[rating=9.00]
Coping with a loved one who is undergoing treatment for cancer is heavy stuff.
It’s happening to someone in all of our lives at this very moment, be it first, second or third hand. And for those along for the ride in the thick of the chemo treatments, hospital trips and moments that intersect hope and uncertainty, its without question a mess of emotions that needs to be worked through in order to properly deal with the weight of the situation.
Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy and his eldest son Spencer are two such individuals currently on the frontlines of cancer’s evil grip, processing what is happening to the beloved matriarch of their family, wife and mom Susan Miller Tweedy, who was diagnosed with two forms of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma earlier this year. As a Facebook friend of Susan’s, who is known publicly as the influential co-owner of the sorely missed Chicago rock club the Lounge Ax, reading her funny and forthcoming posts chronicling her progress has been inspiring, especially as a person whose own family has been ravaged by the Big C.
The news about Mama Tweedy came down while Jeff and Spencer were in the process of recording their debut album together, Sukierae, titled after Susan’s family nickname. And while it may not be directly addressed through the course of this 20 song listen, the spectrum of feelings coinciding with everything going on in their lives is indeed omnipresent on an abstract level, as such topics as mortality, devotion and the prospect of loss are all touched upon in some form or another. Tweedy has always been a master of balancing art and emotion. But not since his last successful stab at the double LP, Wilco’s 1996 masterpiece Being There, has it come across so indelibly. In fact, there are several moments of Sukierae that are similar to the quieter moments of Being There, or perhaps its just a testament to how stripped down and organic this new album, the first proper somewhat solo release of Tweedy’s in all of his quarter century in performance, seems to sound against the din of the last few Wilco records.
The album is largely performed by Spencer on the drums and Jeff on everything else save for a few songs that feature longtime pal Scott McCaughey of Young Fresh Fellows/Minus 5/R.E.M. fame on keys and Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of the Brooklyn indie pop band Lucius on occasional backing vocals. And while there are songs that, in fact, conjure the kind of mighty racket Tweedy has mastered in the past on tracks like “Please Don’t Let Me Be So Understood” and “I’ll Sing It”, both of which are from the first disc, Sukierae’s finest moments are in the homey acoustic performances like “Wait for Love”, “Summer Noon” (featuring McCaughey on “typewriter”, btw) and “Fake Fur Coat”, a sparer distant cousin of Being There’s “Forget the Flowers” and one of three tracks that find Pa Tweedy going truly solo having recorded everything himself with no further assistance from any of the record’s other chief principles.
While it is indeed sad to recognize the trying time in the lives of the Tweedy family that no doubt seeped into its creation, Sukierae is nevertheless a triumphant tribute to the beauty and frailty of life, love and the human spirit that ranks high, high up there with the best work in Jeff Tweedy’s catalog yet. And the fact he made it with his talented boy is a testament to the boundless potential that awaits a team of father and son when they put their heads together.
