Wilco Cousin LP

TAS Rated 4/5 Music, 4/5 Sonics in the February 2024 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

Rolling Stone 100 Best Albums of 2023 – Rated 73/100!

Wilco’s 13th studio album, Cousin, was recorded in the band’s legendary Chicago studio — The Loft — over a period of two years. The 10 new tracks are written by band leader Jeff Tweedy and feature musical performances by the longtime lineup of Nels Cline, Mikael Jorgensen, Glenn Kotche, John Stirratt, Pat Sansone and, of course, Tweedy on lead vocals.

After a short detour back into their country-influenced roots via 2022’s Cruel Country double album, Cousin sees Wilco back in their more familiar progressive and experimental rock territory. Tweedy’s singular songwriting voice is in full evidence, with lyrics weaving across a variety of topics — from the iconoclastic to the introspective.

Adding a unique and new element to the recording process was the attachment of Welsh singer/songwriter Cate Le Bon as producer — the first time an outsider has been actively involved in a Wilco recording session for more than 10 years, since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Le Bon brought her unique musical perspective to the band’s trademark sound and provided them with an inspiring new challenge to push their musical boundaries.

What could possibly be better than a Wilco album?

More than any other album in their catalog, Cousin recalls 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in its sturdy yet graceful melodies and the way they’ve dressed up the performances with clouds of carefully manicured noise (as in the opener ‘Infinite Surprise’) and artful soundscapes (the ominous last act of ‘Ten Dead’), though never so much that the musicians are struggling for attention on their own album….Cousin is a powerful, affecting work that once again shows how many great things Wilco can do – and how well they respond to the right kind of creative direction.

If Cruel Country grounded their music in the familiar template of alt-country roots, Cousin leans more toward Wilco’s experimental pop side. Cate LeBon produces this record with confident restraint and an ear for unusual sonic textures. She finds a way to showcase the clear ache and vulnerability in [Jeff] Tweedy’s voice. Wilco records have always charted the vagaries of Tweedy’s emotional state, and his intuitive songwriting mines these moody depths in song. In such a precarious era, Cousin offers deep emotional resonance to its listeners.