Wilco - Sky Blue Sky [2LP/ 180G]

The band's first release with virtuosic guitarist Nels Cline in the fold, Wilco's Sky Blue Sky is an astounding demonstration of the band's ability to move between soulful acoustic folk, jazzy blues, country twang, and swaggering rock music. More intricate and laidback than the group's prior efforts, the 2007 effort brims with gentle arrangements, light melodies, and nuanced beauty.

Sky Blue Sky is as eloquently straightforward as Wilco’s previous studio recording, the Grammy-winning A Ghost Is Born, is daringly experimental. Vocalist Jeff Tweedy’s lyrics deal forthrightly with romantic separation and reconciliation, their bittersweet quality giving way, as the album progresses, to a more uplifting, redemptive mood. The singer quite literally banishes the darkness on the penultimate track, the inspiring and gospel-tinged “What Light” and concludes with a deeply affecting ’til-death-do-us-part lullaby, “On and On and On.”

Musically, hints of early 70s Southern California folk-rock sweetness abound in the harmonies, a bluesy accents color the guitar /keyboard interplay, and plenty of brash guitar riffs take songs like “You Are My Face” and “Shake It Off” in thrilling, unexpected directions.

Simple and soothing, rich and rewarding, this is an album that comes across like a welcome lake breeze on a hot summer day. A great album from a band in its prime with phenomenal sonics to match. 

Wilco Sky Blue Sky Track Listing:

1. Either Way
2. You Are My Face
3. Impossible Germany
4. Sky Blue Sky
5. Side With the Seeds
6. Shake It Off
7. Please Be Patient With Me
8. Hate It Here
9. Leave Me (Like You Found Me)
10. Walken
11. What Light
12. On and on and on