Marcus Berkmann

Reasons to be cheerful | 5 January 2008

issue 05 January 2008

I am an idiot. Last month, in this space, I proffered the usual random selection of favourite albums of the year, not a single one of which had actually been released in 2007, for, like many people (I’d like to think), I can be a little slow on the musical uptake. A day or two after the column had been filed, I was listening to Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky (Nonesuch) for maybe the 78th time when I suddenly thought, ‘Hang on, this came out this year. And it’s as good as anything I’ve heard this year as well.’ Thus proving that I am appreciably slower on a far wider range of uptakes than I had previously suspected.

To be fair, though, Wilco’s album could be an easy one to disregard. The band, led by singer and songwriter Jeff Tweedy, are a cornerstone of the American alt-rock scene and have released a number of jagged, even tortured albums over the years, combining country-rock with misery and mild psychological problems, with increasing commercial success.

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