CD Review: Wilco

By Aaron Davis (for Jackson Hole Weekly, JHWeekly.com)The Whole Love WILCOPreface: I own all nine Wilco albums. It’s been since 2007’s Sky Blue Sky—the sixth album—that I really felt a connection. And so I’ve largely stuck with the back catalog in the last few years. But Wilco albums tend to grow on an ear in a slower fashion. At times, it demands patience and imagination. It can be also be playful and self-indulgent.On The Whole Love, the listener gets a fair sampling of the sextet’s range, from schizophrenic rock to quiet folk-rock and Tweedy-patented balladry. It’s experimental and odd, even sketchy. There’s brilliance here—a majority of the time.The album intros with frantic madness before settling into a trip-hop, Radiohead-tinged bang, dubbed “Art of Almost.” It’s intense with few words, and the energy doesn’t slack through a contemplative parent’s mind in “I Might.” Both songs had me thinking of 2004’s experimental, Grammy-winning ride, A Ghost is Born.The set builds upon Tweedy’s dark, poetic and sometimes abstract lyrics. It’s a gripping listen, and one of the band’s most perplexing efforts. The disc drops Tuesday.