Wilco's album Cousin. "I'm a cousin to the world," confesses frontman Jeff Tweedy. "I don't feel like I'm a blood relative, but maybe a cousin by marriage." Produced by Welsh recording artist Cate Le Bon, Cousin marks Wilco's first time working with an outside producer since Jim O'Rourke's involvement with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Sky Blue Sky.
Le Bon's influences - including the use of saxophone, cheap Japanese guitars and a cinematic, New Wave-esque drum machine - push the album into the future. The result is Wilco's most pointed and evocative album, one that relates to our present moment, truly breaking new ground for a band that has tested musical boundaries throughout its long career.
