Wilco has a new album…

Two versions of the album’s first single, “Evicted”

Hey-oh! Wilco announced a new album on Tuesday. And I just wanted to let you know about it. By and large I know that’s not really what we do here. Talk about “product,” that is. But I’m so dang excited about it and I just can’t…keep my excitement to myself. It’s produced by our dear friend Cate Le Bon (she says I’m her best friend, BTW) who braved Chicago wintertime to record it with us. I think it’s a pop record. Art-pop to be more specific. Not “pop” as in “pop”-ular. That’s not really up to us. It’s kind of like when we said Cruel Country was our idea of country music and a lot of people went, “Huh?! this doesn’t sound like Colt Steed!” (or some other plausible sounding country mega-star name).

Did someone say cake?

To me, pop music will always be the genre that people used to also refer to as “Bubblegum.” It’s sweet and seemingly meant for mindless consumption, but has a Trojan Horse-like power to transform minds and hearts. I love it. Always have. This particular pop album, being largely recorded during said Chicago winter, adds a layer of frozen, sugary ice. Not cold, unfeeling ice. Pretty ice, so everything can slip around a bit and feel a little unsure of itself—a little less serious. And sugar because of, you know, the whole “bubblegum pop” thing—wanting it to be how that genre feels to me. Sweet and easy. Shiny and sad. When I saw Azuma Makoto’s art, I couldn’t believe my eyes at how close it felt to the way this record feels to me. Like when I was a kid I used to think some candy was too pretty to eat. But I did anyway. The album will be available for your consumption on the 29th of September.

We released a single from the album on Tuesday, too. A song called “Evicted.” I told our publicist, Jessica, who told the press (natch) that “Evicted” is loosely “from the point of view of someone struggling to make an argument for themself in the face of overwhelming evidence that they deserve to be locked out of someone’s heart. Self-inflicted wounds still hurt, and in my experience, they’re almost impossible to fully recover from.” Ouch.

I wanted to share the song here on the Starship. And as an added bonus, I recorded a solo acoustic version of it this week into my phone (you can hear Spencer in the background recreating his favorite moment from the album version) because isn’t that more like what we do here? Play with songs from multiple angles for the love of songs? For the love of GOD?!?

OxO—Jeffy

Evicted (album version)

Evicted (acoustic phone recording)