on one disc.
Josh Hathaway is Assistant Music Editor for BC Magazine. He is formerly an award-winning journalist and broadcaster and publishes the BC Network site Confessions of a Fanboy .
- Music Review: Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
- Published: May 17, 2007
- Type: Review
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Adult Alternative, Music: Alternative Rock, Review
- Writer: Josh Hathaway
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Yeah, it's like all those people knocking Norah Jones for being too mellow or boring. What craziness!
This is a great album. I'm not sure yet where I'd put it in their cannon, and it doesn't have that knock your socks off feel of YHF, and it's song structure is more regular like, but I'm loving it.
70's is just about right, it has the feel of a lot of those classic 70s album. What I love about Wilco is they make great albums, not a collection of singles, but long play albums that are completely put together.
You make a compelling case, Josh.
I am definitely going to have to buy the shit out of this album, now ;&)
At the risk of being unpopular, I will stick with my initial impressions and call this album subdued and mellow. ;) I don't mean that in a bad way. SBS was a good listen. Not what I was expecting which would explain my initial disappointment when previewing the album on Amazon (btw-the previews do not do the album justice). Listening to SBS in its entirety over the last few days has improved my opinion. But it has not made it to the must buy list, not yet anyway. But not many albums do.
At least I can listen to this album while at work unlike a Nora Jones album which makes me sleepy. Nora Jones is not good driving or working music. And before you boys jump on me as NJ hater...lol
I would like to say that I do enjoy Nora's music but only listen to it in the comfort of my home.
I just wish I could spell her name correctly...NORAH...Thanks Mr.Sahm. ;P
I think Norah Jones is a bad comparison to Sky Blue Sky. First, she is attempting to be subdued, SBS just seems that way in juxtaposition to their previous work. Second, Norah's voice could be accompanied by only a 1980's Casio keyboard, and she'd still manage to make it sound sultry and soothing.
Tweedy has a great vulnerability in his vocals, which has perfectly complimented the sonic experimentation of many of their classics. But he's no Norah Jones... and when the music is uneventful, he comes off as very average.
My biggest detractor with SBS is that the music seems recycled. Granted, the guys can still play it well, but there's nothing in the music that hooked me in the couple listens I've had that made me want to come back to it.
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is easily one of my top 5 favorite albums ever. But I guess I will just accept that it was Wilco's peak, and this is just another album on the way down the mountainside.
Well ya know what? I like this record. A lot.
And "nuanced" is the best way to describe it. There are so many layers of nuance here I don't know where to begin. Where my introduction to Wilco came with the sonic dimensions of records like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born -- I'm a particularly big fan of the Neil Young like shreding on songs like "Spiders"--this is the first record by these guys where I've really been able to appreciate Tweedy as a songwriter.
The bottom line is these are just great songs. They are subtle on the surface, but repeated listens reveal multiple dimensions. So, I like this nearly as much as Rufus Wainwright's new one. Note, I said nearly as much.
-Glen
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nice review josh. oh man, don't get me started on that "mellow as a put down" thing!