Wilco's seventh studio album, Wilco (the album), is due out on Nonesuch this coming Tuesday, June 30, but NPR is giving fans a preview by streaming the album in its entirety now for an Exclusive First Listen.

"It starts off sounding more like a Velvet Underground record, perhaps a version of 'I'm Waiting for the Man,'" writes NPR's Bob Boilen. "There are similar chord progressions and distorted guitars. And though they often wear some of their influences outwardly—there is a Beatles-esque song and a Television song for sure—the new Wilco record is all about a great band playing great original music on an album filled with great songs."

Read more and listen to the complete album before its Tuesday release at npr.org.

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The British press has weighed in on the new album as well. The Independent gives Wilco (the album) a perfect five stars. Reviewer Andy Gill calls it "magnificent" and says that with its release, the band "reach the point that REM were at around the time of Automatic for the People: a group at the peak of its powers, offering hope and consolation in the face of growing discord, and an undimmed faith in the transformative power of rock'n'roll."

Gill compares the new record to earlier classics like The Band and Nirvana's Nevermind, "beautifully conceived to reflect misgivings about its changing era, and executed with the kind of intelligence that can fool one into thinking it's instinctive."

The ease with which the band seems to bring its music to life belies the true craftsmanship that went into its making, of course, Gill insists:

[T]he way the album arcs from initial suspicion to the optimism of "Everlasting Everything" is so deftly executed, with little flurries of guitar notes percolating through the track's final stages like birds of hope fluttering out into the world. Such things can only be created with dedication and deliberation, their success—ironically—measured by how well that deliberation is disguised as spontaneity.

Read the full five-star review at independent.co.uk.

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BBC's Chris Jones says the latest effort from the "band that could easily lay claim to the title 'the best live act in the world'... sees the band balance Tweedy's writer-at-his-peak poise with some of their most charming pop rock ensemble playing."

Jones suggests that by the album's close, "As Wilco (the album) flutters away on the birdcall beauty of [guitarist Nels] Cline's loops, you feel like you've shared a special moment: one that you can always return to. As they say on the opening 'Wilco (the song),' 'Wilco will love you.'"

Returning to his opening statement, to amend it just so, Jones concludes: "Best live band? How about plain old best band in the world right now?"

Read the review at bbc.co.uk.

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The Evening Standard gives the album four stars. Reviewer Pete Clark calls it "a record of great warmth," echoing Gill's sentiments when he references the record's "carefully crafted, deceptively gentle songs, whose beauty reveals itself by stealth. All are impeccably performed, with special mention going to the atmospheric guitar stylings of Nels Cline and the firm yet subtle drumming of Glenn Kotche." There's more at thisislondon.co.uk.

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Back in the States, the Kansas City Star calls it a "love letter to fans." Music writer Timothy Finn walks readers through the band's various incarnations and its repertoire, calling Wilco's latest line-up "arguably, the band at its best, particularly if you’re talking about virtuosity and live performances. One viewing of the new documentary Ashes of American Flags ought to be ample proof of that."

Finn calls attention to one song in particular as exemplary of the new album's overall sensibility. "Like its album," he writes, "the song 'Bull Black Nova' manages to resemble something we’ve heard before, but not quite the same way. Something familiar has been revived, rebuilt and refreshed."

Read the article at kansascity.com.