Wilco
Schmilco

A year after 'Star Wars', Jeff Tweedy and his guys return with a new record with thirteen new songs. 'Schmilco', this is the name of the record, is practically a play on words and a tribute to Harry Nilsson's album, 'Nilsson Schmilsson', was released last September 9 via dBpm after being announced already two months ago, in July, when the band released two new songs, 'Locator' and 'If I Ever Was A Child'. Worth mentioning, before proceeding with the analysis of the record, is the beautiful cover by Spanish illustrator Joan Cornella, who for the occasion collaborated with Stefania Lusini.

We are clearly talking about one of the most popular bands in the USA music scene and not only, a band that is necessarily very discussed. There are indeed conflicting opinions around regarding this band and its music and how it has evolved over the years since their debut in 1995 ('Schmilco' is their tenth studio album). Many consider the band as a cult band and rightly one of the greatest bands of the last twenty-five years; but there are many who believe the band has lost over time that initial energy of the early records and others who would reproach Wilco for not being as 'sad' as they were in the beginning. Two criticisms that, as far as I am concerned, are irrelevant. On the contrary. They are absolutely meaningless.

Let’s talk about the album then. First of all, 'Schmilco' is in my opinion a much better album than 'Star Wars', an album that I consider very weak if not mediocre and certainly incomplete in some way. Superficial. Released for free via the web, I believe that the album was probably more an operation of 'marketing' (in quotes), in practice a kind of experimentation, something that I welcome and consider positively anyway, rather than an album that could shine by its own light and for the beauty of its own songs.

This does not apply to this new album. Recorded as always in Chicago and produced by Jeff Tweedy himself and Tom Schick, in this one we recognize what can be defined as a common thread that holds all the songs together and gives meaning to the record from start to finish.

'Schmilco' opens with 'Normal American Kids', a sad and melancholic acoustic song that sounds like a kind of lullaby; 'Shrug and Destroy' has the same melancholic character and can be compared to one of the songs of that great songwriter, may God bless him, who was Elliott Smith. Elegant ballads follow, as it could not be otherwise, and pop such as 'If I Ever Was A Child', 'Just Say Goodbye', Happiness, 'Quarters', which closes with the prolonged sound of an organ accompanied by a piano in a style that refers to a certain 'Americana' of the nineties. Which would be the background from which the Wilco themselves originally emerged.

'Locator' echoes the Beatles of the seventies, the last ones, those of 'Abbey Road' and 'Let It Be', or the solo works of John Lennon. Other songs simply pay tribute to the long tradition of American music and what is the work over the years of the band: the electric ballad 'Cry All Day', the thrilling 'Common Sense' (with elements that refer to the imagery of 'Sgt Pepper'), 'Nope', 'Someone To Lose', the typical song a Wilco fan would expect from their favorite band.

No plot twists. But that’s fine. After all, how should we at this point evaluate this album in the panorama of the current alternative USA music. Considering obviously that we cannot completely define Wilco as an alternative band, given their popularity (the album is already nominated for the 2016 Grammy Awards). Probably, okay, it is not the best album published by the band and I tell you it's not even the best album you will hear this year, but surely by listening to it you can be sure of listening to something 'real' and authentic. What I mean is that Jeff Tweedy really knows how to write songs, and that Wilco themselves have somehow with their sound redefined the concept of 'Americana' and probably replaced R.E.M. as the most popular rock band in the States. And I think this has happened and continues to happen for a very simple reason, because when you hear an album like this, you know you are not listening to garbage, that you are not listening to a bunch of bullshit and that there is nothing artificial and/or contrived and consequently somehow pathetic. A serious album for sensitive souls. 'Schmilco'.