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May 27, 2022'Cruel Country' is neither ironic, nor frivolous: it’s a sprawling double-album that stands as one of Wilco’s best, an ever-moving meditation on the quest for connection in a country that’s often cruel but always worthy, in Tweedy’s eyes, of forgiveness.
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May 25, 2022Cruel Country is the rare album that throws everything that came before it into sharp relief – a small miracle for a band 30 years into its run. [Jul 2022, p.22]
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The WireJul 13, 2022Some will find Cruel Country monotonous; the patient however will be rewarded with an abundance of thoughtful, delicate, often brutally plaintive songcraft. [Aug 2022, p.60]
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Jun 6, 2022“Cruel Country” captures a band wholly secure in its status; it does a handful of things very well, and does those things repeatedly, with few deviations.
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Jun 1, 2022Ultimately, however, the highs triumph over the occasional coasting, even if it's hard to entirely shake off the feeling that there's a killer 12 or 14 track record to top off Wilco's return to studio form on 2019's Ode to Joy lurking amongst this bumper crop of Jeff Tweedy’s songs and Wilco’s telepathic dynamics.
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May 31, 2022Cruel Country might get a little sleepy at times, but it’s a rather impressively compelling listen, given its intimidating length. There’s a lot of beauty and feeling to be unearthed here, and the album greatly rewards further listening.
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May 31, 2022The most country thing about this body of work is the hard-lived wisdom it offers up. The love songs are very grown-up.
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May 27, 2022Cruel Country, however, feels as unified and well plotted as anything in Wilco's catalog, and it's deeply moving, powerfully heartfelt music from a handful of gifted players serving their songs beautifully.
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May 27, 2022Despite its length and musical theme, Cruel Country doesn’t at first feel like a grand statement, but Tweedy has subtly laid out the ambitious concept of tying his classic American music to the classical theme of American social and political alienation (this, Uncle Tupelo fans, is where the record truly becomes roots music).
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May 26, 2022Cruel Country has a lot to offer musically and lyrically over its twenty-one tracks. However, fans might be disappointed to find that it has a conspicuous lack of upbeat rockers and Nels Cline guitar solos. It does a great job though of offering up different dynamics throughout so that it never feels stale.
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May 26, 2022On “Cruel Country” Wilco offers no grand lesson or master plan, only observations, feelings and enigmas. Many of the album’s best moments are wordless ones.
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May 26, 2022If the best country music has always been about storytelling, then on ‘Cruel Country’ Wilco are delivering it in its purest form.
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MojoMay 25, 2022They return forever changed to confidently shape a form of country music that is entirely of their own character. [Jul 2022, p.87]
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May 25, 2022Cruel Country also contains some of the band's most awe-inspiring music, especially in the album's middle.
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May 25, 2022At 21 tracks, Cruel Country is, unsurprisingly, a bit too long. ... As it is, it’s an album that gets back to basics and shines a spotlight on a particularly uncluttered version of Wilco that offers a little something for everyone.
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May 26, 2022As lovely as they often are, the songs seem to drift and float, and Cruel Country plays less like a sculpted double album than a vividly detailed snapshot of a particular moment in time.
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May 31, 2022At heart, it’s all too modest, too fatigued, too lacking in ambition and attitude.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 13 out of 16
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Mixed: 2 out of 16
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Negative: 1 out of 16
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May 30, 2022
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May 27, 2022
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May 27, 2022