Sky Blue Sky

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Sky Blue Sky
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  1. Audio CD: Release Date 2007-05-15
  2. Publisher: Nonesuch
  3. Artist: Wilco
  4. Format: Enhanced
  5. Sales Rank in Music: #4960

Product Review

"Sky Blue Sky" has hints of early-seventies Southern California folk-rock sweetness in the harmonies. The album is filled with brash guitar solos that take songs like "You Are My Face" and "Shake It Off" in unexpected directions.

Amazon.com

After their wild experimental streak of the past decade, Wilco's sixth studio album might feel like a bit of a comedown. Sky Blue Sky is mellow, moody, and uncharacteristically monotone, opening with a pleasant jangle and Jeff Tweedy singing a simple song: "Maybe the sun will shine today, the clouds will blow away." He doesn't even follow it up with a barbed punchline. Could it be that the restless Chicago band has settled back into its gentle Americana roots--or does this sudden mid-career reappraisal represent Wilco's gutsiest move yet? Mostly written in the studio by the full band, it's certainly the group's most cohesive album in ages, presenting a dense song cycle padded with intricate guitar work, brushed rhythms, and '70s soft-rock accents. In places it sounds like Wings ("Hate It Here"), in others Harry Nilsson ("Walken"), and in the middle it goes a bit Grateful Dead ("Shake It Off"). At the same time, there's a distinct sense of hearing a band finally at ease in its own skin. Sky Blue Sky represents the sound of Wilco finally pulling through its petulant adolescence. --Aidin Vaziri

Product Features

Title Tracks for Sky Blue Sky

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (198 customer reviews)

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, but boring... but beautiful, March 16, 2007
MRSCRY (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sky Blue Sky (Audio CD)
Probably my favorite thing about Wilco is that each of their albums is completely different from one another... however, what makes their latest effort different from previous ones is that it's hard to categorize this record. It's not experimental like YHF, it's not alt-countryish like A.M., it's not raw like Ghost is Born... it's mostly just a bunch of simple, beautiful songs, half of them being ballad-like. I'll say right now that, outside of a couple blazing guitar solos from Nels Cline, I don't think that Jeff uses the instrumental talent of his bandmates (or himself) enough on this record. I thought "Ghost is Born" had some unbelievable percussion and guitar moments, and that is mostly lacking on "Sky Blue Sky". With that said, I've already found myself singing along to all 12 tracks on this record, and the best moment for me is the very opening acoustic guitar strumming on the first track, "Either Way", followed by a classic-sounding opening vocal from Jeff, which has already...Read more


23 of 26 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Don't lose sight of yourself, March 27, 2007
Howlinw (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sky Blue Sky (Audio CD)
It's probably a truism by now that the one thing you can expect from each new Wilco release is the unexpected. When you think you've got 'em pinned down, Tweedy and company zig where you're thinking they're gonna zag. That is as true with "Sky Blue Sky" as anywhere.

Tweedy gave us fans a little preview of where his head was at in his now-famous bit of concert dialogue at the Abbey Pub, in Chicago, on 1/25/2006, where he stated: "I'm really really sick and tired of all this intellectual hoity-toity poetry bull****...I think if we could possibly pull off making this record we're trying to make, this super-dirty-soul record...I think if we can't make this record then the terrorists have truly won." Of course when I heard this clip on the internet accompanied by "That's the Thanks I Get" (which curiously did not make it onto this record) I started expecting a sharp left turn into raw soul music, sort of a loud, brash Solomon Burke-style jam session. In no way does this...Read more


30 of 36 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A return/step forward to the simpler sound of Wilco, May 26, 2007
Paul Allaer (Cincinnati) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sky Blue Sky (Audio CD)
In the first half of this decade, Wilco released 2 groundbreaking studio albums, 2002's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and 2004's "a ghost is born", which both sounded miles away from the early alt-country roots of Wilco. Jeff Tweedy put a finishing touch on that chapter of the band with the release of the excellent live album "Kicking Television" in late 2005, which neatly summarizes that era, indicating that a different chapter was about to unfold. Now finally comes the much anticipated new album of Wilco.

"Sky Blue Sky" (12 tracks, 51 min.) is a striking departure from the previous albums. You only have to listen to the opening notes of the lead-off track "Either Way" to realize this. Even the opening lines "Maybe the sun will shine today/The clouds will break away" provide a brighter and more optimistic perspective than we're generally used to from Jeff Tweedy. "Impossible Germany" is the best track on the album, with a long instrumental outro of 2 duelling guitars. The track...Read more

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