In the final installment of Stephen King's serial novel The Green Mile, King remarks that he's not likely to write that way again because it gave his critics six opportunities to kick his ass. Wilco might feel the same way about Sky Blue Sky. In a move that seems to ignore the paranoias of the whole file sharing/internet piracy age, the entire album was streamed on the band's web site weeks prior to its release.
Since radio all but refuses to play anything interesting, this gave people a chance to preview the album. It also gave fans, bloggers, and critics a chance to start killing the record before it ever got into stores. Just ask Kevin Federline. His record would have tanked no matter what but whoever leaked it did him no favors.
Wilco is light years away from K-Fed, but fans did begin nitpicking and critiquing the record as soon as they were able to hear it. The response wasn't scathing, but it wasn't universally glowing, either. The criticisms most often leveled is that the album is slow, or plodding, or mellow.
It is a subdued record — there's no getting around that — but subdued does not automatically mean boring. Sky Blue Sky has layers, textures, and nuance. It is quite a shift from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost is Born but probably less of a leap than from Summerteeth to Foxtrot. Where YHF and A GIB were in your face sonically and out in left field lyrically, Sky Blue Sky finds the band crafting real songs again. The album functions as a bridge between Wilco's earlier catalog with their more recent, while being something unique unto itself. Elements of the Americana of old are integrated with the denser characteristics of those previous two records. Unlike its recent predecessors, which I love, this album has its quirks without being a difficult record. In other words, ignore the naysayers.
Guitar people are going to love this record. This is Nels Cline's first studio album with the band — Cline joined the band in time to participate on the fabulous Kicking Television live album — and he makes his presence felt all over this disc. Wilco has never been known as a guitar band, but Sky Blue Sky is a guitar record.
It may seem contradictory to describe this as both subdued and a guitar record, but both adjectives apply.
"Impossible Germany" opens with guitars that chime so high they almost pierce as they float above short, soft blasts of organ. The tension that's created is slowly released as the intro takes a left turn and segues into the verse. The guitars soften as the melody is established, practically inviting the piano to join in; Jim Scott did a beautiful job of mixing this song. The opening figure is reintroduced as a launch pad for Nels Cline's lead. The solo starts out restrained — two, three, four notes at a time — before evolving into a jazzy, lyrical lead. Cline is then joined by some Duane Allman/Dickey Betts-esque twin guitar sounds and the whole thing erupts into a stunning orgy of complimentary and competing guitar lines. "Impossible Germany" is the centerpiece of a fantastic album.
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
nice review josh. oh man, don't get me started on that "mellow as a put down" thing!
2 - Mat Brewster
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.
3 - Pico
You make a compelling case, Josh.
I am definitely going to have to buy the shit out of this album, now ;&)
4 - S.Rod
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.
5 - S.Rod
I just wish I could spell her name correctly...NORAH...Thanks Mr.Sahm. ;P
6 - Mark Sahm
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.
7 - Glen Boyd
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
8 - Connie Phillips
Congrats! This article has been forwarded to the Advance.net websites and Boston.com.