Summer Teeth

03/09/1999 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Jon Young

Don't be fooled by Wilco's progressive-country roots, or their recent collaboration with Billy Bragg on the Woody Guthrie project: Jeff Tweedy and company have grown into a fine all-purpose pop band, more concerned with classic '60s stylings than designer honky-tonk. Perhaps their best album yet, Summer Teeth offers a cool grab bag of familiar yet fresh sounds, including the chunky Velvet Underground thrust of "I'm Always In Love," the warped chamber music of "Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (again)," which cannily echoes the Left Banke, and the tender lullaby "My Darling."

Still, Wilco needs to shed a couple of persistent bad habits. For one thing, their lyrics sometimes court pretentious excess; the wistful "She's A Jar" would be a heartbreaker, except that artsy lines like "Please beware the quiet front yard" break the spell. For another, wimpy ballads such as "Via Chicago" reek of angst-by-numbers tedium. Focus on exhilarating, multicolored tracks in the vein of "Can't Stand It" and "When You Wake Up Feeling Old," however, and Wilco seems capable of greatness.