By Gabe Kanengiser

The unfortunate dilemma in listening to the new Wilco album, The Whole Love, is that one must first confront the fact that its predecessor, Wilco (The Album) was an immense disappointment. However, after just one track of the new release, the truth about Wilco becomes clear: the band’s 2009 album was a self-indulgent and media-pleasing collection of works, lacking coherence as an album, and sub-par to all of Wilco’s prior albums.

This is not to say that songs like “Deeper Down,” “One Wing,” and “Bull Black Nova,” weren’t evocative and satisfying tracks – they were. Again, it’s the coherence that was shown in the albums before Wilco (The Album) that made it so terrible. In order to fully appreciate their newest album one must first reconcile why the band made the eponymous record in the first place.

The band’s first three albums, A.M., Being There, and Summerteeth, were all unappreciated by the media, and so when Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was released, the band came alive. YHF is one of the most cohesive, creative, and masterful albums of the decade. The band admiringly faced the daunting task of a follow-up album, entitled A Ghost is Born, which was also a commercial success. Sky Blue Sky was similarly impressive. The problem is that Wilco went from little substantial recognition to comparisons with Radiohead’s OK Computer. However, the biggest problem is that Jeff Tweedy and Wilco thought that the proper next step was to tackle their success… with Wilco (The Album). The Whole Love is a self-aware work boasting a resurgence of Wilco’s past sound that stands alone as a magnificent record.

The first song, “Art of Almost,” begins with a polyrhythmic beat. Jeff Tweedy’s lyrics are still shrill and his scratched voice is reassuring, as it always is, and while this song ventures into slightly more electronic fields, the splitting solo with which Nels Cline finishes the song exactly embodies the Wilco we love. “I Might” begins with an acoustic guitar intro, and is a song that the Tweedy of the early and mid-aughts would have written. The following three tracks are all perhaps better songs than any on the previous album, and they function as leads to what might become one of the best Wilco songs: “Born Alone.”

“Born Alone” features the band more in sync; Tweedy’s lyrics are captivating, stunningly beautiful, and instilled with remorse, and the song even features bassist John Stirratt shredding – in a way which he has not done on any of the seven other studio releases. In the first verse, Tweedy sings, “I have married broken spoke charging smoke wheels/Spit and swallowed opioids…My eyes have seen the fury/so flattered by fate.” He is truly at his best.

The next song on the album, “Open Mind,” is a throwback to their folk influences, lyrically and melodically solemn, with a touching refrain: “I would love to be the one to open up your mind,” – and that is exactly what Tweedy does. He tells the listener that Wilco is alive again. “Capital City,” and “Standing O” are reminders that a young Jeff Tweedy is still somewhere underneath the graying hair, with playful melodies and guitar riffs that could have been played by the late Jay Bennett on Summerteeth.

The final three songs on the album are all masterpieces. “Rising Red Lung” and “Whole Love,” the album’s title track, are representative of Wilco’s new sound and their defined growth. “Rising Red Lung” is probably the most moving song on the album. “The Whole Love,” too, rivals songs of the old Wilco times, and is summed up by the lyrics of the refrain: “I hope I know when to show you my whole love.”

“One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend),” what with its cutting lyrics, and very little flashy involvement from the band members, who mostly fill the empty spaces with beautiful, well-thought-out lines, the song achieves the effect of sedating the listener – and it is very suited to be the last song on such an album.

With The Whole Love, which is Wilco’s first self-produced album on their new self-owned record label, dBpm Records, Wilco achieves two things. The first is that, while Tweedy stands out for penetrating lyrics and vocals, the other band members are so masterful and the band is so in sync, that no one member of the band shines brighter than the rest. Secondly, The Whole Love is a call to listeners to listen. “My eyes have seen the fury so flattered by fate,” they say, “I would love to open up your mind,” and “I hope I know when to show you my whole love.” The time is now, and if you aren’t listening, you aren’t doing it right.