Wilco (2009)

Spin (p.79)
- "WILCO, the band's seventh studio effort, treats verse-chorus-verse basics like holy truths....And it's fantastic."

Alternative Press (p.115)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "Wilco continue to reign in their experimental fuzz, focusing more on pretty melodies, upbeat toe-tappers and sweet acoustic numbers for their seventh full-length."

Dirty Linen (p.57)
- "There's a lucidity to the sound and a sense of mix-and-match variety that haven't been heard since YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT..."

Billboard (p.34)
- "Windows-down anthemic pop like 'You Never Know' sits alongside the tense, textural rocker 'One Wing' and the dark, pulsating murder-escape drama 'Bull Black Nova.'"

Paste (magazine)
(p.54)
- "The album is full of thoughtful, artfully crafted lyrics wrapped in memorable hooks that should stand the test of time."

Record Collector (magazine)
(p.98)
- 3 stars out of 5 -- "'Bull Black Nova,' something of a 'Spiders' retooling, is pleasingly motorik..."

All Music Guide 8 of 10
Rock & roll lifers that they are, Wilco knows the implications of a self-titled album, how any record bearing an eponymous name is bound to be seen as a reintroduction. That's why they puncture Wilco (The Album) with a parenthetical aside, a slyly ironic joke that deflates the notion that Wilco is returning to its roots while signaling that the band is finally lightening up again, a notion reinforced by the llama birthday party on the cover. And, to be fair, "reintroduction" is indeed too strong a term for a band that never went away, they merely spent a decade-and-a-half on a walkabout, consuming anything that came their way, changing their tone and tenor from record to record. Wilco (The Album) finds Wilco the band happily returning from the wilderness, taking stock of where they've been and consolidating all they've learned into one tight, likeable record. (The Album) never veers too far into the experimental -- nor does it dabble in country-rock, a sound that's largely remained verboten in Wilco ever since their debut -- but the reverberations of the Jay Bennett era can be heard in how "Bull Black Nova" builds to a shuddering, noise-filled coda, or the band's general mastery of varying degrees of light and shade. All this studio texture is not the focal point, it's the coloring on a collection of straight-ahead rock and pop songs, tunes that are generally soft, sunny, and hazy -- quite exquisitely so on the '70s George Harrison pastiche "You Never Know" and the nearly Baroque "Deeper Down" -- but also jangly and sparkly, as on "Sonny Feeling," or that have some measure of backbone, as on the spiky "I'll Fight" and the cool shuffle of "Wilco (The Song)." If Wilco (The Album) as a whole is considerably less ambitious than its predecessors, it compensates with its easy confidence and craft: it's the work of a band that knows their strengths and knows what they're all about, and it's ready to settle into an agreeably comfortable groove. - Stephen Thomas Erlewine
 
Rolling Stone 8 of 10
Wilco's seventh studio album is a triumph of determined simplicity by a band that has been running from the obvious for most of this decade. The title is the giveaway. So is the opening gag, "Wilco (The Song)," with its rattling-bones guitar and singer-boss Jeff Tweedy's assurance, sung like pillow talk, that his combo is good for all that ails you: "Do you dabble in depression?/Is someone twisting a knife in your back?...Wilco will love you, baby." At times, Wilco (The Album) sounds like the scarring static and cryptic impressionism of 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot never happened. The Seventies-George Harrison sunshine in "You Never Know" and the country-rock clatter of "Sonny Feeling" are closer to Wilco's Big Star-in-a-barn debut, 1995's A.M...The clarity comes at a price. The fear, failure and violence in Tweedy's lyrics and gently racked singing are as sharply drawn as the baroque-Zombies flourishes in "Deeper Down" and the sweet sexual tangle of voices in "You and I," Tweedy's duet with the Canadian singer Feist. That is literally blood splattered across the thickening garage-guitar stutter of "Bull Black Nova": "It's in my hair/It's on my clothes," Tweedy sings like a mounting-guilt mantra. But what is most striking about the restraint here is the elegance and defiance packed inside. "One Wing" is spacious heartbreak with a fish-hook chorus and guitars that loop and swoop. And the fierce, repeated devotion in "I'll Fight" comes at you with the minimal insistent drive of Bob Dylan's "I Want You." If Top 40 radio had any room for rock, "I'll Fight" might be Wilco's breakthrough hit. Instead, it's just another great way to say they love you. - David Fricke
 

Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup has changed frequently, with only singer Jeff Tweedy and bassist John Stirratt remaining from the original incarnation. The other current members are guitarist Nels Cline, multi-instrumentalists Pat Sansone and Mikael Jorgensen, and drummer Glenn Kotche. Wilco has released six studio albums, a live double album, and three collaborations: two with Billy Bragg, and one with The Minus 5.

Wilco's music has been inspired by a wide variety of artists and styles, including Bill Fay and Television, and has in turn influenced music by a number of modern alternative rock acts. The band continued in the alternative country of Uncle Tupelo on its debut album A.M. (1995), but has since introduced more experimental aspects to their music, including elements of alternative rock, and classic pop.

Wilco garnered media attention for its fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002), and the controversy surrounding it. After the recording sessions were complete, Reprise Records rejected the album and dismissed Wilco from the label. As part of a buy-out deal, Reprise gave Wilco the rights to the album for free. After streaming Foxtrot on its website, Wilco sold the album to Nonesuch Records in 2002. Both record labels are subsidiaries of Warner Music Group, leading one critic to say that the album showed "how screwed up the music business [was] in the early twenty-first century." Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is Wilco's most successful release to date, selling over 590,000 copies. Wilco won two Grammy Awards for their fifth studio album, 2004's A Ghost is Born, including Best Alternative Music Album.