The Wilco Experience: Fanboy-ism, Liveblogging and the Whole Truth.

Tonight is a special night for those of us who are diehard Wilco fans. Following the spirit of the last few albums, Wilco decided to beat everyone to the punch by leaking their own album. I promised myself I wouldn’t get all geeky and liveblog the whole experience, but I HAD to write something. Partially, it was due to my extreme enthusiasm for the album in general, but I also felt that doing this is, in some way, a response to all the rest of the fanboys out there who don’t quite get it yet.

I am writing this because I’ve joined a community of enthusiasts much like myself; I’ve recently signed up for an account on the much-maligned “AtEase messageboards.” This is the messageboard responsible for the Arcade Fire leak and most of the ridiculous music rumors on the internet. When the first few tracks off of the new album Sky Blue Sky leaked, there was pandemonium on the board. Blogs were shut down and the RIAA were surely to blame. People didn’t know what to think about the music either. Many of the songs had been played live, but no one really knew what to expect in the recordings, because Wilco is known for playing very straightforward versions of their songs live. It would be next to impossible to recreate some of the studio work put into an album like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but that’s besides the point. The music was described by one blogger as “some Randy Newman horse shit” and by several AtEase members as “dad rock.” I decided I needed some time alone with the songs because, I will admit, I didn’t understand A ghost is born the first few times I heard it.

After hearing the songs, I decided that hearing only a few songs wasn’t fair and representative of the whole. When the full album stream went live about an hour ago, there I was, sitting in front of my computer, foaming at the mouth. I was simultaneously on the messageboard, gauging other responses out of curiosity. What was said was somewhat surprising, but in the same, was not surprising at all. I knew immediately by the mood of the album, this wasn’t going to be the typical Wilco album. Generally, Jeff Tweedy is about making big statements with album openers, with big songs like “Misunderstood” and “I am trying to break your heart,” but this time, it started off slowly with “Either Way,” which in itself, is an ambiguous, lukewarm statement.

The thing is, I’m getting tired of the “Well, it’s okay” and “it’ll be a grower” comments. If you don’t understand what’s going on in this album, it won’t grow on you and you won’t understand why it’s going on your year-end, best of list. The “dad rock” tags are correct in some sense, but not in the spirit that they were originally intended. Jeff Tweedy has two children and god knows how old the rest of the guys are. The album is about maturing gracefully, rather than just getting old. The songs are not at all adventurous, as many have said, but it’s not about breaking everyone’s expectations and preconceived notions anymore for Wilco. It’s about writing music that people are going to listen to in 50 years. It’s about longevity. Wilco and “unconventional” have become somewhat synonymous because of their past few albums and people have come to expect it, without regard to the music. A band can be “all reinvention, all the time,” but it turns into gimmickry and it gets ridiculous in some cases (see Sonic Youth catalogue). Bands that intend to be influential, not only in sound, but in presence, need to make solid statements in cautious, well written and mature albums like Sky Blue Sky. Sonic Youth just did it, as a matter of fact; Rather Ripped was a straightforward pop album, without any of the Jim O’Rourke “charm.”

My point is this: forget what you think you know and just appreciate music for what it is. Sky Blue Sky is just a good album. You can’t weigh the fact that it’s “not a Wilco album” against the strength of the music, because the album will stand the test of time and half of what you think is “sooooo amazing” won’t be relevant this time next year. Of course, there are legitimate complaints about the album, but there is no perfection. It’s good, and that should be all there is to it.