I feel like I've been focus-grouped. There has been a little bit of hype about Wilco's latest album; the story that they got cut from Warner's roster because the glorps couldn't deal with it, only get signed by the Nonesuch subsiduary (which I had previously associated with Steve Reich type stuff), and all that. Having heard the reports of this alt-country band having glommed onto the krautrock heritage, and these being two threads I've been chasing up recently, it was just about inevitable that I was going to get this album.

Yes, it sounds a little bit like Gram Parsons didn't cark it in 1972 or thereabouts, instead faking his death and disappearing to Germany to moonlight with Faust. I have to say, though, whilst this is a very good album, it's just very good, not great. The songs are good, especially the more straightforward numbers such as "Kamera" and "I'm The Man Who Loves You", which are never overwhelmed by the sonic elements, enabled by usual suspect Jim O'Rourke at the mixing desk, and the colour and textures on the more out-there tracks are interesting enough. But I can't really say its stormed into my life and demanded that I rush out and buy Wilco's back catalogue, which is a fair indication that I've been intoxicated by something. The opener, "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart", f'rinstance, sounds very much like every other indie band that's in this position - set up the track with sonic fuckery-foo then start intoning clever lines in an almost deadpan fashion - sometimes you get something inspired like "Everything In Its Right Place", sometimes you get something dire like U2's "Numb". It's no accident that the best songs are actually the most retrograde; though "Heavy Metal Drummer" sounds weak, almost like capitulation to demands for a "radio song", the sort of song skip buttons were devised for. It just fucks up the whole mood set up by "Ashes of American Flags", only partially recaptured at the closing part of "Poor Places" - which is too clever by halves, which is a good thing - and "Reservations", which marvellously sums up the idea of centering one's life around one's true love.

In short: Though it's a damned good try, it's not the album of the year. Whoever wants that title in my heart is going to have to have something that can muscle past Midnight Oil's Capricornia. But get this anyway, and skip "Heavy Metal Drummer".