Lead singer Jeff Tweedy recently claimed the world doesn’t need another Wilco album but Ode to Joy will leave you disagreeing with him.
Wilco’s 11th record since forming in 1994 holds a mirror to what Tweedy describes as our “most disturbing political climate”, quietly at first, before growing mightier by the minute.
The beat makes it clear that the repetition of “Never gonna change” on opener Bright Leaves isn’t resignation, it’s stoic resistance. Before Us, its name taken from the lyric “long live the people who have come before us”, is as much as a rallying cry as it is a moment of folk reflection. It includes one of the album’s best, though bleak, lines: “Now when something’s dead we try to kill it again.”
On Quiet Amplifier, the longest track, persistent drums press the weight of the world onto to your shoulders, as a cascade of noise and distortion rains over, not behind, Tweedy’s careful vocals. Then it’s onto Everyone Hides, a catchy reminder of two things: firstly, Wilco can do pop too. Secondly, this is an Ode to Joy after all. Though some issues, Tweedy reminds us, are too big to hide from.
