Album of the Week: Wilco Star Wars

Is there a point where musicians stop trying new things?

I don't mean switching up the signature of their songs when playing them live, or ad-libbing new lyrics to audience favorites. I mean really trying to come up with a new sound, a new approach to the way they (and by extension their audience) think about their music. Bob Dylan comes to mind right off the bat, as does Miles Davis – both men were ever restless, never comfortable in one lane for too long. These kinds of artists are more the exception than the rule – by and large, after 20 years or so, most rock artists have pretty much set up shop in a particular groove, and even if they're producing new material, it won't sound all that different.

So give it up for Wilco, who in the process of celebrating their 20^th anniversary, have taken a new approach to their alt-country sound and crafted the (probably) closest thing we're likely to see to a punk album with their surprise release, Star Wars.

The first song, the just-over-a-minute "Ekg," makes it clear this is going to be a different album for the band. It's a jangly instrumental, all strummed guitars and wailing lines, sounding at once fuzzy and purposeful. That's pretty much Star Wars all over – it's easily the band's rawest and riffiest release in a decade or longer, and even if all the ideas don't connect, it's refreshing to hear Wilco trying on something new, just to see if it fits. The thing clocks in at a little longer than 30 minutes, and captures the same recorded in a garage vibe that seems to be on the rise in indie circles these days.

Wilco is notorious for going left whenever they are so moved, (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is probably the most famous example, but A Ghost is Born is closer to our purposes here) but going this far left may be a surprise for some. Songs like "More…" finds the band at its grungiest, and "Random Name Generator" channels T. Rex with its fuzzy riffs. For fans of albums like Sky Blue Sky or Being There, some of this may be a little too scuzzy.

Wilco can still hit that sweet alt-country spot when the fancy it. Check out "Taste the Ceiling," which could easily have been a B-side from Sky Blue, or "King of You," which has the best hook of the album. Even amidst all the reverb, they can still bring the pretty, as they ably display in "You Satellite."

Star Wars definitely rewards repeat listens, and sifting through the noise leads to some fantastic finds and ideas. Take "Pickled Ginger" and "Where Do I Begin," songs that are practically mirror images of each other, except for the guitars – swampy electric on the former and simple acoustic on the latter – and you can hear the band contrasting approaches, like they're pulling off the same trick twice to see which way it works better.

While the album isn't likely to become anyone's favorite Wilco album (it probably won't even crack my top five), the sense of exploration and experimentation makes it a worthy addition to their catalogue. What better way to celebrate 20 years of music by showing there are so many directions still to go?

Star Wars is available for free on Wilco's website.

Also recommended this week:

Ducktail's lovely dream pop gem, St. Catherine.

Ashley Monroe's understated country album, The Blade.

Album of the Week: Dwight Yoakam Second Hand Heart

Has Dwight Yoakam always rocked this hard?

Does country have some redeeming qualities?

Has my whole life been a lie?

These are the types of surprising questions you ask yourself when you come across something or someone great in a genre that you'd previously written off.

One of the best things about taking an eclectic approach to music (or any art medium, really) is that you can never really turn your back on any genre – definitions in music tend to be fluid things, and there's no telling when someone will came along and completely change the game. Sometimes these figures change it for everyone (your Miles Davis, your Bob Dylans, your Kanye Wests), but there are also artists who change things for you as a listener – artists who make you appreciate sounds or nuances to a genre you never did before.

For me and country music, Dwight Yoakam may just be that game changer.

A little background: country music has never really been my thing. As a kid in the 90s I'm fairly certain I listened to Garth Brooks (because, judging by the amount of people I saw wildin' about his return to touring, everybody my age did), though I couldn't tell you any of his songs now. For the longest time the only country I liked were the classics – Patsy Cline (still my favorite country singer, full stop), Johnny Cash and Hank Williams – and some of the early 2000s outlaw country – Hank III and Shooter Jennings. In recent years I've found a lot to like in the "newer" generation – Eric Church, Sturgill Simpson, Kacey Musgraves, Jamey Johnson and Miranda Lambert – but tended to skip everything between Cash and Lambert's Four the Record.

My one outlier was Yoakam's 2012 album 3 Pears, which hooked me hard on first, second and twenty-fifth listens. For my money, it's an underrated country gem that nowhere near enough young people pay attention to. Not knowing much about Yoakam at the time (he was just a name I'd heard country fans mention), I thought perhaps it was one of those rare great albums in the second half of an artist's career.

Now I'm forced to grapple with the first question I posed above, and after listening to Yoakam's fifteenth (!!!) studio album, Second Hand Heart, I think I have an answer – fuck yes.

Yoakam's second album is called Hillbilly Deluxe, a name that could just as fittingly apply to Second Hand Heart, which continues to embody what a producer told him when working on his first album in the 1980's – a sound "so hillbilly, they're going to call it rock 'n' roll."*

The rock vibe is there from the word go on the album, with "In Another World's" furious acoustic guitar riff and Tom Petty-esque electric guitar lines. In the middle of the song Yoakam breaks out harmony work that wouldn't be out of place on a Beach Boys track, and throughout the number he shows off his vocal range by going low and then sending his voice soaring above the music. He also has this kind of hiccup thing he does on a few words that is perhaps the most country thing I've ever heard.

He keeps up the strong vocal work on "She," wonderfully yelping his way through a plea for a woman to share herself and her heart with him. The song is hook-filled anthem that ably represents so much of what makes Second Hand Heart great – fantastic guitar work, an infectious melody and some stellar vocals.

Yoakam has the tears-in-your-beers front covered as well, with slower songs like "Dreams of Clay" and "Off Your Mind" – the latter of which is a right out of the Hank Williams stylebook and it's fantastic. History even gets a rockabilly update in Yoakam's Chuck Berry-infused cover of "Man of Constant Sorrow."

Guitar work is front and center on the album, and Yoakam taps into the style of some of his peers – specifically Tom Petty and John Mellencamp – who came up in the late 70s and early 80s. I'm not sure if this kind of folk-guitar rock is the secret carry-over from the 80s (as opposed to say, whatever the hell all that hair metal was), but Yoakam certainly treats it as if that's the case.

Album closer "V's of Birds" starts out like it's going to be some piano-driven weeper, then morphs into a sound-alike of "What A Wonderful World," before it settles into what it actually is – the prettiest damn song here. It has the most diverse instrumentation – not only incorporating the piano, but also an organ and mandolin – and Yoakam gives the lyrics the perfect lift and melancholy.

Yoakam was touring with Eric Church earlier this year as the opener, and I think that's a great match – Church is one of the most interesting artists modern country has to offer, and hopefully many of the young people who go to the shows (and Church himself) paid attention when he hit the stage. Yoakam shows all the signs of being in a legendary album run, and we're all lucky to be around for it.

Second Hand Heart is out on Warner Brothers.

*(The quote came from a lovely piece by NPR's Ann Powers that you can read here.)