Wilco (the album) comes at a time when Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy is as content as he's been in years, and, says a Maxim magazine profile, that is a very good thing, resulting in the "most confident album of Wilco’s career ... a focused collection of poetic, emotionally direct songs that explore fear, loss, and love from a midlife perspective." Ultimately, "The triumph of Wilco (the album) ably rebuts the tortured-artist ideal."

Wilco wrapped up its summer tour in Dublin last week, with the US tour picking up again at the University of Iowa October 1. Just three days later, the band will perform at the annual Farm Aid benefit concert, which, DIRECTV has just announced, will be broadcast live and in HD exclusively on its The 101 Network. DIRECTV will also match donations from its customers up to $50,000 to support Farm Aid in its efforts to support family farms.

Wilco's set at the Troxy in London last night was the first of three sold-out shows with Blitzen Trapper in Britain and Ireland this week (and marked Jeff Tweedy's 42nd birthday). The Evening Standard gives the show four stars, praising "the quality of the tunes" from throughout the group's seven-album repertoire, Tweedy's "bittersweet vocal and the band’s brilliant musicianship."

Wilco has been in Europe all month stopping at the major summer festivals. After Sunday's Green Man Festival in Wales, The Independent praised the band's "masterful performing" in a set that "proved why they are one of the best live acts around." Wilco closes out its European tour this week with three sold-out shows, tonight's at The Troxy in London and two later this week at Vicar Street in Dublin.

"If you asked a room full of music critics to list the greatest American rock bands performing today, chances are a large majority of them would mention Wilco," says CBS Sunday Morning in its profile of the band. Rolling Stone's Austin Scaggs tells CBS that Wilco's "got it all ... great lyrics, great melody, great emotion," placing Jeff Tweedy among the "true songwriters," like Bob Dylan.

Wilco is on the road in Europe, but US fans are getting some close-up time as well: a feature profile of the group is slated to air on CBS Sunday Morning this weekend. With the Europe tour closing next week in Dublin, Jeff Tweedy spoke with the Irish Times about the joys of making music, concluding: "Music is part of your life, and it enriches your perspective and appreciation for being alive."

Wilco's Glenn Kotche and John Stirratt joined Neil Finn and members of Radiohead for an Oxfam benefit concert at Dingwalls in London last night; the Daily Telegraph gives it a perfect five stars. It stemmed from Finn's new 7 Worlds Collide album, on which Wilco performs. Kotche recently spoke with LiveDaily about the new Wilco album; the Lexington Herald-Leader picks the track "You Never Know" as a song that will forever conjure the summer of 2009.

"You Never Know," off Wilco's latest release, Wilco (the album), has made its way to No. 1 on the Triple-A radio chart, a career first for the band. Wilco first appeared on the chart with "Outtasite (Outta Mind)" off 1996's Being There. That album, along with the band's two other '90s releases, Summerteeth and A.M., are now being reissued on vinyl, for the first time, by Nonesuch.

Wilco has made the NPR listeners' list, both for Best Album, Wilco (the album), and twice again for Best Song with "Wilco (the song)" and "One Wing." "One thing was clear," says Bob Boilen, host of NPR's All Songs Considered, "that 2009 has been one of the strongest years for new music in recent memory." Fresh on the heels of their successful summer tour of the US, the band has announced a number of new dates in the country for this October.

Wilco brought its US tour to a close last night, headlining the 10,000 Lakes Festival's Thursday run, and begins its European tour at Oslo's Oya Festival on August 13. NPR's Fresh Air reviews the band's recent Nonesuch release, Wilco (the album), describing it as an album about an acceptance that allows one to feel "at once humbled and emboldened ... Acceptance, but not complacency. Jeff Tweedy is suggesting how you can make stability sound like a tough artistic challenge and a grand adventure."
 

Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy is front and center on the cover of SPIN magazine's August issue, out on newsstands this week. The issue's cover story aims to answer the question: "So why are they now on top of the world?" Says SPIN: "Since forming in 1995, Wilco have slowly risen to become the greatest small-scale success story in American rock, following the sounds they like wherever they go while deepening and expanding their audience." The magazine names the band's latest release, Wilco (the album), among the year's best so far. Why? It's "the rare rock album about acceptance. And it's fantastic."

Wilco's US tour behind their latest Nonesuch release, Wilco (the album), is due to wrap up this week, with a European tour slated to begin next month, after a set outside Detroit tonight and the 10,000 Lakes Festival in Minnesota on Thursday. Prior to the concerts, the Detroit Free Press talks to Nels Cline about his "head-spinning guitar pyrotechnics" and the Star Tribune talks to Jeff Tweedy about the new record and what's to come. GQ says of last Saturday's show in upstate New York that "the band has never sounded better." Buffalo News says Sunday's set in nearby Lewiston "was simply awesome ... Wilco is certainly the most interesting US band of its generation."