A while ago Wilco announced their new album, The Whole Love, would be released on their own label dBpm Records. After Sky Blue Skye and Wilco (The Album) a lot of fans had been waiting for the band to return to their more experimental selves as showcased on Summerteeth (to a lesser extent), Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born, and the aforementioned news surely would allow the band to jump into the studio and let rip. Have they?

Well, let me first say I, for one, did enjoy both Sky Blue Skye and Wilco (The Album) a lot but they did seem to occasionally lack the edge of earlier Wilco work.

The Whole Love combines both the Wilco eras of the late nineties/early noughties and the final few years of the last century. Opener ‘Art Of Almost’ is a 7-minute experimental, gloomy-feeling piece that combines dance-inspired beats with synths, piano, throbbing bass and some great built-up guitar shredding courtesy of Nels Cline. If you think the tone for the LP has been set with this song Jeff Tweedy and co. have wrong-footed the listener considerably as Art Of Almost is followed by single ‘I Might’ with its positive vibe and 60’s feel. ‘Sunloathe’ and ‘Dawned On Me’ seem quite conventional songs on the surface, the first in its dreamy pop and the latter in its pop rock, but they do reveal perfectly balanced, toned down soundscapes lifting the tracks up from mediocrity to great songs.

The mid section of the album is mostly hit with a little miss. ‘Capitol City’ is a good track but would have been better suited to The Mermaid Ave Sessions and ‘Open Mind’ is a little below par compared to the rest of the album. On the other end of the spectrum you have songs like ‘Born Alone’, which combines all the best of Wilco’s music making and Jeff Tweedy’s songwriting. Closer ‘One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend)’ is a 12-minute folksy tune that you expect to get a bit boring any minute but never does. In fact, it gets better as the song goes on and lyrically is one of the best songs Tweedy has written.

So there you have it. Wilco have made an album that combines both the experimental sound and solid songwriting of the last 2 albums. Although the experimental soundscapes are sometimes hidden very well the band have struck a perfect balance between the two. Standout tracks are definitely ‘Art Of Almost’ and ‘One Sunday Morning’ and, as it happens, those two songs are both perfect examples of that balance. Wilco fans should be happy, this ain’t no YHF, but it’s hugely satisfying.

Review Score: 8.5/10