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Wilco specialize in approximating Americana backdrops, orchestral pop-like arrangements, and the ability to teeter back and fall apart during a song, only to catch themselves and pull it all together by the end. Following the 1994 breakup of Alternative Country pioneers Uncle Tupelo, co-founder Jeff Tweedy formed Wilco and recorded the rootsy A.M. album. Being There took Wilco's sound to heartfelt and cerebral depths, while Mermaid Avenue, an album of Woody Guthrie lyrics for which the band (and Billy Bragg) wrote music, earned them a Grammy nomination. In 1999, Summer Teeth found Wilco running towards a sunny, West Coast-inspired pop utopia of complex introspection. Wilco's endearing characteristics remain consistent through each of their recordings as Tweedy's raspy vocals sometimes sound like a pubescent boy's voice changing, while on other songs he affects a more groggy and hungover inflection. Upon recording their fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot the band parted ways with founding member and guitar player Jay Bennett (the big, white guy with the David Pirneresque dreadlocks). Then for a long time, nothing happened (their album was shelved by The Man). The band later bought the tapes of this adventurous album from... Read More ... Warner/Reprise for $50,000 and released it on a smaller (and obviously much cooler) label. It is with this fourth album that Wilco succeeds at leaving Alt Country geekyness (and Alt Country geeks) behind to sojourn into more moody, dislocated songwriting that blends deconstructed Power Pop with an almost Radioheadesque sparseness, all tangled up inside sonic noise experiments and amputated guitar leads.
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