Sky Blue Sky

Sky Blue Sky, released on May 15, 2007 by Nonesuch Records the Chicago alt-country band’s sixth studio album. It stands as Wilco’s highest debuting album on the Billboard Top 200 list (4th). It was one of the first albums streamed online for free via the band’s website, wilcoworld.net The album signaled somewhat of a transformation from the rock-based instrumentals found in previous Wilco albums like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born by introducing a new alt-country sound to Wilco fans.

The more mellow attitude of Sky Blue Sky found mostly favorable reviews by critics.

Rob Sheffield’s album review for Rolling Stone magazine describes the album as:

understated, erratic, often beautiful, disarmingly simple music; it really sounds like six guys playing in a room, and no doubt that’s how they wanted it.

The band members' common appreciation of music produced between the late 60s and early 70s influenced their decision to record Sky Blue Sky on a 2-inch reel-to-reel tape machine instead of computers, practically unheard of in today’s production world. It requires a band to essentially record complete takes of a song rather than overdub and edit parts at will.

Bassist and back-up vocalist John Stirratt described the band’s creative process for the album:

It was the fastest record we’d done in a long time: a two-week recording session. I think 95 percent of the great rock music in the world is stuff that hasn’t been labored over too much."