Music
All-Time High (And Low) Scores
Best of 2009
Best of 2008
Best of 2007
Best of 2006
Best of 2005
Best of 2004
Best of 2003
Best of 2002
Best of 2001
Best of 2000
Best of the Decade
Upcoming &
Recent Releases
75
2562
54
30 Seconds to Mars
62
50 Cent
71
AC/DC
70
The Album Leaf
52
Kris Allen
68
Tori Amos
66
Animal Collective
84
Animal Collective![]()
77
Annie
57
Apse
63
Asobi Seksu
59
Bad Lieutenant
83
Julianna Barwick![]()
82
Beach House![]()
72
Beak>
72
Bibio
65
Justin Bieber
76
Biffy Clyro
74
Blakroc
75
Mary J. Blige
78
Blockhead
52
Bon Jovi
54
Susan Boyle
57
The Bravery
39
Chris Brown
64
V.V. Brown
70
Basia Bulat
79
Chew Lips
74
Citay
65
Clipse
66
Cold War Kids
75
The Cribs
58
Dashboard Confessional
81
Dave Rawlings Machine![]()
70
Delphic
78
The Doors
58
Echo & The Bunnymen
73
Edan
59
Editors
69
Eels
80
Felt
74
First Aid Kit
69
Flyleaf
83
Four Tet![]()
82
Ben Frost![]()
82
Fucked Up![]()
83
Charlotte Gainsbourg![]()
63
The Gilded Palace Of Sin
68
Githead
65
Joe Goddard
58
Good Shoes
72
Gucci Mane
75
Holopaw
82
Jesca Hoop![]()
79
Hot Chip
72
The Hot Rats
88
Ray Wylie Hubbard![]()
54
Hurricane Chris
66
Allison Iraheta
59
Jay Sean
82
Freedy Johnston![]()
57
Nick Jonas And The Administration
73
Norah Jones
49
Juvenile
58
Ke$ha
62
R. Kelly
66
Alicia Keys
68
Kid Sister
81
King Midas Sound![]()
63
Lady Antebellum
76
Lady GaGa
71
Adam Lambert
78
Lawrence Arabia
61
Leona Lewis
74
Lightspeed Champion
36
Lil Wayne
82
Lindstrom & Christabelle![]()
77
Lissie
78
Los Campesinos!
70
Lostprophets
73
Magnetic Fields
72
Massive Attack
64
John Mayer
71
Paul McCartney
58
Katherine McPhee
86
Memory Tapes![]()
72
Midlake
88
Motion City Soundtrack![]()
63
Mr. Hudson
53
Mudvayne
75
Oh No Ono
70
OK Go
72
Ola Podrida
61
OneRepublic
80
Owen Pallett
80
Pantha du Prince
90
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers![]()
80
Phantogram
60
Pit Er Pat
63
Priestess
70
Radian
79
Corinne Bailey Rae
54
Rakim
79
Real Estate
77
Retribution Gospel Choir
76
Rihanna
64
Rjd2
65
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez
77
Sade
77
Gil Scott-Heron
72
Shakira
82
Shining![]()
61
Snoop Dogg
62
Snow Patrol
71
The Soft Pack
80
Spoon
64
Ringo Starr
59
Stereophonics
76
Angie Stone
79
Surfer Blood
74
Switchfoot
75
Them Crooked Vultures
74
Robin Thicke
50
Timbaland
79
tUnE-YaRDs
80
Vampire Weekend
79
Laura Veirs
79
Tom Waits
78
Wale
65
The Watson Twins
66
Kanye West
76
The Whitefield Brothers
64
Robbie Williams
80
Yeasayer
62
Young Money
75
Neil Young
61
Rob Zombie
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Wilco (The Album)

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 34 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 37 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Nonesuch
Release Date: 30 June 2009
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rock, Alternative, Country
Summary
The seventh album for the rock group was produced with Jim Scott.
Also By This Artist: a ghost is born Kicking Television: Live In Chicago Sky Blue Sky Summer Teeth Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
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...
MSN Consumer Guide (Robert Christgau)
"Come on children, you're acting like children/Every generation thinks it's the end of the world," begins the candidly catchy centerpiece of these lost-and-found tradsters' best album.
Read Full Review >Filter
Wilco (The Album) adds yet another chapter to the story, and if this band's relevance is to continue going forward, then let the resilent closer 'Everlasting Everything ' score our impending sunrise. [Summer 2009, p.90]
Alternative Press
Wilco continues to reign in their experiemntal fuzz, focusing more on pretty melodies, upbeat toe-tappers and sweet acoustic numbers for their seventh full-length. [Aug 2009, p.115]
Mojo
Wilco (The Album) is as consummate as anything its author has yet delivered. [Aug 2009, p.97]
Q Magazine
Everything here delivers the predominant warmth "Sky Blue Sky" lacked and betrays a sharp ear for melody that has often been obscured by sonic theatrics. [Aug 2009, p.1000]
New Musical Express
The band have covered all bases this time; pushing themselves to experiment while still celebrating what makes their music so catchy and compelling.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
If Wilco (The Album) as a whole is considerably less ambitious than its predecessors, it compensates with its easy confidence and craft: it's the work of a band that knows their strengths and knows what they're all about, and it's ready to settle into an agreeably comfortable groove.
Read Full Review >Uncut
Wilco (the album) picks up more or less where 2007’s mellow and soulful "Sky Blue Sky" left off, but subtly expands that record’s parameters.
Read Full Review >NOW Magazine
It’s middle-of-the-road, but only by Wilco standards. A worthwhile listen.
Read Full Review >Observer Music Monthly
Chicago's veteran alt-rockers haven't sounded this much fun in ages, their seventh album balancing their easy-going and experimental sides.
Read Full Review >Spin
Wilco (the album), the band's seventh studio effort, treats verse-chorus-verse basics like holy truths. The result is the rare rock album about acceptance. And it's fantastic.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe
Like with many good rock records, bits of whimsy, melancholy, confusion, and joy swirl around the songs of Wilco (the album). So while it may not feel as groundbreaking as previous releases, it’s just as human.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
Wilco's seventh studio album is a triumph of determined simplicity by a band that has been running from the obvious for most of this decade.
Read Full Review >Delusions of Adequacy
Wilco (The Album) is just another wonderful and special reason to know that Wilco, as a band, are an astounding band for all to love-or at least as much as they say they love us.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle
What it lacks in identity, perhaps a statement of purpose locked down by a title, the tightly produced, musically pointed Wilco compensates for in near-total coalescence. Its hope, vulnerability, and fears converse as one Tweedy.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
The band is still good enough to put across (The Album)’s later songs, thanks to a buzzy ’70s sound that nods to George Harrison here, John Lennon there, and Tom Petty all over the place. But the “reaching for something indescribable” feeling of songs like 'Deeper Down' and 'One Wing' is sorely lacking amid the pat familiarity of 'I’ll Fight' and 'Everlasting Everything.'
Read Full Review >The Phoenix
Wilco (The Album) finds the band looser and more assertive than they were on their two previous efforts.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
Tweedy's ability to craft great hooks does make this worth a listen, and maybe the band simply needs a pause to catch its creative breath. Let's just hope the next one isn't called Wilco (another album).
Read Full Review >Paste Magazine
The album is full of thoughtful, artfully crafted lyrics wrapped in memorable hooks that should stand the test of time. What’s missing is the experimentation that was Wilco’s hallmark until "Sky Blue Sky."
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
This is not the music of men trying to be cool; it is the work of veterans unafraid to express mature emotions with an appropriate level of musical depth and nuance.
Read Full Review >Billboard.com
The band's current six-member lineup, together five years and responsible for 2007's stunning "Sky Blue Sky," is its strongest to date--and Wilco (The Album) is as well-rounded an effort as the group has released.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
The album rumbles out of the gate with a scruffy exuberance reminiscent of the early tracks of "Summerteeth," before finding its way back to the high-end country art rock the band has specialized in since we first found out Tweedy gets bad headaches. [Summer 2009, p.69]
Hartford Courant
No one ought to begrudge Tweedy his hard-won peace of mind, but there's less of the emotional, or musical, turbulence here that made for such compelling listening on previous Wilco records.
Read Full Review >Drowned In Sound
While (the album) tips far more convincingly on the successful end of the scales, there remains the sense of a band playing safer than needs be; a sextet pushing against their limits but never straining outright at them.
Read Full Review >Slant Magazine
It doesn't help that Wilco is such a complacent album, so easily redolent of sounds and textures the band has called up in the past.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
While Wilco (The Album) has its strong moments, it does not have many innovative ones.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
It's well written, nicely produced and tastefully retro, with a few vaguely experimental bits.
Read Full Review >No Ripcord
The major problem is that this doesn’t sound like a band that’s pushing itself any more, or at least not making the same sort of pushes that lead to the brilliant sucker-punch of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and the vastly underrated A Ghost Is Born.
Read Full Review >Dot Music
Like a slightly under-serving best of, though, we get glimpses of what they've done before, but nothing substantial enough to set a new high-water mark.
Read Full Review >Lost At Sea
To simply not want to skip tracks isn't exactly saying anything, and certainly not that Wilco has made any kind of return to relevance. But Jeff the person is doing just fine, and instead of chastising this release, let's be happy that the guy who gave us more serious, occasionally harrowing masterpieces such as Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot finally seems to be having some fun. Next time it'd be nice if he let us in on it.
Read Full Review >Tiny Mix Tapes
Wilco (The Album) isn’t a failure--not by any means--but when a band has become so attached to the notion of change and then stagnates, it casts a heavy shadow that’s hard to escape.
Read Full Review >cokemachineglow
Clearly, this record is boring. Whether or not that’s a good thing remains up to your discretion.
Read Full Review >Dusted Magazine
Wilco is a Great Band, if you like stuff that’s boring. And a lot of people seemingly do.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 37 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jeff T gave it a9:
Another wonderful piece of Wilco. Their most fun album, that reminds me to Summerteath. Maybe, it's not their best album, but it's really hard with masterpieces like "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" or "Sky blue Sky" on your back. Wilco never disappoint! Wilco love you, baby!
Drew P gave it an8:
Wow, even though this album got pretty good reviews, I think it's still underrated. Jeff Tweedy & Wilco are just so good at crafting songs that, one way or another, are interesting. Favorites include Wilco (the song), One Wing and Bull Black Nova. Nels Cline on the guitar never disappoints. If you listen closely, there is also some nice production going on. Nothing to the level of YHF-level experimentation, but nice nonetheless. The one line just says it all: "Wilco will love you baby."
Dan C gave it an8:
It took a few listens (as usual), but now it's on heavy rotation on my stereo. The tunes grow into the recesses of your mind and find a comfortable, pleasing spot to sit in. Si, me gusto, me gusto mucho.
Manny F gave it a9:
Well said Paul K, you nailed it. Everyone read his review... it's a great assesment of this record compared to more the highly praised ones (i.e. yankee hotel foxtrot) Couldn't of said it better myself.
Mike K gave it a9:
Ha! My first "top 10 of 2009" This is a beautiful album. Long time Wilco listener/critic here. This is my favorite since Being There. The critics with the "80's" across the board are WAY off base. Not sure what's going on there. MK, San Geronimo.
Walton T gave it an8:
The top 5 or 6 tracks would have made a superb EP.
glen gave it a2:
Wow wilco don't bore me to death or anything. not a single memorable song.
