It's nearly impossible to talk about a new Wilco album without addressing the entire Wilco catalog. Each outing showcases a shift in their sound, sometimes subtle but often dramatic enough to earn tags like "reinvented" and "experimental." These labels are ultimately decorative when applied to a band so clearly intent on eschewing labels and making up the rules as they go along.
I was listening to Summerteeth the other day and realized more clearly than before how "pop" the album is and why. It's Beatles, Beach Boys, Big Star pop - Liverpool to Surf City via Chicago. So I started thinking about other Wilco albums in terms of influences and a few things started making sense. Being There is a dark edged take on the Rolling Stones at their most soulful, and a perfect sophomore response to AM's cheeky, off the cuff take on life after Uncle Tupelo. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot nods to the desolate precision and glitchy open spaces of Brian Eno (an influence that probably earned them all the "America's Radiohead" comparisons), and A Ghost Is Born is equal parts Sonic Youth and Grateful Dead (Grateful Youth? Sonic Dead?). Sky Blue Sky is their album as Bob Dylan and The Band - respectful and poetic basement jamming around ideas large and small. Its the kind of thing that can only happen after everyone knows each other pretty well and there is plenty of room to share.
Maybe their most Dad Rock album yet, Wilco sounds relaxed, focused and in sync with one another. You can hear echoes of the rangy rock confessional indulged by Loose Fur and still smell the backyard bbq left behind from the last Golden Smog album. No one is working to earn a permanent spot in the band and no one is trying to change the world. They seem to be trying - with success - to have some fun and make something worth keeping.
