Wilco's new album, Wilco (the album), is due out on Nonesuch in another month, and the critical response has already begun, including, this week, from the band's two hometown papers, the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. At the same time, the band is prepping the release of a limited-edition 7" vinyl single of the album track "You Never Know" with a B-side of a previously unreleased tune, "Unlikely Japan." The release of the single on June 20 marks the inaugural Vinyl Saturday, a monthly celebration of all things vinyl from the people behind Record Store Day. It's now available for pre-order here in the Nonesuch Store.

The Chicago Sun-Times gives Wilco (the album) 3.5 stars. Leading to the new album's review, the paper's pop music critic, Jim DeRogatis, gives a survey of each of the band's six previous releases, calling the band's Nonesuch 2002 debut, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, "Wilco's masterpiece"; credits A Ghost Is Born with having "pushed the envelope"; and finding their last, Sky Blue Sky, to be "a quiet sigh of contentment after all that turbulence."

DeRogatis asserts that "the band has cemented a reputation as one of the most creative forces in rock today, with Tweedy evoking comparisons to greats such as Bob Dylan and Neil Young." He sees the new album as "a summing-up of what the band is and everywhere it's been." What's more, DeRogatis concludes that the songs on the album "stand beside the best that the band has given us in each genre."

Read the complete review at blogs.suntimes.com.

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The Chicago Tribune gives the album three stars, with pop music critic Greg Kot describing the band's current members as "the most technically accomplished of Wilco’s many lineups and the longest-lived, together since 2005, and Wilco (the album) is a compendium of its best moves."

Kot too sees a coming of age of sorts in the band's current work, with songs featuring "adults struggling to find a small place in the world ... snapshots of moments, and the singer and his bandmates are well-suited to coloring in the details. The sextet suggests more of a mini-orchestra than a band: John Stirratt’s elegantly agile bass playing, Nels Cline’s multitude of guitar voicings, Glenn Kotche’s shades of percussion. Tweedy’s confiding tone has only gotten more nimble over the years, whether he’s singing in a whisper or jumping into a falsetto cry."

In a song-by-song analysis, Kot has this to say of the album's opener, "Wilco (the song)": "It is that rare thing: an anthem with a sense of humor, a grand statement that doesn’t sound like a grand statement. Listen to it, and try not to smile. That’s what the healing power of music should sound like."

Read the review at leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com.