WILCO
Ode To Joy DBPM
9/10
ODE TO JOY is not a great title for Google search results, but it certainly succeeds as a statement of no-fucks bravado. Indeed, the follow-up to Star Wars (2015) and Schmilco (2016) is precisely the opposite of the grandiose and anthemic symphony composed almost 200 years ago. Wilco’s Ode To Joy instead gently reframes Beethoven’s celebration of comradeship for a modern audience. Swapping a chorus of literal voices for symbolic ones, it’s a protest record only this sextet could make, one that rings loudest in its simplicity. It favours subtle textures and hushed vocals, and further reveals its wisdom with each listen. If Being There was Wilco’s Born To Run, this is their Nebraska.
Tweedy’s lyrics don’t stray far from what we already know of his work, but here his poetic observations on self, place and time are loaded with far more meaning than the word count suggests. “I don’t like/The way you’re treating me,” he sings at the start of album opener “Bright Leaves”, layered with ambient synth, feathers of acoustic and electric guitar, piano, gentle bass thumps and the pat of slow-marching drums. “You’ll never change/You’re never gonna change,” he sings, resigned.
The tempo ebbs
