Sky Blue Sky (Bonus Track Version)

iTunes Review

Sky Blue Sky is Wilco's first studio album with guitar-whiz Nels Cline on board and instead of further pursuing the abstract experimentation that had given the band an unexpected edginess with 2002's Yankee Foxtrot Hotel and 2004's A Ghost Is Born, Wilco have opted to weave Cline into the group's sonic fabric much more tastefully with well-placed spotlights — the solos capping "Impossible Germany" and "Side With the Seeds" — that help the band come across as one smooth FM-radio vehicle. If anything, the addition of Autumn Defense's Pat Sansone seems even more relevant. Sansone's early-‘70s styled keyboards and handle on soothing, sugary harmonies are everywhere throughout, as "Hate It Here" and the mellotron-laced "Leave Me (Like You Found Me)" best accentuate. As for Tweedy? He sounds remarkably well adjusted, sporting his Grateful Dead-like mellow for the title track and "You Are My Face." As Neil Young has certainly taught us, sometimes the greatest artistic stretch has less to do with reaching for the next galaxy than moving a few rocks around to see what more you can unearth.