Reasons to be cheerful | 5 January 2008

I am an idiot. Last month, in this space, I proffered the usual random selection of favourite albums of the year, not a single one of which had actually been released in 2007, for, like many people (I’d like to think), I can be a little slow on the musical uptake. A day or two after the column had been filed, I was listening to Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky (Nonesuch) for maybe the 78th time when I suddenly thought, ‘Hang on, this came out this year. And it’s as good as anything I’ve heard this year as well.’ Thus proving that I am appreciably slower on a far wider range of uptakes than I had previously suspected.

To be fair, though, Wilco’s album could be an easy one to disregard. The band, led by singer and songwriter Jeff Tweedy, are a cornerstone of the American alt-rock scene and have released a number of jagged, even tortured albums over the years, combining country-rock with misery and mild psychological problems, with increasing commercial success. They have never done it for me, particularly; I’ve had a go, usually following up the recommendations of friends, but after listening to a Wilco album my first instinct has often been to send them an email saying, ‘Have you thought of perhaps going for a walk? Or having a nice long bath? You really will feel much better.’ And to anyone who felt miserable after listening to it, my recommendation would have been: try not listening to it again.

But the strangest things happen in music, as in life, and what no one could have predicted is that Jeff Tweedy has cheered up. Apparently he is married and has children and has given up smoking and may even have kicked the painkiller addiction generated by chronic migraines, and let’s not forget the panic attacks or the major depressive disorder, because he won’t have.