A Summer-Themed EP From America’s Iconic Alt-Rock Band

By: Frank Housh

Wilco is now thirty and has created a solid body of work, including thirteen studio albums and six extended plays (EPs). Their latest EP “Hot Sun Cool Shroud,” was released June 29, 2024, and was created in anticipation of the band’s appearance at the Solid Sound Festival in the Berkshires. Wilco’s leader Jeff Tweedy said, 

It’s fun to have something new to release at Solid Sound. This year we’re putting out an EP with a summertime-after-dark kind of feeling. It starts off pretty hot, like heat during the day, has some instrumentals on it that are a little agitated and uncomfortable and ends with a cooling breeze. 

Like summer itself, “Hot Sun Cool Shroud” has many moods. The title track begins in a Lou Reed mood before embracing an alt-country feel that features a dark, dissonant guitar break (2:23-2:53). “Livid” is a brief (1:10) punk-metal burner that leads into “Ice Cream,” a delicate ballad in which Jeff Tweedy’s high baritone breaks as he sings about a tragic summer love.

When I first saw you,
You said I was cool
Enough to be ice cream.

You melted me on the floor.
I almost died,
I cried for more.

When you needed me
I was holy. I didn’t know if I could be true
Enough to be a Bible.

You held me up,
Never looked inside.
You’d seen enough
To leave me behind
For someone else to find
I was holy.

“Annihilation” is jangly 90s guitar pop with another discordant guitar solo (1:37-2:12), leading into a short acoustic guitar/percussion interlude (“Inside The Bell Bones”), before concluding with the EP’s strongest cut.

The wistful “Say You Love Me” uses Beatles (note the “Hey Jude” reference at 1:02) harmonies in support of sublime lyrics:a ray of light holds you in its arms, Once you’re gone, you shine on in your friends. And then everyone you love hears your voice within. Say I love you again.

It’s almost like Jeff Tweedy is trying to break my heart.

Wilco has always featured sophisticated instrumental work; the two “agitated” guitar interludes Tweedy refers to suggest the musical influence of jazz guitarist Mary Halvorson whose 2024 release, “Cloudward,” is reviewed here. See what you think.

“Hot Sun Cool Shroud” may be a summer EP but its scope and sophistication will prevent it from fading like a summer love. 

Frank Housh is the Managing Editor of The Buffalo Hive. This review was previously published at his publication, Media Room: The Arts in Real Life.