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The album starts with the slow build of Misunderstood, which - if you were fortunate enough to see Wilco in this era - was often their concert opener, with Tweedy basically shredding his vocal cords to start the show. Howling "I'D LIKE TO THANK YOU ALL FOR NOTHING AT ALL", Tweedy would blast away, opening the show with what was essentially a giant shock to anyone who was expecting traditional alt-country from Wilco. It's a marker for where the album is going and the evolution that had begun.

I don't think enough is made of Jay Bennett's influence on Tweedy and on the Wilco sound. For all the credit Tweedy deservingly gets for being a boundary pusher, I think that sonically he owes a sizable debt to Bennett, who famously was kicked out of the band not long after the completion of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. It's clear that his personality and Tweedy's didn't mesh, but what if that conflict was part of what made Tweedy evolve? In Uncle Tupelo, Tweedy and Jay Farrar were both creative partners and sparring partners. Anyone who has seen I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, the excellent Sam Jones documentary on the making of YHF, knows that Bennett filled the sparring partner role with gusto (if unintentionally).

As much was made about the seeming plateau of Wilco's sixth and seventh albums (Sky Blue Sky and Wilco (The Album)), is it possible that as the new version of Wilco got comfortable with each other they also got along too well? That's not to suggest that some new dissension is the catalyst for the greatness of The Whole Love, but more to suggest that as Tweedy matured, got healthy and happy, it's possible that he eventually didn't need a creative combatant any more.

In any case, that's a long way to go to get to this point - the addition of Jay Bennett to Wilco after A.M. helped the band get from an album that I don't even listen to with regularity to Being There, one of their finest.

4 - Sky Blue Sky (Steve) - Sky Blue Sky is a love letter from Jeff Tweedy to his wife, a paean to getting sober, an introspective contemplation of priorities, maturation, and relationships, and ultimately a resetting of expectations about Wilco's music. What kind of music should Wilco make? Tweedy says it best at the beginning of "What Light":

If you feel like singing a song
And you want other people to sing along
Just sing what you feel
Don't let anyone say it's wrong

Wilco can make cutting edge post-music music, and Wilco can make simple, pretty folk rock songs. They are inviting us along for the ride, but we should check preconceptions at the door. Tweedy himself said about the making of Sky Blue Sky: "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". Sky Blue Sky was Tweedy dialing it back, getting back to basics, and getting to know his new bandmates that joined on following A Ghost Is Born.

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