Cruel Country - Wilco's universally-acclaimed 12th studio album - will be available for the first time on a standard retail CD format via dBpm Records and Alternative Distribution Alliance on 20th January. The double-disc packages are comprised of 21 country music inspired tracks, recorded at the band's Chicago studio, The Loft.
Originally released in May 2022 (digital only) and in a limited "pre-release" CD edition for the June RSD drop, lead tracks Falling Apart (Right Now) and Tired of Taking It Out on You have already become staples on non-commercial, public and AAA radio.
"There have been elements of country music in everything we've ever done. We've never been particularly comfortable with accepting that definition, the idea that I was making country music. But now, having been around the block a few times, we're finding it exhilarating to free ourselves within the form, and embrace the simple limitation of calling the music we're making country." - Jeff Tweedy
Jon Pareles in The New York Times wrote: "Wilco makes an understated magnum opus. Its tone is naturalistic and understated; the album was recorded largely with Wilco playing live in the studio as a six-man band, quietly savouring the chance to make music together after pandemic isolation."
Jon Dolan in Rolling Stone wrote: "Their latest is a beautifully rootsy album with a broken sense of patriotic concern."
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Tracklist:
LP 1:
1. I am My Mother
2. Cruel Country
3. Hints
4. Ambulance
5. The Empty Condor
6. Tonight's the Day
7. All Across the World
8. Darkness is Cheap
9. Bird Without a Tail
10. Base of My Skull
11. Tired of Taking It Out on You
12. The Universe
LP 2:
1. Many Worlds
2. Hearts Hard to Find
3. Falling Apart (Right Now)
4. Please Be Wrong
5. Story to Tell
6. A Lifetime to Find
7. Country Song Upside-down
8. Mystery Binds
9. Sad Kind of Way
10. The Plains