Wilco Eyeing Spring '09 For New Album
August 18, 2008 , 12:35 PM ET
Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
Wilco hopes to have its seventh studio album out by spring 2009, frontman Jeff Tweedy told Albany, N.Y., radio station WAMC recently.
After opting for a highly performance-oriented recording approach on 2007's "Sky Blue Sky," Tweedy says he expects Wilco will "allow ourselves a little bit more leeway in terms of sculpting the sound in the studio and doing overdubs and using the studio as another instrument. Last time around, it was more of a document."
At recent live shows, Wilco has played two new songs: "One Wing" recalls the melancholy, slowly building "Sky Blue Sky" closer "On and On and On," while "Sunny Feeling" has a sly main riff in keeping with loose jams from the last album such as "Walken."
Tweedy told WAMC he's going through a phase where he "kinda hate[s]" all of Wilco's six prior albums, because "none of them are a statement that I would be comfortable making right now at this point in my life. They all served their purpose, and in that respect I'm proud of all of them.
"But as something that feels artistically in keeping with who I am today, I think that they are inevitably going to fall short of that as time goes on. I mean, they just don't continue to mean the same things to me, and a new record is kind of where it's at."
Prior to the release of "Sky Blue Sky," Tweedy told Billboard that a number of unfinished songs from those sessions would potentially form the basis for the next album, but it is unknown if they remain in consideration at this point.
Wilco wraps a summer North American tour this weekend at San Francisco's inaugural Outside Lands Festival. After a one-off Aug. 30 Wilco festival gig in Ireland, Tweedy plays four solo shows in Spain through Sept. 6 in Murcia.
The "using the studio as an instrument" talk gets me excited. As much as I love SBS, it would have been even better had it been a bit more sonically adventurous.
Also, I think I've discovered that whether or not I'm going generally agree with / respect someone's opinion hinges greatly on one thing: If you like Sky Blue Sky, or think it's "dad rock."
