Sky Blue Sky has accurately been described as Wilco's "aging gracefully" album, and sees Jeff Tweedy writing with an ever-growing sense of wisdom. Considering he overcame his now famous addiction to painkillers, clearly Tweedy has no shortage of life experiences to inspire such perspectives, but there is a clear sentiment throughout the record of a growing sense of contentment with life, relationships, and the things we don't control.

The record's two most telling lyrics can be found on the McCartney-esque 'Side with the Seeds' (“Embracing the situation is our only chance to be free”), and the title track (“I should be satisfied / I survived / That's good enough for now”). Interestingly, every song resolves (even ‘You Are My Face,’ which expresses fear of loneliness, still ends with "When we're not sure, we're not alone"). Even with Tweed's heart on his sleeve, the record lacks the lyrical urgency of past efforts, but Tweedy's perspectives retain their meaning and depth.

The record is confident and unusually sunny musically, too; the songs themselves are generally polished, mid-tempo blues-based alt-country, breaking into the occasional jam session, the best one being on 'Impossible Germany,' though the best song is the sleepily beautiful title track.

Wilco doesn't push the sonic envelope as it has in the past (is anyone ready to admit yet that A Ghost Is Born was actually kind of underrated?); there are no fifteen-minute drone experiments this time, and there may be one-too-many "background" songs here (‘Please Be Patient With Me’ is the record's official lull), but the band sounds entirely secure with being so accessible. Sky Blue Sky is not as initially impacting as Wilco's previous efforts, but Wilco records usually take a long time to grow on you; for now, call it a 3.5, but sometime, months or years from now, you'll hear it just right and realize it was a 4 all along.

David Coats