Wilco Gets Experimental on New Album : Rolling Stone

Wilco

Title TBD June

After the live, urgent feel of 2007's Sky Blue Sky, Wilco is exploring more studio experimentation for its seventh album.

"We wanted to go in there with more of an eye for sculpting something sonically," says Jeff Tweedy.

As we previously reported, the core of the album was recorded in January in New Zealand after the band recorded with Neil Finn for an Oxfam benefit album. They enjoyed their studio time so much that they extended their stay in Auckland and continued to work in Finn's studio.

Producer/engineer/mixer Jim Scott came on board (he also served as the mixing engineer on Summerteeth, Sky Blue Sky and Being There) and additional sessions at the band's Chicago studio the Loft followed. "We wanted to use the studio more, to create more of an artifact than a document," Tweedy says.

"Everyone was so on their game," guitarist Nels Cline adds. "This one is more plastic, more sonic."

The experimentation is anchored once again by Tweedy's sly, insightful and often heartbreaking lyrics. "Deeper Down" opens with "By the end of the bout, he was punched out, fists capsized, muscles shouting," while "My Country Disappeared" explores America's "crushed cities," concluding "There's nothing left here."

"I think that any writer, over time, has obsessions, and a lot of the obsessions that were in place on our previous records are on this record, too," says Tweedy.

An early preview of the disc gives off a strong country vibe, with lots of pedal steel and acoustic guitar. Standout cuts include the mournful ballad "My Country Disappeared," the Being There-style rocker "Sunny Feeling," a duet with Feist ("You and I") and the band's new unofficial theme, "Wilco, the Song," which features the chorus "Wilco will love you."

"My records have loved me," Tweedy explains. Not my own records, but music. It's silly to say, but I think it's very real."

Adds Tweedy, "It's really our best record yet."

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