Wilco: Sky Blue Sky
Nonesuch, 2007
Rating: 4.4

Musically, Sky Blue Sky, Wilco’s sixth studio release, is organic and liberated-sounding; lyrically, it continues to explore the themes of alienation and ambiguous communication that have concerned chief lyricist/singer Jeff Tweedy throughout the malleable band’s hurly-burly history. That Sky Blue Sky is among the most sonically unified sets in the Wilco catalog is a credit to the current lineup, born out of the touring players supporting 2004’s uneven A Ghost Is Born. Guitarist Nels Cline and utility man Pat Sansone especially shine throughout Sky Blue Sky, adding funkily emboldened touches to the folksy foundation on which the bulk of these songs rest.

“Shake it Off,” if performed during the mid-90s A.M. period, might have remained a meandering noodler, notable for Tweedy’s cutting words (“Somewhere there’s a war/ Sometimes there is art”) but less-than-inspired arrangement. Here, it finds a deeper groove, providing a fiery kick in the pants to the lethargic backside of its narrator. “Walken” masterfully moves from suitably jaunty keys to bristling guitar work. Such flourishes not only add depth to the cumulative impact of Sky Blue Sky but do so without seeming forced or overtly experimental. More than any other Wilco release, Sky Blue Sky marries the cryptic longings of Tweedy’s words with a stylishly restive soundtrack. The exemplary “Impossible Germany” provides the strongest example of this, unifying Tweedy’s preferred subject matter: (mis)-communication issues (“Nothing more important than to know/ Someone’s listening”) with an extended jam that ideally suits the mixed-up articulations at play.

Tweedy’s lyrics are in peak form, on a par with Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. His ability to convey clever couplets with conflicted emotions is impressively conveyed on “You Are My Face” (“Why is there no breeze/ No currency of leaves/ No current through the water wire/ No feelings I can see”). Near-faultless sequencing helps tie the record together, with the most obvious misstep being the languid pace of “Leave Me (Like You Found Me)” proving a letdown following on the heels of excellent “Hate it Here,” which effortlessly shifts gears from folk-tuned rocker to jammy workout.

Like most Wilco efforts, cursory listens won’t do justice to the craft and nuance embedded within the work. Sky Blue Sky presents an outwardly simple veneer, a still surface belying sunken treasures. This is mature, considered, powerfully expressed stuff, anti-hipster in its refusal to draw explicit attention to itself, commercially questionable in its lack of instant-gratification melodies and structures. What a breath of fresh air that is.

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