Pitchfork reviews Wilco's new "The Whole Love"
As is often the case, a nicely written review with astute observations from Pitchfork.
As for me? I like it so far. We’ll see how it holds up to repeated listens (I’m at around five right now). But I think, at least, they’re back moving in the right direction after the boring dad-rock of Sky Blue Sky and the initially likable but bland Wilco, the Album (I can only sonically recall “Wilco, the Song” off the top of my head, whereas I can remember several tracks off SBS). No wanky guitar solos have jumped out to piss me off yet.
After Yankee Hotel Foxtrot came out, I was really hoping that it was the start of a progression for Wilco. That turned out not to be the case, and I was wondering recently what sort of awesomeness would have resulted from a decade of improving on YHF. A decade later, they’ve retraced their steps after hitting musical dead-ends—maybe now we find out what happens when the Wilco of YHF goes to their logical conclusion. Or maybe YHF was its own dead-end, but if so, it’s a pretty fantastic one, and Wilco could come up with worse musical culs de sac at which to set up permanent camp.
