Scott McCaughey, the former front man for the Seattle cult rock band Young Fresh Fellows joins up with the members of Wilco as The Minus 5 in a lavish recording titled as Down With Wilco. The Minus 5 also features R.E.M.'s Peter Buck and the Posie's Ken Stringfellow to give this band an all-star punch of dexterity. Following last year's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, a visionary exploration into the sonic realms of alt/country certainly is a daunting task. However, the Minus 5 is more McCaughey's affair, as he wrote the majority of the music, but it clearly grows from Jeff Tweedy and Company's arrangement skills.
The recording is broken up as "A Tragedy In Three Halfs," or three sections of tunes that tangle you in an army of late 60's early 70's retro echoes. McCaughey's John Lennon tinged vocals sound like a Brian Wilson creation gone indie. "Retrieval Of You" with its background harmonies is pop song writing at its finest; catchy, short, addictive, but not sugar coated. The songs in the first half build further into Pet Sounds orchestrated catchiness, as they lead into the most original name for a tune ever, "The Town That Lost Its Groove Supply," and I don't think the bands talking about Houston, Texas.
The second half continues with the Lennonesque piano based harmonies of "Daggers Drawn" but picks up steam into "Where Will You Go," featuring the more gritty guitar work within the Wilco sound of where Yankee Hotel Foxtrot stung. McCaughey comes off legit as a piano based songwriter/singer, giving the songs a sense of reassurance and pop hook most often missing in tandem in today's scene. "Life Left Him There" clearly resonates in the Byrds "Turn Turn Turn" and forces the dynamics the album's dynamics to continue reverberating the past, eventually feeling like a Time Life commercial. Clever or uninspired, the recording begs at times to speak for itself. Although, at this point it's almost too obvious who the band's influences are and really, who cares. After all, these artists are proven geniuses within their own musical canvases. Jeff Tweedy lends his earnest cigarette horsed voice to the "The Family Gardener" that sounds like a hearty leftover from the Foxtrot sessions providing the record a much needed roots based kick in the face,
60's Brit rock continues in all it's forms, as the third section drops into Pink Floyd, Atom Heart Mother and Wish You Were Here ground. Fans of Ween's White Pepper will also find a handful of these tunes within the same shaggy flashback without questioning the lyrics political correctness.
As the recording moved into the third tragedy you can't help but wonder why these songs were divided up in the first place. Although they all ideally have some type of connected landscape, the tunes are just too damn catchy for the listener to even wonder the purpose behind it all. Isn't that why King Crimson and Dream Theater are around? To provide lyrical association with extended musical journeys. Either way, this recording is no Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but then again what is? Down With Wilco iexemplifies great pop song writing along with a great cast of musicians, strumming out golden age harmonies at times feeling like "Daydream Believer," might be the bonus track. The songs are all extremely well written, orchestrated and produced, and will grab you in the mood for that Beatles record you haven't listened to since...Oasis came out with their last record.
