Now that we've all had a few weeks to chew on the new Wilco release, "Sky Blue Sky", I thought I'd assemble a few of the more interesting critical reviews and offer up some of my own thoughts on the new album.
Quite simply, "Sky Blue Sky" is very pleasing to the ear - it's light, polished, instantly accessible, sitting-around-a-campfire-at-the-beach fare. Entertainment Weekly may have put it best when they said: "This may be the best Eagles album the Eagles never made."
In the growing pantheon that is Wilco's back catalog, I think "Sky Blue Sky" sits somewhere below "A Ghost Is Born" (pound-for-pound, my personal favorite), "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot", and "Being There", and above "A.M." and "Summerteeth".
What it lacks for me is the depth, rawness, inventiveness, and edge of its two immediate predecessors. "A Ghost is Born" was two parts "Tonight's the Night", one part McCartney ballad, one part "Low"-era Bowie, two parts Lennon's vulnerability, and very little polish. The Nels Cline-heavy "Sky Blue Sky" evokes memories of mid-70's Steely Dan (as my good friend Jake pointed out to me), the Grateful Dead, and the Eagles. It's more "Harvest Moon" than "Tonight's the Night".
Don't get me wrong, I'm a guitar player (albeit a pretty lousy one) myself, so I was absolutely blown away by Nels Cline's playing. The guy is unbelievable. It's just not what I'm looking for in a Wilco record.
I much prefer an album that jars me during first listen, reveals 1-2 accessible tracks (I call them the "gateway songs") in the next few listens, and ultimately takes a good 8-12 focused listens before I can really to start to comprehend it. Then, over time, it just continues to get better and better.
I haven't given up on SBS. I'm going to keep listening in hopes that once I'm able to scrape away it's radio-friendly sheen, I'll find something special below the surface.
Here is what others had to say:
- Pitchfork gives it a 5.2 out of 10.0.
- Here's a glowing piece from Crawdaddy.
- Editorial review from Amazon.
- Lots and lots of other reviews are available here.
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