Talking To Myself About You

Wilco “Walken” – Despite the fact that Wilco has always been a vehicle for Jeff Tweedy’s songs and that the new record is apparently more of a collaborative effort than the band’s last two albums, more of Sky Blue Sky has a distinct solo-album vibe. It’s mellow, quiet, and a lot of the songs seem to be deliberately minor in comparison to the far more ambitious material on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born. This isn’t a crippling problem — at least half of the tracks are low-key gems that show of the band’s skill at building songs around inspired guitar solos — but it most certainly makes Sky Blue Sky the sort of record that needs a follow-up to provide the listener with a sense of context and direction. Is it a detour, or a new direction? It’s hard to say.

I’ve been meaning to write about “Walken” since it first popped up as a solo acoustic recording a year or so back. I’m glad that I held out for a studio recording. The full band arrangement highlights rather than crowds out Tweedy’s seemingly effortless melodies, and the production is light, sunny, and has a great bounce to its beat. Even though he’s built his reputation on crushingly sad songs, Tweedy really shines on the numbers that express a hesitant enthusiasm for love — “I’m Always In Love” and “I’m The Man Who Loves” you are the obvious precursors, but “Walken” is far less neurotic and more matter-of-fact. It’s not a song for new love, or troubled love, or a dying love. It’s for the people who’ve been together for ages, and keep remembering why their relationship works. I don’t know if the love expressed is unconditional, but it’s certainly not something that’s going to fade away any time soon. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Elsewhere: Gilmore Girls ended its seven season run last night, and I’m not going to lie to you — I got a little teary at the end. Here’s a brief article for the Associated Press about the end of the series that I filed two weeks ago. It was written very quickly on short notice and it’s not everything I wish it could’ve been, but it’s nice enough. I’m not really sure why I started watching the show — I kinda stumbled into the first episode by chance, and I suspect that I only stuck with it because Lauren Graham is super hot, but man, I am so glad that I did. Even if the first half of its final seasom was very painful to watch, Gilmore Girls is one of my all-time favorite television programs and I’m going to miss it a lot.

Also: Stosh “Piz” Piznarski has his first album review up on Pitchfork today.