Jeff Tweedy writes many songs: some of these songs are timeless, and some of them are songs. He's trended more towards the latter category with the last few Wilco albums, as well as the Sukierae album he released as a band, fittingly called Tweedy, with his son. So with the news he was releasing WARM, his first solo record of new material under his own name, there's a natural inclination to wonder how much of it will be timeless. The answer is...maybe some of it, someday?

At the height of Wilco's powers, it seemed like every one of Jeff Tweedy's words was vital, important, and there for a reason. With WARM, there are some songs that work this way from the get-go, whether the biblical themes of "Let's Go Rain," the self-referential "I Know What It's Like," or the evocative imagery of "How Hard It Is for a Desert to Die." Listeners will find moments that will seem as urgent as anything since Sky Blue Sky, and they'll also find songs that waft in and out of the brain like anything from Sukierae, Star Wars, or Schmilco. I've thought for a while that the highlights of the last three albums mentioned could be consolidated into a single record that would be fairly good, so I suppose the highest compliment to WARM is that while it could similarly be rolled into this mix, it would at least have a higher quotient of contributions than the other albums.

Jeff Tweedy is still a distinctive voice in modern songwriting, but he takes himself a whole lot less seriously now. The lessened stakes serve him well, but it also means that these songs don't quite land with the same power as his highest peaks.

Resources

Jeff Tweedy - Official Site