Wilco are back with a new song, “Evicted,” which will appear on their next album, Cousin, out Sept. 29.
“Evicted” is, in many ways, quintessential Wilco, with its easy but moody country-rock palette. But there are flourishes of what celebrated Welsh musician Cate Le Bon — who produced Cousin — brought to the sessions, particularly a lead guitar that reverberates with an uncanny twang.
Speaking of the song, frontman Jeff Tweedy said, “I guess I was trying to write from the point of view of someone struggling to make an argument for themself in the face of overwhelming evidence that they deserve to be locked out of someone’s heart. Self-inflicted wounds still hurt and in my experience they’re almost impossible to fully recover from.”
Cousin is Wilco’s 13th studio album, and it’ll follow their 2022 effort, Cruel Country. In linking up with Le Bon, Cousin marks the first time Wilco have worked with a producer outside their immediate circle since 2007’s Sky Blue Sky. Per a press release, Le Bon helped shape the album’s sound with saxophone, cheap Japanese guitars, and a New Wave-style drum machine.
Wilco and Le Bon first met at the former’s Solid Sound Festival in 2019, and Tweedy decided to invite her to the band’s Chicago studio last year as they began work on Cousin. “The amazing thing about Wilco is they can be anything,” Le Bon said in a statement. “They’re so mercurial, and there’s this thread of authenticity that flows through everything they do, whatever the genre, whatever the feel of the record. There aren’t many bands who are able to do, this deep into a successful career, successfully change things up.”
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Tweedy added: “Cate is very suspicious of sentiment, but she’s not suspicious human connection.”
Wilco previously announced an extensive North American tour which will kick off this fall after a run through Europe and the U.K. The North American dates begin Sept. 25 in Wichita, Kansas and wrap Oct. 27 in Bentonville, Arkansas.
