Love Is The King

Album review

“At the beginning of lockdown, I started writing country songs to console myself. Folk and country type forms being the shapes that come most easily to me in a comforting way.” The improbable situation of 2020 was an inevitable inspiration for a songwriter like Jeff Tweedy. No doubt more than his bandmates, the Wilco frontman’s songs have always drawn inspiration from his daily life, his feelings and his experiences. And this fourth solo album is yet another brilliant example among his minimalist works put together at home (The Loft, his studio in Chicago with his sons Spencer and Sammy). Works that feature sometimes touching, sometimes absurd little nuggets of his life aimed at all our hearts. And Tweedy who simultaneously publishes his second book, the well-named How to Write One Song, with the release of this record knows a thing or two about doing just that. While Love is the King holds all the markers of his own personal universe and the appearance of a free-wheeling album, his talent as a composer has created an album that increasingly wins you over while listening (the excellent single Gwendolyn which reminds one of Wilco’s Mermaid Avenue). The album also provides the opportunity to remember that without being an all-guns-blazing guitar hero, Tweedy has an original and fascinating playing style that embraces the electric (Natural Disaster, Opaline) and the acoustic (Even I Can See). Tweedy is undeniably a reassuring presence in contemporary rock. His works consistently warm the heart, with additional affect during these quieter times… © Marc Zisman/Qobuz