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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Sky Blue Sky
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 38 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 170 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Nonesuch
Release Date: 15 May 2007
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Indie, Rock, Alt-Country
Summary
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.
Also By This Artist: a ghost is born Kicking Television: Live In Chicago Summer Teeth Wilco (The Album) Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Also On Metacritic
MUSIC: Billy Bragg & Wilco: Mermaid Avenue Vol. II Glenn Kotche: Mobile Loose Fur: Born Again In The USA Loose Fur: Loose Fur The Autumn Defense: The Autumn Defense The Minus 5: Down With Wilco
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
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...
Filter
Wilco has constructed their most straightforward release in recent memory, which relies heavily on the inspired intricacies of a full-hearted band.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times
The most musically direct and down to earth of the band's six-album career.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Spin
A near-perfect album by a band that seems, finally, to have found their identity. [Jun 2007, p.89]
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Alternative Press
It's apparent it takes deft skill to sound this simple. [Jun 2007, p.159]
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.
Read Full Review >Paste Magazine
With Sky Blue Sky, [Tweedy] reclaims the pop-rock potential he flashed on Being There and Summerteeth.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >New Musical Express
'Sky Blue Sky' returns to the original formula with which they made their name.
Read Full Review >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]
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >The New York Times
The production is straightforward, but the song structures aren’t; that’s where Wilco’s idiosyncrasies still hide out.
Read Full Review >Stylus Magazine
Just about everything on Sky Blue Sky, even soft-shoe skiffles like the title track, will likely sound better live.
Read Full Review >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?”
Read Full Review >Uncut
A slight disappointment. [Jun 2007, p.88]
Mojo
Many longtime listeners... are sure to be disappointed with the radio-friendly production and sheer innocuousness of [the] lyrics. [Jun 2007, p.104]
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]
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.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
An album of unapologetic straightforwardness, Sky Blue Sky nakedly exposes the dad-rock gene Wilco has always carried but courageously attempted to disguise.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
A very professional but almost inconsequential set... flat and ultimately uninspired. [#17, p.88]
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
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.
Wes M. gave it a0:
Boring; major disappointment!
Brain K. gave it a9:
I love this album. The riffs and guitars are great. Tweedy has a terrific sense of word play. This is too artsy for the mainstream and corporate radio. Great job Wilco!
Jason J gave it a5:
Don't fool yourself. The FIRST Wilco album I have ever sold. They are a good enough band that the record is listenable, but not much more. I am from St. Louis and have followed the band through all their changes from UT forward and have been excited for every new development, good and bad. But this new development is not a development. It is a sad step backward. I only hope they can get some fire back in their blood as bands like REM have done after a disappointing record. They seem to have a new fanbase (on loan from the Eagles?) who likes mediocre work. Wilco: the horse is waiting, just get back on and ride!
Jason J gave it a4:
I have been a fan since before UT broke up and have been enthusiastically with Wilco through all their changes. It is sad to see them retreating into boring and at times even annoying territory. The new lineup is thoroughly lame. What happened to the band that made Summerteeth? This is the first Wilco record I have ever sold to the used cd shop. Lucky for them their new fan base is larger than their old one, if significantly more shallow.
Juan F. gave it a10:
Is simple, beautiful, intelligent, all great songs. I think is the mayor Wilco album. Just listen songs like on and on and withe light.
Lewis M. gave it a9:
Beatiful and fantastic, though im hoping this album is one for jeff to have some fun and the next will be a bit more messed up! Full of hope.
Ron A. gave it a9:
Their second best effort ever behind only the near perfect Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The critics need to listen closer and more than just one quick time through.
