Sky Blue Sky
Sky Blue Sky | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | May 15, 2007 | |||
Recorded | November 2006 – January 2007 | |||
Studio | The Wilco Loft, Chicago | |||
Length | 50:56 | |||
Label | Nonesuch | |||
Producer | Wilco | |||
Wilco chronology | ||||
|
Sky Blue Sky is the sixth
Production
In April 2006, Wilco was still touring in support of their most recent studio album,
The album was recorded by TJ Doherty at The Loft in Irving Park, Chicago, where Tweedy had recorded Loose Fur's Born Again in the USA and most of Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. In an interview with Billboard, the band revealed that the album would be less experimental than the two previous albums and more influenced by The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Rolling Stones. Also, unlike the previous albums, Sky Blue Sky was made with minimal involvement from Jim O'Rourke; resulting in very few overdubs.[5]
Composition
The band sought to be more direct with this record than the previous two, resulting in a more mellow album. Tweedy attributes the lyrical directness to his listening to material by The Byrds and Fairport Convention while recording the album.[6] He disliked the reliance on studio effects on previous albums:[7]
I got nervous about the technology on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. If you need a certain amp or pedal to make a song what it is, it isn't a song.
Many of the album's songs were recorded in a single day, with the band reaching a consensus on how each song should sound.
Unlike previous Wilco albums, Sky Blue Sky features more songwriting collaboration between Tweedy and the other members of the band. As a result, a variety of lyrical themes appear on Sky Blue Sky (Tweedy was the only designer of the songs on A Ghost Is Born, using Pro Tools, before presenting them to the band).[10][11] The title track references the worries Tweedy had as a child in a small town while "On and On and On" is an ode to Tweedy's father's experience after the death of Tweedy's mother.[4][10] "Hate It Here" describes a man who tries to fill his free time with chores after breaking up with his lover.[12]
Sky Blue Sky was the band's first studio record to feature the expanded lineup that premiered on Kicking Television: Live in Chicago. Guitarist Jeff Tweedy provided the lead vocals for the album and John Stirratt, the only other original member of the band, played bass guitar and added background vocals. Glenn Kotche played drums and Mikael Jorgensen performed on a variety of keyboards. New to the band since the previous studio album were lead guitarist Nels Cline and multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone. Additional instrumentation was provided by violist Karen Waltuch and multi-instrumentalist Jim O'Rourke. The album was mixed by Jim Scott at PLYRZ Studios in Santa Clarita, California.[9]
Artwork
The cover artwork of Sky Blue Sky is a photograph by Manuel Presti titled "Sky Chase."
Marketing and promotion
On March 3, 2007, Wilco's official website hosted a Sky Blue Sky "listening party", which
Frustrated by the lack of radio airplay received by previous Wilco albums, the band decided to branch out into television advertising. Wilco had previously licensed songs for
A promotional tour followed the release of the album. The band performed "Sky Blue Sky" and "You Are My Face" on Later... with Jools Holland on May 25, 2007 and was interviewed on The Dermot O'Leary Show the next day.[20][24] Beginning June 13, 2007, Wilco played fourteen shows in North America with Low as its opening act. Following this, the band made plans to tour Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy, and Spain before playing a few more North American shows, including a performance on The Tonight Show.[25]
Release and reception
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 73/100[26] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [27] |
The A.V. Club | A−[28] |
Entertainment Weekly | A−[29] |
The Guardian | [30] |
Los Angeles Times | [31] |
MSN Music (Consumer Guide) | B+[32] |
NME | 7/10[33] |
Pitchfork | 5.2/10[34] |
Rolling Stone | [35] |
Spin | [36] |
Nonesuch released the album on May 15, 2007; the following week became Wilco's best-ever sales week. The album debuted at number four on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling 87,000 copies domestically in its first week.[37] Sky Blue Sky was also an international success, peaking at number 7 in Norway, number 21 in Belgium, number 23 in Australia and Ireland, number 26 in Sweden, number 32 in New Zealand, number 36 in Germany, and number 39 in the United Kingdom.[38]
The album maintains a score of 73 out of 100 from
Colin Stutz of
John Pareles of The New York Times gave the album a positive review and said, "The production is straightforward, but the song structures aren’t; that’s where Wilco’s idiosyncrasies still hide out."[47] Joan Anderman of The Boston Globe also gave it a positive review and said the band "hasn't forsaken its experimental streak, and the group uses it in the service of darkness -- or rather the threat of darkness."[48]
However, not all publications praised the new style of Sky Blue Sky. Stylus Magazine editor Ian Cohen criticized the album's disregard for the "fourth wall", and expressed concern about its dissimilarities to Kicking Television: Live in Chicago.[49] Dorian Lynskey of The Guardian gave the album three stars out of five and said, "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."[30] Now gave it a positive review and stated: "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."[26] Ted Grant of Playlouder gave the album two stars out of five and called it the "blandest and most creatively uninspired record of their career", finding that the album was leading to tame "dad-rock".[50] Pitchfork writer Rob Mitchum also used the "dad-rock" colloquialism, dismissing its straightforwardness and arguing "Tweedy merely ended up with the wrong personnel to articulate his mood here."[34] Mojo also gave the album three stars out of five, stating that "Many longtime listeners... are sure to be disappointed with the radio-friendly production and sheer innocuousness of [the] lyrics."[26] Andy Gill of Uncut gave the album three stars out of five and called it "a slight disappointment".[51] Billboard gave it an average review and stated: "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."[26] Under the Radar gave it five stars out of ten and called it "a very professional but almost inconsequential set... flat and ultimately uninspired."[26] John Walshe of Hot Press gave it a mixed review and said the album was "just too 'nice'."[52]
The lyrical content was considered by critics to be somewhat experimental, but more straightforward than previous Wilco albums.[28][39] Michael Metevier of PopMatters found the lyrics to be "some of the most affecting and least clumsy" of the band's career, though he worried that they might strike some Wilco fans as dull.[39] Rob Sheffield said that while he was unimpressed with the lyrics of other Wilco albums, he liked the songwriting on Sky Blue Sky.[35] However, Brandon Kreitler of Dusted Magazine felt that the lyrics seem like an insular Tweedy confessional, and Doug Freeman of The Austin Chronicle described the collaborative songwriting as yielding "fatalistic ambivalence" while giving the album two stars out of five.[53][54]
The album received a nomination at the 50th Annual
In a 2021 article revising a collection of the website's previous reviews, Pitchfork writer Sam Sodomsky called the album "essential" and informally revised its 5.2 score to an 8.5.[62]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Jeff Tweedy, except where noted
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Either Way" | 3:05 | |
2. | "You Are My Face" | 4:38 | |
3. | "Impossible Germany" |
| 5:57 |
4. | "Sky Blue Sky" | 3:23 | |
5. | "Side with the Seeds" |
| 4:15 |
6. | "Shake It Off" | 5:40 | |
7. | "Please Be Patient with Me" | 3:17 | |
8. | "Hate It Here" |
| 4:31 |
9. | "Leave Me (Like You Found Me)" | 4:09 | |
10. | "Walken" |
| 4:26 |
11. | "What Light" | 3:35 | |
12. | "On and On and On" |
| 4:00 |
Total length: | 50:56 |
Personnel
- Wilco
- Nels Cline – Lead Electric Guitar (1, 3, 5), Lead Electric 12-String Guitar (2), Lap Steel Guitar (4, 10, 11), Electric Guitar (6, 8, 9, 11), Loops (9), Electric 12-String Guitar (12)
- Mikael Jorgensen – Piano (1–5, 7–10), Hammond A100 Organ (3, 11, 12), Wurlitzer (6), Hammond B3 Organ (10)
- Glenn Kotche – Drums (1–6, 8–12), Percussion (3, 6, 11, 12), Glockenspiel (7)
- Pat Sansone – Hammond A100 Organ (1, 2, 5), Vocals (2), Acoustic Guitar (2, 7), Electric Guitar (3, 6, 10), Chamberlin (4), Mellotron (5, 9), Wurlitzer (8), Harpsichord (9), Piano (11, 12), Backing Vocals (11)
- John Stirratt – Bass (1–12), Vocals (2), 8-String Guitar (8), Backing Vocals (11)
- Jeff Tweedy – Vocals (1–12), Electric Guitar (1–10), Acoustic Guitar (4, 7), Acoustic 12-String Guitar (11)
- Additional musicians
- Jim O'Rourke – Feedback (2), Percussion (8), Acoustic Guitar (11), String Arrangements (1, 12)
- Karen Waltuch – Viola (1, 12), Violin (1, 12)
- Production and design
- Lawrence Azerrad – graphic design
- TJ Doherty – recording
- mastering
- Nathaniel Murphy – illustrations
- Frack Ockenfels – photography
- Manuel Presti – cover photograph
- Jim Scott – mixing
- Jason Tobias, Tom Gloady, Kevin Dean – assistant engineering
Charts
Weekly charts
|
Year-end charts
|
References
- ISBN 0-7679-1558-5.
Notes
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- ^ a b A Parade of Inspiration on Wilco's Sky Blue Sky, NPR, Washington D.C., May 26, 2007. Last accessed June 10, 2007.
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- Harp. Archived from the originalon September 26, 2007. Last accessed June 10, 2007.
- ^ a b c d Sky Blue Sky album notes, May 15, 2007. Nonesuch Records, 131388.
- ^ a b Kot, Greg (May 13, 2007). "Wilco Pares Down for Simpler, More Intimate Work". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ Kot 2004. p. 240–1
- ^ Collis, Clark. "The Trouble With Tweedy". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on March 29, 2010. Retrieved June 17, 2007. Last accessed June 16, 2007.
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External links