Wilco misses opportunity

It’s been 15 years since Wilco released its debut, “A.M.,” and the band’s history since then falls into three distinct epochs: the roots-rock beginnings, the fractured-pop middle period with 2002’s “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,” and the Era of Jeff Tweedy’s Contentment.

The latter began, really, when band mastermind Tweedy completed rehab shortly before the release of Wilco’s 2004 set, “A Ghost is Born.” It continued through 2007’s “Sky Blue Sky” and spills into Wilco’s latest album, helpfully titled “Wilco (the Album).”

It’s mostly an easy-going collection of songs, arranged and performed with great skill by what is surely the tightest and most technically adept lineup of a band that has changed supporting members frequently over the years.

Each of Wilco’s epochs is represented, which is good and bad. The good: “Wilco (the Album)” is, in many ways, a cohesive synthesis of the band’s music to this point, with folky songs (“Solitaire”), experimental songs (“Black Bull Nova”) and vivid pop songs (“You Never Know”). The bad: Not much on this album pushes Wilco forward.

No one ought to begrudge Tweedy his hard-won peace of mind, but there’s less of the emotional, or musical, turbulence here that made for such compelling listening on previous Wilco records: “You and I,” a lilting acoustic duet with Feist, might be the blandest thing Wilco has ever released.

That’s not to say there aren’t high points. Opener “Wilco (the Song)” is a deadpan rocker with organ and drums framing stinging guitar from Nels Cline, as Tweedy offers the band as a cure-all for life’s various ills: Depressed? Feeling put upon? “Wilco will love you, baby,” he promises.

“Black Bull Nova” reprises the band’s experimental heights with a persistent keyboard drone punctuated by scalding guitar breaks and, near the end, churning noise that slides into the melodic chorus.

At its core, “Wilco (the Album)” is a retrospective of the band’s progress. It’s been an exciting evolution, but the album leaves one important question unanswered: Where does Wilco go next?