Vinyl: Wilco | Opaque Electric Blue 2xVinyl LP | Summerteeth | Nonesuch

A loose, inspired masterwork of rootsy power-pop and the best Wilco album, It's the greatest album Alex Chilton never made. With perfect pop melodies and a knack for throwing things askew via left-field sonic elements, this is as far from the country as Wilco could be. Jeff Tweedy's ragged-but-right voice is the essence of rock and roll—the travails detailed in the lyrics seem undeniably his own. Though his days of paying homage to Acuff-Rose seem long gone, Tweedy and his compatriots still sound engagingly organic on summer teeth. Even if they're closer to Badfinger after a few beers than to the post-Uncle Tupelo alt-country of Tweedy's former partner and Son Volt leader Jay Farrar, Wilco are still treading the same path they started years ago, obviously headed in the right direction.