[rating=7.00]
Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy is no stranger to writing deeply personal lyrics. On the band’s 1999 album Summerteeth it took the form of deeply depressing lyrics packaged in catchy hooks and studio production. On the almost experimental 2007 effort Sky Blue Sky, they wavered between pessimism and optimism sung over beautifully played songs. On his first proper solo album, WARM, Tweedyâs songs feel like his most personal to date.
Acoustic guitars make up the majority of instrumentation on the 11 tracks with some steel guitar and drums largely adding accents. âHow Hard it is for a Desert to Dieâ finds a steel guitar dreamily sliding along in the background and âFrom Far Awayâ is accented by beautiful electronic currents and hints of the noise that Jeff loves to seamlessly implement into Wilco songs.
In his memoir Letâs Go (So We Can Get Back), Jeff describes the songs on WARM as âsome of the most direct, personal and autobiographical that Iâve ever written,â and it’s obvious throughout the album. On âDonât Forgetâ, he sings to his sons about life and dealing with his own fatherâs death lyrics like âDonât forget to brush your teethâ are woven in with more serious lines like âWe all think about dyingâ and âI wonât overlook the willows bending by the gravesâ. âHaving Been Is No Way To Beâ is another stand out track on the album where Jeff tells off people that think that he wrote better music before going to rehab and about how he is fulfilling a promise to those close to him by staying alive. âHow Will I Find Youâ is a beautiful track the has some richly dynamic sonics and sounds eerily similar to the Smashing Pumpkinâs track âSomaâ. On an album full of great, personal songs there are bound to be some duds, and WARM is no exception. âLetâs Go Rainâ is an upbeat multiple harmony song that just doesnât feel like it belongs on the album. It even has a reference to frequent collaborator Scott McCaughey, which feels more like an inside joke than would be more at home on a Crosby, Stills, and Nash album.
Though most tracks on the album seem to be more around the three-minute range, Tweedy is definitely able to fit a lot of deep, personal lyrics into each song. Each song is unmistakably a Jeff Tweedy song, however the album as a whole doesnât feel super cohesive as it bounces from Americana to folk-rock to alt-rock to singer-songwriter, making the weaker songs feel even more out of place among the otherwise great album.
