Wilco – The Whole Love
I was fortunate enough to receive Wilco‘s new album “The Whole Love” on Friday when I got home even though it doesn’t release until this week. A nice perk of pre-ordering the release directly from their website. I’ve been pretty much listening only to it since it arrived.
If you are one of the three or four people who actually read this blog, you should not be surprised that I am a huge Wilco fan. They have been my favorite band for about five years now. I first saw them live during the “Sky Blue Sky” tour in 2007 and have seen them two more times after that.
Their last release “Wilco (The Album)” was interesting and a bit silly but it didn’t really hold my ear very long. I was thinking it may grow on me like “A Ghost Is Born” did eventually but as an album their last effort is not something I put on to listen to as an album.
“The Whole Love”, which is the third effort with the same six band members does not have that issue at all. I have not been skipping around at all when I listen to it. The whole piece flows very well which is one of the things that really impressed me about “Sky Blue Sky”.
I know a lot of people look at “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” as the Wilco album which all others must be measured. I’m reading a lot of early reviews saying “The Whole Love” gets back to the greatness of the YHF album and erases the recent efforts. I personally think that’s a really stupid way to listen to music if you are always wanting a band to get back to a sound they once did.
The music on this album is a great blending of their styles and almost every song makes me recall previous songs or slices of sound but not in a repetitive way, simply it is a solid effort and you immediately know you are listening to a Wilco album.
The album opens with “Art Of Almost” with some loops and very electronic keyboard, sound that builds to a blistering all out rocking effort at the end of it. The start makes me think of “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” but that comparison quickly fades away. It is a great opening song and really sets the sonic tone of the album to come. It is currently my favorite track on the album.
“I Might” is the first single and the second track on the release. It’s got some great feedback hidden within the main melody of the track with some interesting keyboards laid over the top of it all.
The third song, “Sunloathe” almost sounds like a long lost version of the Beatles song “Sun King” in the arrangement and the vocals. It’s not a blatant rip off or anything, just echoes of the Beatles are heard in my head when I listen to it.
“Dawned On Me” is a good solid Wilco track with a great Tweedy whistling part near the end.
The lyrical imagery of ”Capitol City” reminds me of the title track on “Sky Blue Sky”. A very descriptive experience of being in a city.
“Standing O” sounds a bit like it was left over from “Wilco (The Album)”. Maybe it’s chorus that reminds me of the “oh, oh, oh” in “Wilco (The Song)”.
The closing track “One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend)” is a twelve minute folk riff that keeps going and going and threatens to never stop. It does not get repetitive but just settles into a nice groove like a J.J. Cale song and keeps on going.
I picked up the Deluxe edition so it has an extra disc with four more tracks on it. It has a cover of Nick Lowe’s “I love my Label” which they sold at the Solid Sound Festival this summer. There is an alternate version of “Black Moon” which is on the main album as well as a six minute instrumental jam called “Speak Into The Rose”.
Although I mention that this album has sketches of other sounds or previous albums, this is not to imply that it is a bad thing, I think it is simply these six people firmly settling into their stride and seeing where it takes them. I’ve already heard some live shows that they have done and it appears they are playing about 75% of this album live which is a great thing. I can’t wait until they come back to the Pacific NW so I can see them a fourth time. Do yourself a favor and get this album now.