Wilco (An Album)

Wilco are a band you love to love. They've released some of the best music of the last twenty years. And they tour constantly, winning over fans as they visit major markets and small ones, much like the punk/alternative scene in the early 80's which inspired them. They also seem like regular people. Jeff Tweedy's a modern day Huck Finn, born not that far from Twain and singing songs that are uniquely American. And he's finally found a band that he truly enjoys playing with.

This new incarnation of Wilco only has two studio albums under their belt. 2007's Sky Blue Sky and this year's Wilco (The Album), a record that has yet to be officially released but is streaming from the band's website and available as a download if you employ a little Google action. The band is excellent on the road, as documented by 2005's Kicking Television and by anyone who has been lucky enough to buy a ticket to one of their shows. But getting it right in the studio and delivering it live are two different animals.

One could argue that Wilco spends too much time on the road, leaving Jeff Tweedy too little time to write. It's not that the songs on Wilco (The Album) are bad. Some of them just feel a little undercooked and slight compared to the rest of the material, especially "I'll Fight" and "Everlasting," two songs that come towards the end of the record. "I'll Fight" uses cliche religious imagery and "Everlasting" is slight enough that no amount of strings and studio trickery are going to save it.

It might have to do with the absence of a sparring partner. Jay Bennett is long gone. And Jim O'Rourke isn't anywhere to be found on this record.

But let's not be too picky. This is Wilco. And like a lot of their albums, you need to listen to it quite a bit before fully digesting it. Originally aired on an episode of the Colbert Show, the album opener "Wilco (The Song)" seems drastically improved. Sure, it's a simple song, and much like the album cover, seems designed to lower expectations. While it originally sounds exactly like the sort of song the band would want to play once on a comedy show and then discard to the rarities, once you let the hooks in and listen to it in the context of the rest of the record, it really works. It's Wilco having fun. And on a larger philosophical level, it speaks to the kind of salvation people seek at rock shows.

The highlight of the album is "Bull Black Nova." It's a song that builds off of the subject matter of "Via Chicago" and the sound of "Spiders (Kidsmoke)," but is unique enough to stand on its own, and also as the album's best song. The narrator has done something terrible. Likely murder. He sings of blood in his hair and blood in the sing before repeatedly screaming "wake up." Wilco songs, and thought provoking rock and roll songs in general, don't get much better than this.

There are some great songs of introspection. "Solitude" could easily be a solo Tweedy song. "Deeper Down" uses boxing imagery to describe somebody being knocked out before delivering the unexpected line "he felt the insult of a kiss" and then, as the verses built, "he felt the comfort of a kiss." "You and I" is a duet with Feist that never quite catches fire. And "One Wing" seems designed to grow in live venues.

George Harrison is an obvious reference – some would say a little too obvious – in "You Never Know." To these ears it's a pleasant song. If you're going to rip somebody off, you could do a lot worse than this, both is who you borrow from and how you deliver it.

Jeff Tweedy called the album a "Whitman's Sampler" recently. It's hard to argue with that. The album doesn't have a distinct feel like their best records, but instead takes elements of those records and builds a really good collection of songs that will only grow in appreciation with repeat listens. A better title might have been Wilco (An Album). But it's nice to hear the band have fun and maybe lower expectations a bit. And with a band that tours as much as they do, the songs will only grow on the road.