If celebrating the 20th anniversary of their classic album with concerts and a massive boxset, and announcing their own festival wasn’t enough, Wilco have an album of brand new material on the way. The band’s 12th studio album is called Cruel Country, and they shared its first single, “Falling Apart (Right Now),” today.
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Cruel Country is out on May 27, which is the same weekend of Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival, which takes place in Massachusetts. According to a statement, the album was almost entirely composed of live takes while Wilco played together at The Loft in Chicago. The band is slated to perform the record in its entirety for the first time ever at the North Adams, Massachusetts fest.
“There have been elements of country music in everything we’ve ever done,” frontman Jeff Tweedy said in a statement. “We’ve never been particularly comfortable with accepting that definition, the idea that I was making country music. But now, having been around the block a few times, we’re finding it exhilarating to free ourselves within the form, and embrace the simple limitation of calling the music we’re making country.”
The two-disc Cruel Country will release through dBpm Records, and is available for pre-order now.
“Country music is simply designed to aim squarely at the low-hanging fruit of the truth,” Tweedy says. “If someone can sing it, and it’s given a voice… well, then it becomes very hard not to see. We’re looking at it. It’s a cruel country, and it’s also beautiful. Love it or leave it. Or if you can’t love it, maybe you’ve already left.”
Wilco Cruel Country Track List:
1. I Am My Mother
2. Cruel Country
3. Hints
4. Ambulance
5. The Empty Condor
6. Tonight’s The Day
7. All Across The World
8. Darkness Is Cheap
9. Bird Without A Tail / Base Of My Skull
10. Tired Of Taking It Out On You
11. The Universe
12. Many Worlds
13. Hearts Hard To Find
14. Falling Apart (Right Now)
15. Please Be Wrong
16. Story To Tell
17. A Lifetime To Find
18. Country Song Upside-down
19. Mystery Binds
20. Sad Kind Of Way
21. The Plains
Wilco 2022 Tour Dates
Fri. May 27 – Sun. May 29 – North Adams, MA @ Solid Sound Festival
Sat. Jun. 11 – Oslo, NE @ Loaded Festival
Mon. Jun. 13 – Copenhagen, DK @ Amager Bio
Fri. Jun. 17 – Zeebrugge, BE @ Zeebrugge Beach Festival
Sat. Jun. 18 – Kent, UK @ Black Deer Festival
Wed. Jun. 22 – Barcelona, ES @ Poble Espanyol
Sat. Jun. 25 – Murcia, ES @ Plaza De Toros Murcia
Mon. Jun. 27 – Madrid, ES @ Noches Del Botanico
Mon. Aug. 28 – Martha’s Vineyard, MA @ Beach Road Weekend
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