Wilco does not need to prove anything anymore. Even though Sky Blue Sky received mixed responses, they are at a point in their career when their work has finally been circulated to anyone interested in hearing the best contemporary music, and everyone seems to agree they belong—at the very least—around the top. Audiences now have their first chance to hear the self-confidence that comes from that type of recognition on Wilco (the album).
As if the name of the album doesn't exude enough confidence, ""Wilco (the song)"" just reinforces it, as they are now reassuring audiences that they will always be there for them. As a side note, the album version was much, much more enjoyable and catchier than the performance on the Colbert Report or any other live versions.
It's not the first time Wilco have asserted their natural ability to create beautiful music. That's what sprang the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot ordeal in which Warner Bros. execs denied their album before another branch accepted it based on fan reception to a version streamed online, and that's why each album has a distinct sound and personality to it.
One bold step after another, listeners have seen Wilco progress to a point where they are at ease creating an album full of songs that sound free-flowing and easy because they are just combining many of their trademark tactics and sounds of the past.
""Wilco (the song)"" leads off, and even if you're turned off by the possibility of a narcissistic song, it will be stuck in your head after the second listen regardless.
The third track, ""Bull Black Nova,"" is the ""Spiders (Kidsmoke)"" of this album, only it's more focused as it unravels in a precisely controlled manner before your ears. ""You and I,"" Wilco's first ever duet, is a beautiful change of pace that has the most unexpected sound of any song on the album; the soft, unassuming delivery of Jeff Tweedy compliments the delicate vocals of Feist beautifully. Combine those two with my favorite cut from the album, ""One Wing,"" and the middle of this album is flawless. And just as on their last album with ""On and On and On,"" they ease listeners to the end by closing with the peaceful, piano-dominated ""Everlasting.""
Tweedy shows his full range of vocal expression, and the band is more primed than ever to fit music around his emotions. Despite some regrettable clumsiness in certain areas, such as the lame lyrics in ""You Never Know"" and the immature verses of ""Sunny Feeling,"" this album is Wilco doing their thing. Which, needless to say, is exactly what every Wilco fan out there was praying for, and we can now rest easy; they have delivered.
