Wilco were always pop. There's no getting around it. Those purists who firmly believe that "pop" is a dirty word to be avoided at all costs--- and, similarly, that Wilco, their oh-so-beloved indie darlings, the subjects of such tenacious and widespread critical acclaim, can't POSSIBLY fall under the category of--- cringe--- POP--- are wrong. Sure, they'll come up with new names for Wilco's peculiar brand of pop, rock, and country fusion, trendy, clever names like "alt-country," "punktry," and "y'allternative," but these are the same people who called Pearl Jam and Nirvana "grunge rock" because they couldn't bear to think of them as arena-rock and pop-punk, respectively. These are the same people who call Musiq and Jill Scott "neo-soul" because they can't bear to lump them in with mere r&b. And so divisions and subdivisions come about. It's not punk, it's post-punk or proto-punk. It's not hard rock, it's nu-metal. It's not rock and roll, it's hair metal. So on. So forth. Blah.

All this genre-juggling aside, let's throw all misconceptions about the legendary Wilco aside: they're POP. They're great pop, sure, but they're pop. If you find pop synonymous with garbage--- you idiot--- you'll sadly miss out on Wilco and their gorgeous Summerteeth record. Summerteeth, Wilco's third after the inessential A.M. and the brilliant double album Being There, is their most on-point album, if not their absolute best--- that's Being There. It's a stately work of indie-pop, informed by the classic pop of the Beatles and primo Band. Summerteeth trumpets its beginning with the grandiose, trilling bells and whistles of "Can't Stand It," and works its way through to the uncertain closing track proper "In a Future Age."

And, on the way, Wilco never settle into a mundane pattern of musical existence, although they do revolve around a central, unique (if loosely-defined) manner of pop sound. Of course, Wilco being Wilco, and never a band to rest on their musical laurels and use their music, and their formidable skill at making appealing music, to craft some surfacistic manner of giddy sense-pleasing but insubstantial pop music. For, beneath every warm, sensually addicting pop tune--- which are all quite pleasant, mind you--- there lurks a dark, jaded soul ready to pounce. And that's not counting the album's most notoriously dark lines--- "she begs me not to hit her" from "She's A Jar" and "I dreamt about killing you again last night/ and it felt all right to me" from "Via Chicago"--- they're merely the most immediately disturbing. They're the most overt lines. In all the other songs, the sarcasm drifts beneath the surface like a hungry bloodthirsty pirahna. It's fascinating, really--- for while we all can appreciate a pop tune devoid of fancy wordplay or, indeed, any noteworthy substantial theme, Wilco songwriter Jeff Tweedy's brand of pop music is transcendent. The aesthetic and the visceral exist on the same plane. Fascinating.

In a nutshell, Summerteeth has something for everybody. Being There is, still, arguably their best, but you've got to have a certain tolerance for twanginess to truly appreciate it. Summerteeth appeals to pop listeners and lyric hounds alike. The former group will laud Summerteeth because it's full of lush arrangements and GAW-geous melodies. The triumphant chorus of "Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (again)," the stately, Beach Boys-a-riffic "Pieholden Suite," and the Elvis Costello-centric hidden track "Candyfloss"--- they'll love it. Similarly, the latter group will have a blast deconstructing Tweedy's lyrical themes, his potshots at inner turmoil in "How To Fight Loneliness" and domestic discord in "She's A Jar," and the fact that the only un-ironic song on the whole album is "My Darling," introducing a late-album theme about the sanctity of parenthood amidst the impure, tumultuous nature of modern romance--- lyric hounds will love it. They're all irony buffs anyway.

And that's Summerteeth: glibly ironic indie-pop where reverence for classic pop and R&B interacts with a clear reverence for sarcasm and irony. I'll close with the following. Possibly the best thing about Summerteeth is this: that, while nothing is what it seems, it doesn't matter--- because what Summerteeth IS and what it SEEMS to be are both strikingly wonderful.





Recommended: Yes