Wilco - Sky Blue Sky

Sky Blue Sky is an album of dichotomy and tension, it's just all buried underneath some of the mellowest music Jeff Tweedy and company have ever put to record.

The music, which blends the sonic template of A Ghost is Born with tunes that sound as though they could have been written during Being There, is straight-forward and eschews the arch artiness of the band's more recent work. The songs are generally mid-tempo, the instrumentation is basic (guitars, bass, drums, piano, organ, etc.), and the melodies hint at something which could've come from their work on the Mermaid Avenue project. The sound and feel of Ghost remains with this record, even if the experimentalism is gone. Gone also are the odd sonic elements from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the band's other watershed album. In their place we find clean, open production that takes a bit of the sonic palette from Ghost and applies it to the most direct batch of songs Tweedy has written since the band's first two albums.

There is an air of calm to these songs, a pop songcraft that finds the band playing as a genuine band instead of a collection of hired gun musicians chasing Tweedy's muse of the minute down the road. The record feels like the work of a cohesive group pulling together and putting to tape exactly what each song demands. Tracks like "Shake it Off" and "Hate it Here" sound like the sort of effortless pop song that Paul McCartney's made a career out of churning out. There are elements of the Band in these songs, too, especially in the organ that pops up occasionally (courtesy of Pat Sansone), the folky guitar strumming (from Tweedy and guitar hero Nels Cline), and the backing vocals on tunes like "What Light" (easily the best track on the record).

The dichotomy of the album becomes clear when you examine the lyrics. While the music sounds as though it comes from a place of peace, the lyrics often deal with issues of isolation, loneliness, and desperation. The themes of separation and removal (from society, from another person, from one's self) are repeated again and again across the lyrics, lending a bizarre sort of sadness to many of the songs. You feel as though Tweedy went through hell and came out the other side with these words, then married them to a collection of tunes that bely that darkness on purpose. This is music from beyond the despair, music about the redemption of the lost individual and the return from the wasteland with a kind of enlightenment.

That said, the record has an ebb and flow to it and a few weaker spots. I've read several reviews that call "Side With the Seeds" a standout track, but it really just sort of bores me with it's faux blue-eyed soul rhythm and vocal delivery. "Please be Patient with Me" is too slight to have much impact. But tracks like "Impossible Germany," the folky title track, the aforementioned "What Light" and "Hate it Here," the jauntily bouncing "Walken," and the elegiac closer "On and On and On" are all on par with anything the band's done.

Sky Blue Sky is a solid effort from a band that's still functioning in peak condition. While it may not be the go-to Wilco album (that still remains Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or SummerTeeth), it's certainly a worthy addition to their catalog and a record that's sure to grow on you with each repeated listen.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Wilco, "Walken"