Wilco (the album) is out now, and, while the band is on tour, the celebration is on in the group's hometown of Chicago. Reviews continue to come in from the UK: The Observer says it's "undeniably lovely." The Sunday Express gives it a perfect five stars calling it "an album of delicate, compact pop so perfect that the moment it ends you’ll want to play it again." The Times gives it four stars, calling it "a definitive work" for the band, with "several of the most emotionally generous songs of [Tweedy's] life." The Contra Costa Times calls Saturday's show at Berkeley's Greek Theatre a "magic night," the band "at its musical peak," and its performance "flawless."
The release of Wilco (the album) is just one day away, and, while the band is currently on tour, playing the Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena this evening, the group's hometown celebrates with live-band Wilco karaoke at The Hideout, featuring Wilco cover band The Late Greats, starting at 9 PM CT tonight. The Hideout and Laurie's Planet of Sound host the event, and come midnight, will be selling the new record. The New York celebration will take place at The Bell House in Brooklyn tomorrow, with free food, special prizes, and sales of the record from Sound Fix.
The Observer calls Wilco (the album) "undeniably lovely," and The Independent on Sunday follows a recent five-star review in its weekday iteration by likening the band to Radiohead as "the best rock band on the planet." Reviewer Simmy Richman finds that, on the new album, "Wilco being Wilco, the layers of sound subtly reveal themselves, with Nels Cline's Television-ish guitar of particular note."
The Sunday Express gives it a perfect five stars as well, exclaiming that with Wilco (the album), the band "drop the big one: an album of delicate, compact pop so perfect that the moment it ends you’ll want to play it again." Read more at express.co.uk.
The Times and the Financial Times both give the album four stars. The former's Pete Paphides says the album comprises "several of the most emotionally generous songs of [Tweedy's] life ... Calling the album Wilco suggests they might consider this is a definitive work—they wouldn’t be wrong." Read the review at entertainment.timesonline.co.uk.
Scotland's Sunday Mail and Scotland on Sunday give it four stars too. Colin Somerville, reviewing the album for the latter paper, writes that the contrast between rocking tunes like "Bull Black Nova" and the sweet-sounding Feist duet, "You And I," provides "the charm, the gentle diversity that can take you from chilling out to something that genuinely chills."
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Wilco played two performances in and around the Bay Area this past weekend. On Saturday night, the tour brought Wilco to Berkeley, California, for a performance at the Greek Theatre the Contra Costa Times calls a "magic night."
"A Wilco show under Berkeley's stars has become an annual highlight of the summer concert season," says reviewer Tony Hicks. "But even among these shows, Saturday was something special."
Summing up the band's performance as "flawless and energized," Hicks explains it this way:
It helps that his band is at its musical peak. Wilco was dialed in with the crowd, with its songs and with its band members, so much so that Saturday may've been the best Wilco show the Bay Area has ever seen. Rarely does a venue holding roughly 9,000 people feel intimate—but that's exactly what Saturday's show felt like. It was like being at a fan club show where everyone knows they're privy to something special going on.
Read the complete concert review at mercurynews.com.
And San Jose Mercury News writer Shay Quillen reports that Friday night's set at the Saratoga, California, Mountain Winery was full of "familiar favorites and new material strong enough to stick on first listen." He credits the band with having "the chops to pull off anything it wants ..." Read more at mercurynews.com.
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