With their 10th studio album, the relentlessly creative Wilco deliver the introspective cousin to their 2015 release Star Wars. Where that record revelled in copious doses of fuzzed-out guitars and abstract rhythms, Schmilco takes a somewhat more deliberately low-key approach. Opening with “Normal American Kids,” the track sounds like an outtake from the Mermaid Avenue sessions with vocalist Jeff Tweedy singing over top of a singularly-strummed acoustic guitar which is in turn accented by an electric guitar lead that winds its way throughout the track. Echoes of 2007’s similarly low-key Sky Blue Sky abound in “If I Ever Was A Child” and album closer “Just Say Goodbye” while the group allows their experimental ways to flow more freely in the climatic “Cry All Day” and the pseudo-blues feel of “Nope.” Although Schmilco is not the group’s strongest effort, the album will undoubtedly prove to be an important link that propels the band into the future.