This came out in 2003 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Don’t let the title fool ya.
Minus 5 singer-guitarist Scott McCaughey isn’t saying Down With Wilco. He’s getting down with Wilco — Chicago’s favourite sons are the backup band on this latest side-project offering from the Young Fresh Fellows leader and R.E.M. touring guitarist. Also on the guest list are frequent collaborator and R.E.M. cohort Peter Buck, ex-Posie Ken Stringfellow and High Llama Sean O’Hagan, among others. In truth, though, the artist whose presence is felt most strongly on the record is one who isn’t even in the room: Harry Nilsson. If McCaughey isn’t a major Nilsson fan, then perhaps he’s the late singer’s reincarnation, since Down With Wilco is filled with the arch wordplay, offbeat humour and orch-pop beauty that were Harry’s stocks-in-trade. Combine oddly elegant tunes like The Days of Wine and Booze, The Town That Lost its Groove Supply, I’m Not Bitter and Dear Employer (The Reason I Quit) with the slightly itchy post-rock textures and novel spatial arrangements of Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and you have an album that classic pop fans and indie-rock kids can all get down with.
