Those Wilco guys are totally all about, like, being Wilco.Their new album is called Wilco (The Album), and track one is "Wilco the Song," in which Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy intones the word "Wilco" with quiet confidence, certain that the lyric, the name, the very idea of Wilco will carry enough weight that it need not be shouted. No, it needn't be. Wilco are one of the best bands in the world, and everybody knows it, including Wilco. They've released one of the decade's greatest masterpieces with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which they followed with a couple more damn good studio LPs and a lively live set, too. What else is there to prove?

Well, with Wilco (The Album), these post-alt-country pop/rock mavericks prove that they're not content to rest on their laurels. If 2007's Sky Blue Sky had a major fault, it could be that the band didn't stretch themselves much. Tweedy wrote some god songs, and his cohorts played them well, and that was that. On this new disc, the band seem more interested in dipping their toes into the mysterious terrain just beyond the safety of rock's well-defined borders. Structurally, the songs here aren't experimental, but the boys in Wilco approach these standard structures in interesting ways, turning tract homes into populist art.

"One Wing" contorts country rock by mechanizing the beat and then finding a harmonic left turn, which leads to gorgeous squalls of guitar. The following track, "Bull Black Nova," begins with a Spoon-like tense spareness, before rings of guitar come bleeding out into the edges of the mix, and the textural contrast (or complement, perhaps) is like mixing acrylic with metal in a painting. By the end of the song, all of the elements have melded together, fused by a sharp strafing of noise.

Generally, though, Wilco (The Album) doesn't come across as abrasive. "You and I" is among the band's softest hitting songs ever. With Steely Dan-esque electric piano pads and brushed drums, the duet between Tweedy and guest singer Feist should be classically cheesy. Somehow, everyone involved avoids slipping into the realm of "Islands in the Stream" and instead comes up with genuine sweetness. "Solitaire" is another gentle number, delicately sung and plucked. It is sleepy and dappled in lemony sunlight, despite Tweedy's proclamation that he's "as cool as gasoline."

But let's not forget "Wilco the Song." It's the album's opening single, and it's a gem. The guys promise that, when life's got you down, "Wilco will love you, baby." Not literally, of course, but if you "put on your headphones" you will get "a sonic shoulder" to cry on. For sure, it would be hard not to be cheered by such a bouncy rhythm, the strut of warmly crunchy guitars, and some dabs of honky-tonk piano. Another tune that will perk you up is, appropriately, "Sunny Feeling." The buoyancy and major key bliss of the music is a red herring, however, for, as Jeff Tweedy gleefully sings, "the sunny feeling is taken away."

Regardless, you'll be left with nothing but good feelings after absorbing the many charms of Wilco (The Album). Wilco will love you, baby. And you will love them back.

Recommended Tracks: "Wilco the Song," "You and I"