Review: Wilco - The Whole Love

Words // Scott Pingeton

Like so many others, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was my first introduction to Wilco.  It was the summer of 2001 and I must have read a glowing review in whatever music publication mattered to me at the time.  I remember feeling super-cool as I walked out of the record store with both The Strokes' Is This It? and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.  In retrospect, that one trip to the record store has defined and shaped much of my musical life.  But in the months that followed, I wore out Is This It? while Yankee Hotel Foxtrot gathered dust.  I didn't get it.  I guess I wasn't ready for it yet.

I distinctly remember sitting in my freshman dorm reading a year end "best of" list that probably annointed YHF as an instant-classic, digging out the CD and putting it on.  And again, it fell flat.  But I gave it time and eventually it clicked, and with that revelation a whole new world of music opened up before me.  Music that was challenging, songs required focus and patience.  Music as art suddenly made sense to me.

Since then, Wilco's music has been a constant and important part of my life.  I dove head-first into the band's back catalog, anticipated and obsessed over A Ghost Is Born and saw countless live shows.  But over the last two studio albums I saw my devotion starting to wane.  I found Sky Blue Sky lifeless and, while I was initially drawn to Wilco (The Album) because it reminded me more of previous Wilco albums, the veneer of novelty wore off quickly.  That isn't to say that those albums aren't good, but they lacked and edge and spark that the earlier albums had.  It was starting to notice a trend, and it wasn't good.

Wilco - Art of Almost

That all ends with The Whole Love - an inspired collection of songs that stands tall alongside the band's very best work.  Art-rock album opener "Art of Almost" pulses with energy, blips beeps buzzes and finally devolves into a screaming Nels Cline guitar freakout.  It's a ballsy opening track and it makes a big statement, landing a shot across the bow of "dad-rock" detractors.  It's as far as Wilco has pushed the experimental envelope to date, and it shows a welcome willingness to take risks.  The opening track demonstrates the lofty ambition and flawless execution that appears throughout The Whole Love, but sonically the album draws from all corners of the band's repertoire.  "Black Moon", "Rising Red Lung" and "One Sunday Morning" are hushed, tender Tweedy solo takes that feature some of the songwriter's most affecting lyrics in recent memory, adorned with subtle accompaniment.  "I Might", "Dawned On Me" and "Standing O" are catchy power-pop throwbacks to the Summerteeth-era and the band's best shots at a radio hit in a while.  "Sunloathe" and "Capitol City" are playful, vaguely psychedelic, Beatles-esque pop.

I think the band flailed a bit on the last two records trying to fine-tune the studio dynamics of the current lineup.  In the live setting they're dialed-in, but finding the right use of Nels' guitar histrionics in the studio has proved a more difficult challenge.  On these songs Nels strikes the right balance - playing within the songs instead of overpowering them, except of course when the song calls for overpowering, in which case he lets it rip ("Born Alone", "Art of Almost").  The Whole Love also feels more like a product of the studio than any album since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.  There are subleties revealed with each listen - new textures, noises and nuances - yet it never sounds artificial or sterile.  This may be the best sounding record the band has released, finding a perfect balance between the organic, live sound of A Ghost Is Born and the obsessive studio tinkering of Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

The truth is, there isn't much of a weak link on The Whole Love.  The record covers a lot of stylistic ground and, while it mostly works as a cohesive unit, it does feel a bit disjointed at times.  There is no doubt in my mind that this is Wilco's best studio work of the Nels Cline era; and while the record's ultimate place in the Wilco canon will be a matter of personal preference, it's certainly no stretch to say that The Whole Love stands alongside the band's best work.  It feels good to have my favorite band back.

The Whole Love is out September 27 on dBpm Records.  Preorder it here.

Photos from the band's typically-brilliant show at The Wang Theater in Boston earlier this week