The Whole Love

 (72 customer reviews)

Wilco is one of those bands you can never sleep on.

Nearly a decade removed from their most esteemed album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, circumstances have changed for the Chicago-based rockers. There was a time in which Wilco couldn't do anything without causing everyone to stand up and take notice.

My senior year in high school was the year A Ghost Is Born came out, and everyone was talking about that record. It was everywhere. You couldn't escape the buzz from that album if you bought real estate under a giant boulder.

But if you were one of those, like me, who soon tired of the Wilco hype, you eventually got your wish. It wouldn't be fair to say the hype died, but I don't remember the previous two albums generating the same level of hysteria we saw with Ghost.

But now it is 2011 and I've got to eat my words. I finally decided to give Wilco an in-depth listen, and I see what the big deal is. If there's a new wave of hype over the latest Wilco...Read more

It would have been so easy for Wilco to just fade away. No one would have begrudged them any; Yankee Hotel Foxtrot still engenders enough goodwill in the music community ten years after its release that if Jeff Tweedy decided to spend the rest of his years writing paeans to fatherhood and singing sweet, insubstantial love songs with Feist, everyone would simply nod their heads and go along with it. But what Wilco has always done best is growth, from Being There's epic expansion of classic Americana to the unapologetic power pop of Summerteeth to A Ghost Is Born's startling abrasive rock classicism. Through it all the constant was Tweedy, suffering through a recurring painkiller medication and the woes of growing old, his biting lyricism continually well tempered with fine melodies culled from the best folk tradition, from Cash to Young to Bragg. Yet as a first single, "I Might" was disturbingly coy; for all the lyrics about parental discord and setting children on fire, it was fairly...Read more

I wish I could echo all of the high praise being showered over Wilco's latest. But I can't. Like most of their previous records, a number of tunes from The Whole Love will undoubtedly grow on me, but I'm guessing this time around there won't be nearly as many.

Naturally, as this is still Wilco, there are some amazing songs here. In fact, the first two tracks start this thing off fantabulously. After that, however, the brilliance becomes increasingly intermittent. It's pretty darned mellow, but not in the serene way the of a CD like Sky Blue Sky (which I love). And while Jeff and the boys certainly don't need to repeat themselves, I can't help but say this CD is kinda boring.

There, I said it. Boring. Yes, introspective. Yes, lyrically interesting. But boring, nonetheless.

I realize that I'm in the minority here, but I can't say it's great just because it's Wilco. More accurately, it's Jeff Tweedy and an incredibly talented group of musicians...which, I...Read more