Wilco

With White Denim

Sunday, 8 p.m.

Orpheum Theatre

Tickets: $39.50 - $47.50 plus service charges at northerntickets.com or 604-569-1144

VANCOUVER — Things have arguably never been better for Wilco.

The band’s latest effort, The Whole Love, has been lauded as one of 2011’s best by the likes of Rolling Stone and NPR — The Vancouver Sun also gave it a nod — and many have agreed that main man Jeff Tweedy and company had hit a creative mark unseen since Wilco’s 2002 classic, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

It could also have something to do with Tweedy’s health.

At 44, Tweedy is in fine creative form at Wilco’s helm and on various side projects, including soul-gospel legend Mavis Staples’s 2010 album You Are Not Alone.

Tweedy, who has suffered from chronic anxiety for years and was at one point addicted to painkillers, also admitted that getting help and getting healthy have made a huge difference in his life.

“I’m happier, have more energy and I’m more excited and less inhibited by self-consciousness and all kinds of things that are difficult to transcend when you’re younger,” Tweedy said via phone during a recent tour stop in Oakland. “I don’t give a s--- any more about that kind of stuff. I care as deeply as I ever have about the importance of making music and what a beautiful thing it is to get to do. But all the other s--- has become less of a problem.

“And yeah, for anybody that’s had any kind of issue with addiction or anxiety disorder or any of the other things that have been well-documented in my past, it’s the definition of being unburdened: when you’re able to get healthy and take care of yourself and manage your issues in ways that don’t diminish your life and disable you.”

The Whole Love is the result of a healthy and stable Wilco: the lineup of Tweedy, bassist John Stirratt (the only other original member of Wilco), guitarist Nels Cline, drummer Glenn Kotche, multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone and keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen has remained solid since 2007’s Sky Blue Sky.

“[The Whole Love] is a big favourite for us, obviously,” Tweedy said. “Not just because it’s the most recent but because, for this lineup of the band, it’s the first where we all felt like we made some progress in terms of playing to our strengths and having a band identity and a band sound. That’s not to say that Sky Blue Sky and [2009’s] Wilco (The Album) didn’t have those qualities. Part of the reason it’s called The Whole Love is that it feels more complete.

“I don’t know if stability gives you that kind of feeling,” he added. “It’s beyond that: It’s a band that’s played a lot of music together and has developed a kind of sixth sense that you can’t really fake or get without experience.”

Tweedy did concede The Whole Love bears some similarity to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but only if one were to focus on some of the noisier elements of the record. Opener Art of Almost, for example, borrows heavily from YHF’s glitchy sonic textures.

At the same time, The Whole Love digs as far back as 1996’s double-album opus Being There with the jaunty Capitol City, a song that had been discarded from the band’s recording sessions over 15 years ago.

And then there is a bit of a shocker, I Might, where Tweedy sings, “You won’t set the kids on fire, but I might.”

“I’m literally singing about setting children on fire — that’s the point of the song,” Tweedy said with a laugh, adding that singing in the first person didn’t mean it was autobiographical and that he wanted to set his own sons Sam and Spencer on fire.

“Sometimes it’s liberating to confront horrible things in lyrics as a way to master the shadow self that exists in everyone. I don’t think you can be good in life without acknowledging the part of you that isn’t good. When you suppress that, that’s when s--- really goes haywire.”

The album also includes nods to Beatles-esque rock (Sunloathe), atmospheric country-folk (Black Moon), hints of Pavement-esque indie stuff (Born Alone) and a stunning, delicate 12-minute closer (One Sunday Morning).

Perhaps the feeling of completion Tweedy was talking about comes in the form of an album that encompasses elements from several of Wilco’s eight studio albums.

It may explain why Wilco’s latest has resonated with so many of its fans and with critics as well, and why so many have tried to draw parallels between The Whole Love and the band’s previous work.

But Tweedy admits being constantly scrutinized is “always frustrating.”

“You make the best record you can make each time and that’s all I feel we’ve ever done,” Tweedy said. “We play songs off the last couple of records [in concert], which are supposedly really terrible records in some people’s eyes, and people really seem to be excited to hear those songs. It’s better to be heavily scrutinized than to have nobody paying attention, I suppose.”

Seventeen years after Tweedy left alt-country pioneers Uncle Tupelo and formed Wilco, the band remains unclassifiable.

Even the folks at the Grammys, who gave The Whole Love a nomination for Best Rock Album this year, have constantly placed Wilco in different categories.

Mermaid Avenue, which Wilco released with Billy Bragg in 1998, fell in the Contemporary Folk category.

A Ghost Is Born, which earned Wilco two Grammy Awards in 2005, was labelled Alternative.

Sky Blue Sky was Rock. Wilco (The Album) was Americana.

“There’s something inherently silly about it,” Tweedy said of the Grammy nomination for The Whole Love. “But it’s also really nice.

“It’s a lot easier to say, ‘It’s so stupid’ before you’ve won one,” he added with a laugh. “Now it’s really cool.”

fmarchand@vancouversun.com

Blog: vancouversun.com/awesomesound

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