Test Spin: Wilco

Wilco’s seventh studio LP, Wilco (The Album), channeling its eponymous title, spins as a consolidation of singer / songwriter Jeff Tweedy’s oeuvre. Congealing alt-country, quasi-experimental and neo-folk, the album genre-blazes across the band’s decade and a half creative trajectory. Amidst up tempo percussion, titular track “Wilco (The Song),” an admittedly self-conscious “infomercial,” offers sanctuary from the tumult of everyday living, “Put on your headphones / Before you’re exposed.” Throwing us off balance with inventive time signature shifts, the nurturing chorus echoes over a howling siren, “Wilco, Wilco / Wilco will love you baby.” In “You and I,” a tender, intimate duet, Tweedy’s heartfelt, quivering vocal is warmly complemented by the serene, angelic voice of indie rock songstress Feist. “You Never Know,” apropos of Woodstock’s 40th, jabs “Come on kids / You’re acting like children … Every generation thinks it’s the last.” Harkening back to rock ’n roll’s roots, sunshine-pop melodies are punctuated by fits of delta blues piano, twangy guitar bends and richly layered harmonies. Over the piercing spank of drummer Glenn Kotche’s snare, a triumphantly liberating, enlightened jolt, “I don’t care anymore! … It’s a feeling we transcend.” Across the remarkably fluid 11 tracks of the LP, Wilco conjures deep sentiment in an eclectic blend of mellow guitar pop, lyrical precision and freeform jams.