Like many people, the iPod has drastically changed my music listening habits.  When I got my first iPod (five years ago and free via freeipods.com) my mission was to make it so that hitting shuffle would never bring up a bad tune.  Finally, I was able to extract just the songs I liked from albums that were overall made of crap.

So it’s rare that I buy albums even though I spend hundreds of dollars a year on music between iTunes and the Amazon music stores.  Nevertheless, a few albums get through.  Last year I was excited about Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” and Beck’s “Modern Guilt.”  I think “In Rainbows” is a masterpiece but a year later I have to be in a bad mood to listen to it with the exception of the opening track which helps me when I’m working out.  I tell my fiancé that Radiohead was the music I listened to when I was single and sad all the time.  Beck’s album, while poorly reviewed, was one of his most consistent albums in years.  I agree that there’s something empty about it but several of the songs are pleasantly surprising when they pop up on shuffle play today.

This year, I was excited about the new Wilco album which is released today but has been available via the band’s web site for months.  I’ve been a fan of Wilco since a friend of mine had me score a scene in her travel documentary with “California Stars.”  Years afterward I found “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” in a local music store (remember when we had those?) and I still consider one of my favorite albums of all time.

“Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” led me to explore Wilco’s entire back catalog and even side projects like Tweedy’s work with the Minus 5 and Loose Fur and his previous work with Uncle Tupelo.  Tweedy is an incredible songwriter and his body of work is remarkably consistent, his voice is one of my favorites because it’s appealing and yet not that intimidating.  I feel like I can sing along when I’m listening.

I was a bit disappointed by “A Ghost Is Born” I thought that they took the experimentation of “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” too far.  There are some great songs on there but many of them descend into noise…too much noise.  While one can skip over the noise at the end of “Reservations” at the end of “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,” putting noise in the middle of the album makes it hard to get through it.  But the heartache of songs like “Wishful Thinking” and the killer bridge of “Theologians” bring me back to this album a track at a time when putting together playlists.

“Sky Blue Sky” got rid of the noise but also got rid of the rock.  To say the album is mellow is putting it lightly.  Some of the songs like “Impossible Germany” and “Side with the Seeds” have a nice payoff eventually but you have to stay awake to get to those points.

The newest album “Wilco (The Album)” finds  a perfect balance between the too much noise on “A Ghost Is Born” and the too much mellow on “Sky Blue Sky.”  The guitar solos that dominated “Sky Blue Sky” are used just enough to avoid stealing the show.  The songwriting, as always, is top notch and as an album it’s distinctly listenable.  Highlights for me include “Wilco (The Song)”, “You Never Know”, “I’ll Fight”, and “Country Disappeared.”

The album does not approach the perhaps impossible heights of “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” but it’s a terrific mix of melody mixed with just enough darkness and depth to make this a great album that doesn’t make you feel depressed to listen to it.