Wilco - Star Wars

Without any advance warning 'Star Wars' the new album by Wilco suddenly appeared last week, available as a free MP3 download from their website.

It is less than a year since Jeff Tweedy and son Spencer issued the album 'Sukierae' under the name Tweedy. A double length album, I refrained from comment at the time as I found some of the material to be strong but felt that it was a little overblown and contained too much what I regard as "filler". The last Wilco album, 'The Whole Love' was almost a return to their more experimental material after the rather fluffy pop of 'Sky Blue Sky' and 'Wilco (The Album)'. However the content did not quite warrant in my opinion, an album of just under an hour in length, the final track alone being over 12 minutes long.

'Star Wars' despite what I regard as a pretty awful cover, is to my mind a startling return to the kind of form they were in with 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' (2002) and 'A Ghost is Born' (2004). It is an album that is full of surprises and great songs and it's very welcome that they appear to be taking risks with their music again. Also, the eleven tracks clock in at just under 34 minutes, so it can hardly be described as overblown.

I have no doubt that this album will be receiving more attention than 'Sukierae' did and I suspect it may even feature among my favourites of 2015.




Should you be interested in purchasing a conventional version of the album, the CD will be available from 21 August and the vinyl LP from 27 November.