"Sky Blue Sky" by Wilco; Nonesuch

When Wilco signed up Nels Cline as its guitarist a few years ago, it looked as if the sky was the limit. Wilco's ability to bend its folk and rock roots with adventurous experimentation had already made it one of the most admired bands in American music, and with Cline they added a musician known for fiercely inventive avant-jazz explorations, as well as more grounded work with rock bands such as Bloc and the Geraldine Fibbers.

Now here's Wilco's first studio album with Cline (as well as newly recruited multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone), and wouldn't you know it? "Sky Blue Sky" is the most musically direct and down to earth of the band's six-album career. Which underscores two things: Cline is as valuable for his taste as for his pyrotechnics, and Wilco indisputably remains Jeff Tweedy's band.

Tweedy and his five bandmates expand on the songs' folk- and soul-music basics with ensemble playing that's both spontaneous and meticulous. Even if he is a team player here, Cline has frequent moments of exquisite guitar work, with elegiac leads of liquid purity and agitated interaction with Tweedy's and/or Sansone's guitar.

All that helps compensate for a diminished level of mystery that sometimes leaves the album a little prosaic. Wilco might be down to earth, but we don't want them to be entirely of the earth.

— Richard Cromelin

"One of the Boys" by Gretchen Wilson; Sony BMG Nashville

When Gretchen Wilson stormed the country scene three years ago, she was primed for the party. She's still rowdy on much of her third album but now seems interested in exploring her gentler side.

It's a worthy ambition that, unfortunately, isn't executed with the consistently lively songwriting she showed in her previous two efforts. Rather than moving boldly forward, she ends up holding her ground.

— Randy Lewis

Editor's note: Wilson is coming to O'ahu as a headliner at BayFest this summer.