Sukierae

Some solo projects are more surprising than others. Sukierae – the first such outing by Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, backed by a few indie-pop pros, plus his teen son Spencer on drums – serves mostly to confirm what we already know: Pop Tweedy is one of the most emotionally fluent American songwriters around. Over two discs of psychedelic ballads ("High as Hello," "Down From Above"), Dylanesque dreams ("Desert Bell") and frustrated outbursts ("Please Don't Let Me Be So Understood"), he wrestles with a flood of complicated feelings – many no doubt provoked by the recent lymphoma diagnosis of his wife, the album's dedicatee. It all adds up to another tour de force from a guy who's made a few.