It's been almost two months since Wilco released Sky Blue Sky, and our man in the field Nels Cline has been getting a lot of great mentions in the various reviews that have appeared since then (not that we're surprised).
Here's a smattering:
Rolling Stone: "Have Wilco ever come up with a better song than "Impossible Germany"? For the first three minutes, it's a mysterious soft-rock ballad with jazzy chords filtered through stoner-country guitar licks, like some lost outtake from Steely Dan's Katy Lied. Jeff Tweedy mumbles about isolation in his most beaten-up-by-life voice. Then, in the final three minutes, it builds into a twin-guitar epic, with Tweedy in the left speaker reinventing Fleetwood Mac circa Bare Trees, and Nels Cline in the right speaker reinventing Television circa Adventure." (Rob Sheffield)
New York Times: "The production is straightforward, but the song structures aren’t; that’s where Wilco’s idiosyncrasies still hide out. The tunes amble into instrumental interludes that stack riffs into steely patterns or let Wilco’s lead guitarist, Nels Cline, slice through the calm surfaces. Wilco’s new music is contemplative, stripping away past distractions, but it’s far from placid." (Jon Pareles)
Pitchfork Media: "Wilco swelled to its largest and (according to Tweedy himself) best lineup ever, with the addition of guitar hero Nels Cline and utilityman Pat Sansone. Charged up and bursting with eccentric and experimental talent, Wilco Mk. 5 seemed poised to generate the band's finest-- or at least most interesting-- music yet." (Rob Mitchum)
Boston Globe: "Wilco hasn't forsaken its experimental streak, and the group uses it in the service of darkness -- or rather the threat of darkness. Verses and choruses redolent of the Band and the Byrds often veer off into intense instrumental breaks that feature the inspired work of Wilco's new guitarist, avant-garde player Nels Cline." (Joan Anderman)
All Music Guide: "Sky Blue Sky also marks Wilco's first studio recordings since Nels Cline and Pat Sansone joined the group, and they certainly make their presence felt — with Cline, Wilco has its strongest guitarist to date, and while his interplay with Sansone on numbers like "Impossible Germany" and "Walken" lacks the skronky muscle of his more avant-garde work of the past, it's never less than inspired and he works real wonders with Jeff Tweedy's lovely melodies." (Mark Deming)
Los Angeles Times: "When Wilco signed up Nels Cline as its guitarist a few years ago, it looked as if the sky was the limit. Wilco's ability to bend its folk and rock roots with adventurous experimentation had already made it one of the most admired bands in American music, and in Los Angeles-based Cline they added a musician known for fiercely inventive avant-jazz explorations, as well as more grounded work with rock bands such as Bloc and the Geraldine Fibbers. Now here's Wilco's first studio album with Cline (as well as newly recruited multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone), and wouldn't you know it? Sky Blue Sky (in stores Tuesday) is the most musically direct and down to earth of the band's six-album career. Which underscores two things: Cline is as valuable for his taste as for his pyrotechnics. . .Even if he is a team player here, Cline has frequent moments of exquisite guitar work, with elegiac leads of liquid purity and agitated interaction with Tweedy's and/or Sansone's guitar that recall the transcendent architecture of the '70s band Television." (Richard Cromelin)
Spin: "Up front is alt-country/out-jazz guitar god Nels Cline, playing so tastefully he sounds as if her were on loan from Steely Dan, when he's not channeling Jerry Garcia. Between him, Tweedy, and thrid guitarist/keyboardist Pat Sansone, they've made the most beguiling guitar-rock record of the 21st century." (Will Hermes)
Pop Matters: "The closing seconds of “Side With the Seeds” are a firestorm of Cline’s lead guitar that offset the composure and wisdom of the lyrics with tension and uncertainty, but still without fuzz or distortion." (Michael Metivier)
Paste: "Cline was best known for his noisy avant-garde contributions to both jazz and indie rock before joining Wilco in time for 2005’s Kicking Television: Live in Chicago. But he reveals his inner Ry Cooder on Sky Blue Sky, playing hillbilly and rock ’n’ roll licks with unexpected restraint and lyricism mirrored by Tweedy himself." (Geoffrey Himes)
Dusted: "It's not just that [drummer Glenn] Kotche and Cline have the chops, but they can amorphously fit into whatever situation they are put (they both have first rate pedigrees working in avant, jazz, and rock)." (Brandon Kreitler)
Hartford Courant: "Don't mistake Wilco for some latter-day jam band, though. The group remains far more focused than that, and even guitarist Nels Cline's flowing, lyric lead parts are tightly structured. His solo on "Impossible Germany" is a masterpiece of technique and mood as it builds from a casual scattering of notes into an avid instrumental monologue. Tweedy and guitarist Pat Sansone make it a conversation, adding terse two-guitar harmonies while Cline plays sinewy, darting leads before concluding with a reprise of the melodic theme he set up at the beginning of the solo. Cline, a veteran of the Los Angeles free-jazz scene who joined Wilco in 2004, adds texture to the piano-led "Side With the Seeds" and plays languid fills on "Shake It Off" that turn into taut lead lines over grinding organ vamps." (Eric R. Denton)
Prefix: "[Cline's] genius is apparent in the measured burst he adds to the rest of the record, especially the Beatles-ish vamp on "Hate It Here" and the bridge-carrying riff from "You Are My Face." (Andrew C. Bradick)
Austin Chronicle: "The album's more collaborative songwriting results in a comfortable air. . .Nels Cline, added to the lineup alongside multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone following 2004's A Ghost Is Born, brings true inspiration with his avant-garde guitarisms, exploding the R&B swagger of "Side With the Seeds" and, on "Impossible Germany," twinning solos with Tweedy in one of the album's few exceptional moments." (Rob Freeman)
