After three spins: Star Wars by Wilco

Impressions of new releases after three listens...

Star Wars, by Wilco

Such an amazing surprise. Right there, in my Facebook feed, Wilco announced a new, free album for download. Not a song--an album! 

So here's where we begin:

1. FREE Wilco album. Yes!

2. Titled Star Wars. Yes!

3. Cat painting album art. Yes!

All in all, that's a pretty awesome surprise package. Now if the album rocks, well that's just icing on the cake.

The album does rock. In a way.

Star Wars stands out as Wilco's loosest effort. By far. The songs are there. The structures are sound. They are good songs. The performances are also solid. But it's all loose. It sound as if they went into a studio on a Friday, laid down all of the tracks by Saturday, and saved Sunday for the post-production magic. Except, I think Tweedy and the boys partied too hard Saturday night (and all day Saturday too) and took Sunday off. The album is not polished. It is rushed. But its honesty is appreciated. 

Sonically, what stands out, aside from just its immediate feeling, are the fuzz guitar leads. Nels Cline rocks. He's probably one of my favorite guitarists I have ever seen live (apologies, Mr. Marr), and he shreds out in front on pretty much the entire album. His leads punch through studio boards, through studio walls, through my speakers. 

The feeling of friends messing around with music begins with the album's opener, "EKG," an instrumental jam session. Not a highlight.

To me, the highlight tracks are "More," "Random Name Generator,"and "Taste the Ceiling." On these three tracks, you know the songs are there. Tweedy's songwriting is efficient and effective. His lyrics are expectedly cryptic. After three listens, I'm still not sure what the songs are really about. Good! Even though the unequal production here does give a shine to the songs, the performances are still  fun to listen along to. Like with the best of Wilco songs, you can hear a stew of influences in their music. The alt-country tag will never die--twang ascends in "Ceiling." The love for classic rock is there, evident in "Name Generator." Folk-rock song structure resides in "More."

Star Wars is fun. However, I'm not left with many memorable moments to grab onto and press close to my chest, or to let run around my head for endless hours.