Jeff Tweedy might carry the name recognition, but the rest of his band-on-the-side carries the mail on the fourth release from this Midwest all-star group. Though the Wilco leader teams with the Jayhawks' Gary Louris on a pair of nimble pop songs--the elegantly strummed "Listen Joe" and Kinks cover "Strangers"--it's Louris who's clearly at the head of the class with self-assured vocals ("Another Fine Day," "Think About Yourself"), lush harmonies ("Long Time Ago") and those unmistakable guitar leads ("Frying Pan Eyes"). Soul Asylum guitarist Dan Murphy's obligatory rocker "Hurricane" is a high point, as is the album's lead track "You Make It Easy," which has Kraig Johnson warbling over a thumping piano lead and chunky fuzz guitar. But most welcome among the 15 songs are two contributions from Louris's fellow Jayhawk Marc Perlman: the refreshing "Corvette" and "Cure for This," a '60s-speckled pop song sung by Muni Loco, the wife of producer Paco Loco and the first female to grace a recording by Golden Smog. --Scott Holter
Album Description
It might sound like hype, but as hype nips at your ears every day from every corner, who gives a damn? You're smart. Your BS detector is strong; take this missive with a grain of salt, but don't talk yourself out of opening your ears to this mix-by-one-band-how-can-this-be-one-band? that fell from the skies of Puerto Santa Maria, Spain and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Start with Gary Louris and Kraig Jarret Johnson's "You Make It Easy." A breezy love song about breezy commitment. Listen. To that solo. To those harmonies. Dare yourself not to sing along. Try to play "name the influences" and you will have fun but you will fail.
Then check out "Hurricane," and hear Dan Murphy, singing his guts out and having, like the title track he co-penned says, "another fine day." Dig Louris and Jeff Tweedy's "Listen Joe," and how they sing to themselves and a long-gone friend, "surprise, surprise, everyone dies."
Listen. To what every new breed that comes along calls "old school," to sounds baked into these guys since the days of vinyl. Feel the embers of all the mystics, all the Gram Parsons and Eagles and Zeppelin and Buzzcocks and Flaming Lips and Gorillaz (Kraig's fave of the moment) records and all the rest that they've ingested. Truly, these cats have forgotten more records than the rest of us have sold to the used record store.
"Don't it blow your mind like the first time? The dream is never over," they ask, on "Corvette," with the exuberance of high-schoolers playing together in the garage for the first of many times. Listen. To "Corvette". Then listen to Louris's "Gone". They have been through death and love and war and all the other vagaries of middle age in these new Middle Ages, and this is the sound of them coming out the other side - or at least trying to come out the other side - with friendship and rock `n' roll as their guides.
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