Listen to this album alongside their debut 'AM' and there is no way you could believe this is the same band. If 'AM' was the sound of The Eagles finally come good, then this is the sound of Sonic Youth covering The Velvet Underground (or; guitar experiments WITH melody). On tracks like "At least that's what you said" (note irony of title!), the opening track, they're having so much fun jamming that they almost forget to even sing at all (2 songs later and they’re at it again, clocking in at over 10 minutes on "Spiders (Kidsmoke)").
If that isn't a statement of intent of what's to come, then I sure as hell don't know what is. Book-ended with "Less Than You Think" which finishes (in a way) 3 minutes into the song and then continues on for another 12 minutes with just ambient noise that VERY slowly builds to the sound of (what sounds like) 100 radios off-station blaring in the distance – Steve Reich take a bow! No doubt this is where the album title comes from, and if that isn't the biggest F.U. to all their old fans then I don't know what else they could do.
Jeff Tweedy's recent painkiller addiction problem shines right through this, from the artwork (an empty egg in various stages of being smashed) through to nearly ALL of the songwords - here's my top 5 in order:
1. His goal in life was to be an echo
2. Theologians don't know nothing about my soul - They thin my heart with little things and my life with change
3. If I ever was myself it wasn't that night
4. I am a cherry coke (it's actually I am a cherry ghost but I prefer my misheard version) and
5. There's so much less to this than you think.

This makes Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sound like a pure pop album after all. With this album Wilco surely have just leapfrogged The Flaming Lips as the 'greatest' pop band going around at the moment...

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. AT LEAST THAT'S WHAT YOU SAID
2. HELL IS CHROME
3. SPIDERS (KIDSMOKE)
4. MUZZLE OF BEES
5. HUMMINGBIRD
6. HANDSHAKE DRUGS
7. WISHFUL THINKING
8. COMPANY IN MY BACK
9. I'M A WHEEL
10. THEOLOGIANS
11. LESS THAN YOU THINK
12. THE LATE GREATS