Wilco became something of a critical cause celebre after the 2002 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot's rejection by its major label backers didn't stop it finding an appreciative audience.
Then came its even more confounding follow-up, A Ghost Is Born, on which these plaid-shirt strummers took a leap intothe askew and abstract.
It was certainly intriguing, had some affecting songs from then troubled frontman Jeff Tweedy, but it sure was a hard one to love from beginning to end. Then came a reminder of just how good a band Wilco was on the 2005 live set Kicking Television: Live In Chicago.
Now, they return sounding, on first impressions, like they've come full circle.
They are the mellow dudes once again - Sky Blue Sky's horizons feel wide after the claustrophobia and sonic edginess of its predecessors.
Soon though, the album shows it has its own line in thrilling electrical surges. But they're helping to build the songs, not pulling them apart, such as when the guitars sounding like Television's Marquee Moon are cascading through the likes of Impossible Germany and Shake If Off.
There are musical gearshifts, equally confounding and brilliant.
You Are My Face heads from a baroque passage into surging guitars, and harmonies stray near Eagles territory; Hate it Here suggests the Beatles' - a touchstone influence throughout - Lady Madonna crossed with Neil Young's Like a Hurricane; Walken starts off all honky tonk rock but by the end could be Radiohead.
That's all tempered with Wilco's more country-fied urges - whether it's the ballads like opener Either Way, Please Be Patient With Me, the tumbleweed swing of the title track or the pedal-steel chiming behind What Light.
And throughout is the plaintive voice of Tweedy, sounding dry-humoured as ever in his lyrics but heartfelt with it. That's especially so on the closing On and On and On, a song about love, loss and mourning that hits the same emotional spot as the Flaming Lips' great Do You Realise? as it builds into its dreamy swirl.
It's one lovely track on an album that is surprisingly so. And it's sure to remain one Wilco album that will be returned to again and again for quite some time.
Label: Nonesuch
Verdict: American alt-country stalwarts make their gentlest album in an age and gosh it's nice
