The Minus 5: Down with Wilco (2003)

(As published in the Times of Acadiana ... )

The Minus 5
Down with Wilco
Yep Roc)

After years of leading the Young Fresh Fellows, Scott McCaughey has finally achieved a youthful freshness worthy of his pet sounds. Better yet, the jokes work: “The Days of Wine and Booze” (a title), “They call me DJ Mini-Mart ’cause that’s where I work” (a line), “Bitterness is reserved for stupid people / not for someone intelligent like me” (another)--each draws you in just enough for the melodies to get their hooks in. That Wilco is the band helps. That McCaughey sings like John Lennon without the world or Yoko Ono on his shoulders--moving so naturally from the absurd to the touching to the comic that it’s hard to tell where (or whether) one ends and the other begins--helps too. Rating: Plus 4.