The Minus 5: Down With Wilco

In recent years, Scott McCaughey has specialized in harmonious collaborations with confrontational packaging. His last album–billed as The Young Fresh Fellows vs. The Minus 5's Let The War Against Music Begin/Because We Hate You–pitted his old band, The Young Fresh Fellows, against his new one. Now comes Down With Wilco, an album whose title would sound like a putdown if Wilco itself weren't performing as part of the band. Also part of The Minus 5: R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, ex-Posies singer-guitarist Ken Stringfellow, and guest stars including The Spinanes' Rebecca Gates and The High Llamas' Sean O'Hagan. It looks like too many cooks, but doesn't sound like it. Instead, the finished product is the logical spawn of McCaughey's well-established Beach Boys admiration and the Wilco that was responsible for the delicate pop of Summerteeth. These sorts of side projects can sound like they were more fun to record than they are to hear, but Down bounces winningly from track to track, with everyone involved obviously enjoying the freedom from having to make any major artistic statements. Harmonies and sleigh bells dominate an album more concerned with re-creating old sounds than creating new ones, but while Down is ultimately just a collection of minor pleasures, they're the kind of pleasures that add up. In some respects, it's the Apollonian flip-side to the Dionysian abandon of the Jeff Tweedy/Jim O'Rourke collaboration Loose Fur–old-fashioned pop values snatch the songs back from the brink over which Tweedy and O'Rourke happily dive. Down With Wilco starts well, frequently recalling the heyday of the Elephant 6 bands, and it gets better as it goes along, closing with its two best tracks, the propulsive "I'm Not Bitter" and the stately kiss-off "Dear Employer (The Reason I Quit)." If McCaughey has more friends he wants to attack, he should cut an album with them soon.