Let’s get back to it and pick up the thread from my Five from Wilco (Part One) post a few months back. There I struggled to select five songs from their first ten years… now I’ve set myself up with the unenviable task of finding five tracks that cover the next nineteen years. Seems logical.

On the one hand is the fact that there’s eight albums to choose from in that era. On the other, there’s the fact that two of those –Star Wars and Schmilco seem slight and throw-away enough (though not devoid of good songs, more in comparison with the rest) that that kind brings it down to six. I’m not yet up to speed with 2023’s Cousins which brings it to five… so let’s get moderately mid-tempo rocking:

You Are My Face

Wilco’s first album since their now in-stone lineup coalesced during the A Ghost Is Born tour, Sky Blue Sky is one of my favourite of their albums. I’ve already ticked off a couple of the album’s highlights elsewhere so let’s get ‘You Are My Face’ the coverage it deserves.

You Never Know

Seven albums in seems an odd time to go the self-titled route. Then again they were savvy enough to add the parenthesis to Wilco (The Album) as well as ‘Wilco (The Song). Wilco feels like a deliberate lightening-up (underlined by the choice of a camel as a cover star) and less experimental in sound than the last couple of albums had been. ‘You Never Know’ feels like a joyous George Harrison pastiche.

Art of Almost

Then again… let’s get experimental once more. The Whole Love – the first on their own album – is another favourite and an edgy, dissonant builder of a song is always going to score highly with me.

Hold Me Anyway

In 2015/2016 Wilco released two albums. Star Wars – which was initially given away as a free download – and Schmilco were both born of the same recording sessions and felt like two sides of the same coin. One felt very much like a band trying anything and going wherever the muse took them and the other, Schmilco, with a throwaway title and artwork that belied its sombre nature. Star Wars – which has as much to do with George Lucas’ saga as the cat on its cover – was already geared up to be renamed Cease and Desist just in case. A happy by product of the odd title is that when that streaming service that fucks over artists decided to give that film’s soundtracks a special feature, Wilco’s album also got the fun progress bar:

Anywho, after all that they took a break and a bit of a hiatus. When they came back with 2019’s Ode To Joy they seemed to have regained the focus that was missing from the aforementioned albums. ‘Hold Me Anyway’ feels like a wonderful companion piece to Sky Blue Sky’s ‘Either Way’ and its just delicious.

Bird Without a Tail / Base of My Skull

On Cruel Country, Wilco went country… except not in the ‘return of the twang’ vibe many were expecting. It’s country, sure, but not like that. This is mostly-acoustic and more country-inspired folk than it is a return to A.M (phew). A quietly majestic album full of highlights, for me hearing ‘Bird Without a Tail / Base of My Skull’ unfold and the space it allows all members to weave around each other is as good as it gets.