Wilco – Hot Sun Cool Shroud EP – Review
by Killian Laher

Wilco are really on a creative roll at the minute.  Having released two of their strongest albums in the last two years, they have just unveiled this short EP.  It opens with Hot Sun, a really engaging, uneasy track that never seems to stand still.  Its nervy guitars are reminiscent of last year’s Cousin album and feature a lovely, unhinged guitar solo midway through.  It already feels like something of a Wilco classic, every time you hear it you notice something else.  The EP is broken up by two short instrumentals – Livid is a frantic, 69 second electric guitar instrumental that adds little.  Later on, the brief, spindly acoustic instrumental Inside The Bell Bones is again a little superfluous.

The sparse, slow Ice Cream is a gentle crawl with lovely, inventive guitar work, and following this is the jerky agreeable rocker Annihilation, with another ever-so-slightly off-kilter guitar solo.  The EP finishes with the lush piano ballad Say You Love Me.  It’s a track that seems both sappy and spooked-out at the same time, with a Hey Jude channelling chorus and prominent strings.  It will appeal to anyone who misses the Wilco of Summerteeth.

Once again, Wilco have released more essential, guitar-based music on an EP definitely worth seeking out.