{From the Editor}

IF THERE IS a theme to this issue, it might be reinvention. The four artists in our main features have each released a new album that shows them taking a fresh approach to their music, instruments or career.

Reinvention is part of Wilco’s DNA. Jeff Tweedy and company emerged in the 1990’s No Depression alt-country movement, merging country, folk, and rock and and before switching into psychedelic rock with . On 2001’s , the musical arrangements became more varied and less predictable, as Tweedy tore away any sense of a cohesive band, preferring to expose the rhythms and disparate musical elements underpinning each song’s structure. The guitarist has continued to confound expectations ever since, bounding from alternative country to alternative and experimental rock on subsequent albums. As Art Thompson reports, on their new , Wilco deconstruct the very foundation of rock music — the beat — and in the process create fascinating new tone-shaping and lead-playing opportunities for Nels Cline, Tweedy’s virtuoso coguitarist.