Wilco- Schmilco (2016)

Wilco- Schmilco (2016)

By: Ghost Writer

Normally I declare White Light/White Heat, and The Velvet Underground & Nico as my favorite VU records, buy I simply can't stop listening to the Velvets third recording, the famous "closet mix" record, the one that spawned a thousand "jangle pop" bands, but there's also another guilty pleasure, and that's Loaded, it is obviously the closet this band ever got to accessible", considering that neither Nico, John Cale nor Maureen Tucker were on that record, you can almost call it a Lou Reed & Doug Yule record, it shows the band, or what's left of it, dealing with being tired of being a great band that no one listens to. 

You can't day that Wilco is a band that no one listen to, they are a great band, perhaps today's best American rock band, but just as much as their British counterparts Radiohead, no one listens to them for the right reasons, in the Radiohead case, some listen to them for the Creep song, some listen to them for being "alternative", some because they are electronic, whatever, in the case of Wilco, well is even hard to describe them, an ever expanding rock band who breeds from the Beatles, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, the Rolling Stones, the Buffalo Springfield, Faust, Can, Neu!, Sonic Youth and a lot of other interesting but confusing sources. 

Wilco loves the extremes, they went from the tormented density of The Whole Love, an artistic triumph, to the witty accessibility of Star Wars, no arty fartsy fanfare, one of Wilco's strength is that unlike arty bands like Radiohead or Muse, Tweedy and company doesn't take themselves to serious, yes, they are America's obvious answer to those ambitious smart pop giants, walking on a thin line between art rock and smart pop, but hell, they are never boring, and you simply are not going to find out what their next record is all about. 

Schmilco is a proof of Tweedy twisted sense of humor, the title, a play on Harry Nilsson's great Nilsson Schmilsson album, opener Normal American Kids sounds like a powerful return to Tweedy's Americana folk roots, with its acoustic guitar and somber atmosphere, with Tweedy sounding at times like a mix of John Lennon and Bob Dylan, while on If I Ever Was a Child, Tweedy gets so ethereal on an upbeat song whose acoustic beauty could easily rival to the music of freak folk wonder kid Devendra Barnhart.

But on Cry All Day, Tweedy gets on full folk rock mode, sometimes reminding me of Lou Reed on Loaded, where Lou sounded so tired and weary of the world, on Common Sense, where Tweedy's sonic migraines start to take a life on their own, Tweedy and company get closer to the noise experiments of Faust and Sonic Youth, with otherworldly guitar sounds, the song is odd sounding and full of creepy arrangements, but it's mission is not letting us forget about Wilco's experimental nature, invoking it again on the wandering Nope. 

Yes, Schmilco is a low key album, yes, but a low key Wilco album, and Tweedy never lets it slip at all, he gets into some intonate, upbeat and daring stuff like on the groovy rocker called Someone to Lose, while on Happiness, Tweedy is able to capture some of the mythical aura of someone like cosmic dancer Marc Bolan. 

Locator is another great song with weird sounding guitars and bizarre drum arrangements, but with enough charms to make it work as a piece of diabolical noise The Stooges would have been happy to play if they have listened more to folk bands instead of listening to The Doors, but nothing could prepare us for such despairing beauty displayed on We Aren't the World (Safety Girl) that reminds me of Lou Reed more intimate records like Coney Island Baby, where Lou sounds like he is about to break up emotionally at any moment. 

Schmilco is such a great record, it might not be as strident as others, as noisy as others, as dense as others, but is Tweedy and company reaffirming what they do best, creating a masterpiece of restrain with great songs and beautiful arrangements, classical rock? You bet this is classical rock, but done with infinite charms and keeping a very adventurous edge.