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Some of the songs may
fail to leave much of a lasting impression, but fans of the Jayhawks,
Soul Asylum, Wilco, and Big Star will find much here to like.
 Much has changed in the eight years since the Midwestern supergroup-of-sorts Golden Smog released its last album, Weird Tales.
In those wide-eyed days of 1998, the Minneapolis-based band, comprised
of like-minded friends culled from the Midwest's burgeoning alt-country
scene, were more critical darlings than household names, with only
guitarist Dan Murphy having tasted true rock stardom as axe-slinger for
alt-rockers Soul Asylum. But now sometime Smog contributor Jeff Tweedy,
the Belleville, Ill., native and Wilco frontman, has been deemed an
"important artist," casting a long shadow on what he might turn out
next.
Tweedy's influence is felt all over Another Fine Day,
despite co-writing a scant two of the album's 15 tracks and appearing
on only five more. Though much of the album is written by
singer/guitarist Gary Louris and his cohorts in the now-defunct
Jayhawks, singer/guitarist Kraig Jarret Johnson and bassist Marc
Perlman, the album rarely feels like a Jayhawks record, almost as if
the shedding of the Jayhawks name has allowed Louris to expand his
musical approach in directions that he felt he couldn't previously. The
end result, strangely enough, feels like what could have been Wilco's
long-lost transition LP between the summery pop of Summerteeth and the more experimental Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
The Louris-penned title track blips and bleeps to life as an acoustic
guitar and jangling piano slowly build over the lively percussion,
drummer Jody Stephens (of Big Star fame) channeling Wilco's Glenn
Kotche, until the song bursts into an enormous, joyful chorus backed by
a wailing guitar solo, resulting in one of the most epic and beautiful
tracks Louris has ever written. A few tracks later, "Beautiful Mind"
begins with a lengthy bit of whirring synthesizer as elements are
slowly added to the musical soup: a jangling acoustic guitar, Johnson's
laconic vocals, chiming bells, a clanging minor-key piano, and
squalling electric guitars.
For all the more futuristic elements, much of Another Fine Day
is also steeped in the more traditional music forms that have
highlighted past Golden Smog releases. "5-22-02" is the band's stab at AM Gold
soft rock, a bouncy, low key acoustic guitar number backed by a
"ba-dum-bum" horn lick, Holly Marilyn's lovely backing vocals, and
Louris' excellently placed slide guitar. Murphy's skill with classic
guitar-rock boogie comes to the fore on "Corvette" and the Tom
Petty-esque "Hurricane," while "Frying Pan Eyes" continues the
tradition without his help. Tweedy's two contributions are quiet
acoustic folk ballads co-written with Louris, and amount to a hit and a
miss: while "Long Time Ago," a country lullaby sung from the
perspective of a youngster remembering when he stopped being an only
child and became an older brother, is pretty and affecting, his second
contribution "Listen Joe" attempts to take a darker road but doesn't
seem to go anywhere with it.
As one would expect, Another Fine Day does not reach the
heights or the uniform quality of any of its members' regular gigs.
Some of the songs may fail to leave much of a lasting impression, but
fans of the Jayhawks, Soul Asylum, Wilco, and Big Star will find much
here to like. Another Fine Day is an enjoyable album from start to finish, with a handful of knockout tracks that make it more than worth the purchase price.
RIYL: Wilco, The Jayhawks, The Band
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