On 'Star Wars,' Wilco not quite so far, far away

"Star Wars" by Wilco
"Star Wars" by Wilco

B Wilco

Star Wars

dBpm

I was talking with one of my nephews on a recent Saturday and the conversation, as it often does when we get together, turned to music. A Wilco song was soon playing in the background as other family members splashed and dashed around the backyard pool where we'd all gathered.

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"Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams"

I hadn't given Wilco much thought lately and we talked about our favorite albums, concluding that though we loved Jeff Tweedy and his band, we'd both mostly lost interest not long after 2004's A Ghost Is Born.

Less than a week later, I awoke to an inbox with a link to download Star Wars, Wilco's 11th studio record and a surprise release the band is posting for free at its website, wilcoworld.net, and iTunes. It's also available at streaming services and will be available later for purchase on CD and vinyl record.

The album opens with a brief instrumental of barbed-wire guitar before settling into the kind of fuzzy, alt-pop, space dust folk that Wilco's been perfecting since 2002's brilliant Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

"Random Name Generator" is a Tweedy word puzzle that pulses into a cacophonous wave; "Pickled Ginger" cruises tensely beneath a gritty guitar line before the cracks begin to show; "Cold Slope" features John Stirratt's clever bass and is a neat little deep-album cut; "Where Do I Begin" is a quiet, bittersweet track that -- here we go again -- turns warped and noisy by the end.

Star Wars isn't Wilco's best; there are no great revelations or neck-snapping left turns (after 11 albums, can there be?) but for those who haven't been keeping up lately it's a perfect re-entry point to the band's more recent stuff.

Now where's my copy of Sky Blue Sky?

Hot tracks: "Pickled Ginger," "You Satellite."

B+ Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams

Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams

Red House

The late Arkansas-born musician Levon Helm, known for his distinguished work in The Band and as a rootsy and spirited solo artist, held a regular get-together (called the Midnight Ramble) at his barn studio in Woodstock, N.Y.

Larry Campbell was Helm's bandleader for seven years; his wife, Teresa Williams, sang with that band. On their new album, recorded at Helm's studio, Helm makes an appearance on their debut album, playing drums on "You're Running Wild."

And while Campbell is clearly a gifted musician, songwriter and arranger, it is Williams' voice that makes this rootsy country-folk album especially alluring. Her soulful reading of Julie Miller's "Midnight Highway" brings the song's yearning, bittersweet lyric to heartbreaking life.

Another high point includes the sad weeper "Did You Love Me at All," with Williams lamenting the loss of love and yearning for an answer as she seeks closure.

Hot tracks: "Midnight Highway," "Did You Love Me at All," the rollicking "Bad Luck Charm."

B Alan Jackson

Angels and Alcohol

EMI Nashville

It wouldn't be out of character for Alan Jackson to be making a subtle statement by choosing the title song as the first single from his new album. A moving ballad about the deep costs of alcohol abuse, it's a sobering antidote to bro-country's prevailing party-hearty shallowness.

Which is not to say that the superstar, verging on elder statesmanhood, doesn't like to indulge in drinking songs. Such numbers are a big part of the country canon, and Jackson is, if nothing else, a staunch traditionalist. So here he delivers the terrific honky-tonk romp "Jim and Jack and Hank," which sounds like a smash waiting to happen, and the escapist lark "Mexico, Tequila, and Me."

Overall, this is not the Georgia native's strongest album, although his seven compositions, including the aforementioned three and the excellent set opener, "You Can Always Come Home," are superior to the three nonoriginals. Throughout, Jackson maintains his career-long commitment to keeping the music country, offering Saturday night release and Sunday morning reflection that's radio-friendly and free of gloss and gimmicks.

Hot tracks: "Jim and Jack and Hank," "Angels and Alcohol," "You Can Always Come Home."

-- NICK CRISTIANO, The Philadelphia Inquirer

B- Tame Impala

Currents

Interscope

You have to believe Tame Impala's Kevin Parker when he declares "Yes, I'm Changing" early on in the band's new album.

By that point, the evidence of that change is already overwhelming. Though Tame Impala made its ever-growing reputation with layer upon layer of woozy guitar rock on its first two albums, Currents is much crisper and danceable. "Yes, I'm Changing" sounds like a musical landscape born before the 29-year-old Australian. The swooping synths and minimalist bass line would have been at home with the Thompson Twins, but, in this context, Parker makes it sound reimagined and current.

On "The Less I Know the Better," Parker takes Michael Jackson grooves and filters them through rock attitude and indie sensibilities, which doesn't necessarily make them sound better, but it certainly makes them sound different. Parker's limited falsetto pitches things more toward Broken Bells than Thriller.

It's a nifty trick, rebuilding an already established style into a different structure, but, at times, it seems like Parker lost some of the spark of his earlier work.

Hot tracks: "Yes, I'm Changing."

-- GLENN GAMBOA, Newsday (TNS)

Style on 08/04/2015

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