Wilco

When it comes to critical adulation and eager anticipation of its every move, Wilco stands alone in the current generation of American rock bands. Few would have guessed such accolades would follow upon the release of the band’s ho-hum 1995 debut, A.M., but Wilco earned its reputation thanks to an unbroken string of albums that, even if they weren’t great, were always intriguing. Last year’s The Whole Love, self-released on the dBpm label, finds the band sounding as “Wilco” as ever. Playing like a grab bag of the band’s previous guises, the album offers up Summerteeth-era power-pop gems (“I Might,” “Dawned On Me”), a long-lost country-rock side (“Open Mind”), and the light jangle of latter-day Wilco, continuing the band’s recent string of reliable, occasionally exceptional albums.

Updated 01/06/2012