Sky Blue Sky [Enhanced]

A very strong and concise effort which flows beautifully from start to finish. Excellent songwriting and execution. Please don't be influenced by some of the nit-picky comments that several critics are putting out there about Sky Blue Sky. Artists evolve, bands evolve. Jeff Tweedy and company know what they're doing, so just sit back and enjoy the ride. This recording is somewhat understated relative to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost is Born. That's not good or bad, just different. Less is more with Sky Blue Sky, and every note counts on this recording. If you can appreciate anything about Wilco, you will not be disappointed with this CD. Like most art, it takes a little time to fully appreciate. Spend the time, you won't be disappointed.

I'd love to love this album, but I can't. This review is after four listens, and I'll still give it another few as I really like Wilco. I really love the unique blend of songs and sounds in albums like "Yankee Foxtrot Hotel" and, my personal favourite, "A Ghost is Born". But that is all but a memory in "Sky Blue Sky".

The album opens on a very high note with 'Either Way'. You experience Jeff Tweedy's great voice and wonderful guitar accompaniment. The backing guitar is great in this song and even better in songs like 'Unlikely Germany'. I'd go so far as to say it's the most impressive playing display in Wilco's songs so far. Maybe 'At least that what you said' comes close (on "A ghost is born")

The problem comes at around track 6 when you realize you've been hearing the same song for the last 3 tracks. The variance in style and sound on past Wilco records is gone and in its place is the same guitar you've been hearing the entire time and continue to hear for the rest of the record. Where is the change from 'Company at my back' to 'I'm a wheel'(on "AGIB"), 'I am trying to break your Heart' to 'Kamera' (on YFH) or 'How to fight loneliness' to 'via Chicago' (on "Summerteeth").

Using the same instruments is expected in rock groups. No one complains because Pearl jam doesn't use enough Blue's guitar or saxophone in their songs. But Wilco isn't the traditional rock group. And in this album they've really relying on one instrument to push through track. Sorry if I'm hammering this point so much, but the monotony is really the downfall of this album. Nothing happens to spice up and add interest to the songs.

At the end of the day, I feel like I'm listening to dad rock that could be on my local "easy listening" station. I hope we haven't lost Wilco forever and that Jeff Tweedy will come out more groundbreaking music we've seen him release in the past. I can't see a fan of Wilco liking this record, especially of a fan of the last two Wilco albums. I also don't think this is where you should start if your new to Wilco.

That said you should get some select songs from Itunes including the two I've previously mentioned.

Wilco is basically the reigning king of alt-rock -- even when it stumbled, it was still keeping a hand on the throne.

And fortunately, after the disappointing "A Ghost is Born," Wilco returns with a mellow, more optimistic sound in "Sky Blue Sky." Frankly, Jeff Tweedy sounds more at peace with the world, and he wraps that peace in a back-to-basics country-rock blanket.

"Maybe the sun will shine today/The clouds will blow away/Maybe I won't feel so afraid/I will try to understand either way," Tweedy sings over a folky guitar, a swelling violin and a flickering piano. It sounds like a promise to a loved one, after his stint with addiction: "I will try to understand/Everything has its plan/Either way I'm going to stay right for you..."

He follows it up with a gentle river of mellow, smooth alt-rockers laced with keyboard, stomping rockers, loosely-wound acoustic ballads, drawling electro-country, and combinations of all of the above. And they're all slow-burning, meditative and reflective, right up to the hopeful "What Light" and the delicate piano'n'strings of "On and On and On."

You could call this Jeff Tweedy's "recovery album" -- it's filled with new hope, old fears, repairing relationships with loved ones ("you're gonna need to be patient with me") and reflections on the world. There's something very personal about most of these songs.

And the music has gone back to basics -- rippling acoustic guitar, piano melodies and ripples of retro keyboard, and some blasts of bass and violin. While Wilco doesn't forge any new territory, they do polish up what they have with some lovely harmonies and layers of delicate instrumentation.

Tweedy's slightly rough voice is a pleasant one, registering yearning, sorrow and optimism through the album. The lyrics stumble at times, such as one cringingly awkward intro ("Impossible Germany/Unlikely Japan/Wherever you go/Wherever you land"), but fortunately are fairly solid for the rest of the album ("When the mysteries we believe in/Aren't dreamed enough to be true/Some side with the leaves...")

"Sky Blue Sky" isn't quite Wilco at its best, but it is Wilco in a solid, musically adept place, with a note of optimism that hasn't quite been there before.