Released on 14/07/07
Label: Nonesuch

After kickstarting the alt country revolution - only to abandon it rather spectacularly five years later with "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" - there are few modern day artists (the term is used loosely) who can hold a candle to Wilco. More heartfelt than Ryan Adams and more human than Radiohead, this has mostly been to their detriment - pushing the band into a commercial no-mans land bursting with critical acclaim, but modest of sales. Taking the mantle of Neil Young, their career has veered from the road's middle and headed off to the ditch. Mostly with astounding results.

However, with middle age approaching and a painkiller addiction overcome, "Sky Blue Sky" finds Jeff Tweedy shuffling towards the kind of dad-like contentment that seemed unlikely, even two years ago. The 10-minutes of static noise and krautrock experiments that shook up 2004's "A Ghost Is Born" are all but absent, as the ship is steered homewards towards their left-field country roots. Occasionally, it sounds like one of those lazy '70's tributes to domesticity by Bread or Chicago. On "Hate It Here", Tweedy complains about making the bed and learning to use a washing machine.

Which isn't to say his experimentalist tendencies are blunted: check-out the intricate, jazzy guitar solo on opener "Either Way"; or the delicate patterns underpinning "Impossible Germany"; or "Side With The Seeds"' strange time signatures, a song that flips midstream into a gloriously controlled display of fireworks. If this is muso (read: male) music, then it's played with incredible conciseness and precision. Despite a tumultuous history, Wilco is now a well-honed unit, with each member contributing to the whole. Like The Band in their heyday, each component serves the other and completes the whole.

There are countless moments like these on the album, but mostly it's about songs and melodies. And what songs! "Walken", for instance, is pure Macca - the liberated ex-Beatle who could conjure up a "Maybe I'm Amazed" on his odd day off. "What Light" is a campfire strum, dedicated to those who are "frightened" and "strung out", it's chorus uplifting and worthy. And best of all, is the closer "On And On And On", where Tweedy addresses the mortality of life and love in a lyric of almost Buddhist simplicity. "Please don't cry, we're designed to die", he sings, "…on and on and on, we'll be together yet." The instruments rise sympathetically around him, appropriating a feeling of hope.

It'll no doubt be judged as their "John Wesley Harding" or "Nashville Skyline", but "Sky Blue Sky" is a quietly revolutionary statement from America's greatest band. The only question is where Tweedy and Wilco head next. The answer? On this evidence, anywhere they damn well please.

    by Adam Webb