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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
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Sky Blue Sky
by Wilco
The sixth studio set for the Jeff Tweedy-fronted band is less experimental and adventurous than Wilco's previous few efforts. It is the first Wilco studio album to feature the work of touring guitarist Nels Cline.
| LABEL: |
Nonesuch |
| RELEASE DATE: |
15 May 2007 |
| DISCS: |
1 disc |
| GENRE(S): |
Indie, Rock, Alt-Country |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
91
Entertainment Weekly
This may be the best Eagles album the Eagles never made.
91
The Onion (A.V. Club)
It's an album of shiny surfaces and great depths.
91
Filter
Wilco has constructed their most straightforward release in recent memory, which relies heavily on the inspired intricacies of a full-hearted band.
90
PopMatters
A soulful, sad, yet ultimately hopeful document largely about putting a brave face in the midst of a dissolving relationship, indulging influences from Bill Fay to Charles Wright to Steve Miller, Sky Blue Sky is the rare, mature album where said maturity is seldom compromised by banality.
88
Los Angeles Times
The most musically direct and down to earth of the band's six-album career.
88
ShakingThrough.net
This is mature, considered, powerfully expressed stuff, anti-hipster in its refusal to draw explicit attention to itself, commercially questionable in its lack of instant-gratification melodies and structures. What a breath of fresh air that is.
85
Prefix Magazine
Sky Blue Sky is Wilco's first step toward aging well, but it transcends transition and is an album that sounds right in its place and time.
80
Rolling Stone
Sky Blue Sky is understated, erratic, often beautiful, disarmingly simple music; it really sounds like six guys playing in a room, and no doubt that's how they wanted it.
80
Hartford Courant
"Sky Blue Sky" feels more collaborative than the past few Wilco records... The dozen tunes here reflect the more organic sound of a band playing in a room, with musicians turning ideas into grooves, which in turn become songs.
80
No Ripcord
Wilco has come up with 50% of a classic album and 50% of a merely decent one. Buy it for the moments you simply won’t hear anywhere else.
80
Spin
A near-perfect album by a band that seems, finally, to have found their identity. [Jun 2007, p.89]
80
Slant Magazine
Though it may not fit comfortably alongside any other albums in Wilco's catalogue, Sky Blue Sky is further confirmation that, even at their most retro, they're among contemporary pop music's most vital acts.
80
All Music Guide
Sky Blue Sky may find Wilco dipping their toes into roots rock again, but this doesn't feel like a step back so much as another fresh path for one of America's most consistently interesting bands.
80
Tiny Mix Tapes
While the elders will rejoice this sober, satisfied, and craftily subdued effort, the younglings of the bunch, with their abbreviated attention spans, iPod shuffles, and demand for instant gratification, will declare the album a boring and lethargic affair.
80
Alternative Press
It's apparent it takes deft skill to sound this simple. [Jun 2007, p.159]
80
Observer Music Monthly
The closer you listen to the jazzy guitars, Beatles touches and easy, shuffling rhythms ... the more it transpires that Tweedy is simply allowing the songs sufficient room to speak up for themselves.
80
Paste Magazine
With Sky Blue Sky, [Tweedy] reclaims the pop-rock potential he flashed on Being There and Summerteeth.
77
Lost At Sea
It may seem disappointing to those looking for further progress in one of the best American bands of recent times, but in the end it all comes down to the songs, and most of the ones here are little gems, perfect for a summer morning.
70
New Musical Express
'Sky Blue Sky' returns to the original formula with which they made their name.
70
Blender
Sky Blue Sky often feels like the Dead's American Beauty if Jerry Garcia had taken Paxil instead of acid. [Jun 2007, p.103]
70
Boston Globe
Wilco hasn't forsaken its experimental streak, and the group uses it in the service of darkness -- or rather the threat of darkness.
70
Delusions of Adequacy
Whilst the nostalgia-soaked Sky Blue Sky will cause consternation amongst those who backed Wilco’s brave efforts to bend the staidness of plaid-shirted alt. rock, it’s still arguably one of the most charmingly-effortless records Jeff Tweedy has ever spearheaded.
70
Amazon.com
It's certainly the group's most cohesive album in ages.
70
NOW Magazine
All those self-consciously avant bits of the two previous albums have been ditched along with Jeff Tweedy's laughable lyrical abstractions in favour of tuneful, direct songs that at least seem to carry some emotional weight.
70
The Guardian
On its own terms, Sky Blue Sky succeeds: it's tender, poignant and sumptuously textured, occasionally jolted into fiery life by flaring guitar passages redolent of Neil Young or Television.
70
The New York Times
The production is straightforward, but the song structures aren’t; that’s where Wilco’s idiosyncrasies still hide out.
67
Stylus Magazine
Just about everything on Sky Blue Sky, even soft-shoe skiffles like the title track, will likely sound better live.
66
cokemachineglow
Sky Blue Sky’s only ambition is to capture the warm tones of the early '70s rock FM they grew up on and clearly love. The execution is flawless. One can’t help but ask, however, “What’s the point?”
60
Uncut
A slight disappointment. [Jun 2007, p.88]
60
Mojo
Many longtime listeners... are sure to be disappointed with the radio-friendly production and sheer innocuousness of [the] lyrics. [Jun 2007, p.104]
60
Billboard
On first listen, it might seem too derivative, even dull, but Jeff Tweedy's intricate vocal melodies and Nels Cline's ferocious guitar work keep things interesting. [19 May 2007]
60
New York Magazine
Sky Blue Sky shows his restlessness as an artist, his need to keep moving - not always forward, but never merely standing still, and certainly not dipping into the back catalogue for an idea or two.
52
Pitchfork
An album of unapologetic straightforwardness, Sky Blue Sky nakedly exposes the dad-rock gene Wilco has always carried but courageously attempted to disguise.
50
Under The Radar
A very professional but almost inconsequential set... flat and ultimately uninspired. [#17, p.88]
50
Hot Press
It’s just too ‘nice’.
40
Playlouder
If 2004's 'A Ghost Is Born' was an experimental step too far then 'Sky Blue Sky' finds a band regressing tamely in to Dad-rock. Wilco need to rediscover that middle ground that suits them so well.
40
Austin Chronicle
If Sky Blue Sky is the product of Wilco's newfound clarity and cohesiveness, the album's paralytic ambiguity suggests they're also still in desperate search of a purposeful vision.
30
Dusted Magazine
Thoroughly boring.
The average user rating for this album is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 170 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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