Title: Plus a multitude
Review: Using "Pet Sounds" and "Summerteeth" as sonic templates, this latest assemblage of the Minus 5 has constructed a monument to baroque pop. Every melody is adorned with all the bells and whistles a modern recording studio could offer. And really, I do mean bells and whistles, as well as tambourines, shakers, Moroccan horns, kalimbas, marimbas, and crotales (no idea what that last thingee is, but it's right there in the liner notes). In short, "Down With Wilco" is 13 melancholy pop songs hung with enough audio ornaments to either rule your world or leave you cold, depending entirely on your predisposition towards ostentation. It helps that Minus 5 mainmen Scott McCaughey (the Young Fresh Fellows) and Peter Buck (REM) have surrounded themselves with "A" level talent like Ken Stringfellow (the Posies), Sean O'Hagan (the High Llamas), and the members of Wilco (Wilc... er, nevermind), and if that doesn't account for a "supergroup" then I'll torch my Blind Faith dog collar.
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