---Michael Drewes
Released 4 October 2019
Wilco, the Jeff Tweedy led band from Chicago, Illinois, has recently released their latest album, “Ode to Joy,” on October 4th, 2019. This is their eleventh studio album. Most bands are lucky to release half the number of albums that Wilco has; they’ve been kicking for almost 25 years, and steady like the tide, every few years, Wilco releases new music for our enjoyment. However, with so many songs and albums in their catalog, it begs the question… ‘do we still care?’ Or maybe more importantly... ‘should we still care?’
Jeff Tweedy said, “No one needs more Wilco music,” and while he likely said that as a joke, he may have had a point. Wilco’s most critically acclaimed albums, Summerteeth, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and A Ghost is Born, are approaching their 20th anniversaries. Maybe their greatest days are behind them, but that doesn’t mean they should stop trying. Luckily for us, they seem to be working harder than ever to prove everyone wrong.
Ode to Joy is subtle, every note seems to be calculated. These aren’t boastful tracks, in fact they feel peeled back at their core. There’s little fanfare here, not much to scream and shout about. In a sense, these songs are longing for the past and/or carrying a torch for the future. All the while, firmly planted in the “less-than-ideal” present. The album itself is diverse in musical tone, yet still has an overall theme. Ode to Joy may be less experimental than Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost is Born, but it was made using their blueprints.
Plodding drum beats drive most of these tunes. Most songs are heavy on acoustic guitar and vocals, with only necessary contributions from bass and drums to keep them moving along. The album itself starts out slow, and slowly bleeds into the usual Wilco-esque instrumental phrases of crescendo and tension, with screeching guitars and keys adding texture. But these moments are sprinkled in quite sparingly. The first time with, “Quiet Amplifier,” and then again coming to a head in, “We Were Lucky.” But Wilco gets you back home before curfew, as both times, these songs are followed quickly by the pop-style songs, “Everyone Hides” and “Love Is Everywhere (Beware).”
Overall, Ode to Joy, is wonderful. No, it doesn’t break any barriers, it doesn’t do anything that hasn’t been done before, and it’s not better than those classic Wilco albums—But it perfectly captures a feeling and a mood and carries it for 43 minutes in a way that does not happen very often. Wilco has written a lot of songs and albums, but Ode to Joy definitely feels like something that they haven’t done before and that’s what makes Ode to Joy so special. Wilco will probably keep going, writing more songs and albums, and they may not be groundbreaking anymore, but I’m looking forward to when that time comes. Cause if there’s one thing that we all need more of, it’s Wilco.
If you're curious about Wilco's gear there are myriad sources. There's this Rig Rundown with Nels Cline, this video about Wilco's Reverb.com Loft Shop (yes, you can buy their gear!), this video with Tweedy talking about Reverb, and this one about Tweedy's custom SG. Of course, there is the stand by EquipBoard as well. But basically, this band's famous as crap so you can probably spend all day reading about their gear with a Google search (literally the only tool at our disposal here at My Little Underground). But be sure to check out Tweedy's cute little acoustic in their Colbert performance below.
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