Though he’s contributed greatly to several standout albums in recent years, including one considered by many as the best of 2002 (Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot), it’s still hard to think of Jay Bennett and not have that moment flash before you. You know the one, in the Wilco film documentary, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, which portends Bennett’s eventual departure from the group, in which he and Jeff Tweedy squirm through a miscommunication over production and Bennett is rendered somewhat a babbling fool. Practically scribbled in Sharpie on the inside of the eyelids.
Enter Bigger Than Blue, Bennett’s official solo debut and his first release since the Wilco movie went public. Finally, a chance for Bennett to earn some distance from the incident.
Bigger Than Blue is a work not unlike his first solo-related effort, The Palace At 4am (Part 1), a 2002 collaboration with Edward Burch. Both are pop affairs that employ intimacy and studio savvy, both include current or former members of Wilco, and both include compositions leftover from the Woody Guthrie Mermaid Avenue projects.
But if Palace seemed a quaint sideshow, there’s something more lasting about Bigger Than Blue. The collection showcases an artist adept at the acoustic song, pop classicism and sonic experimentation. Bigger might be best in its smallest moments — in particular, “Songs That Weren’t Finished”, a lovely but devastating number that explores open wounds and the literal miles that separate from healing them.
Sounds kinda like Bennett-era Wilco, doesn’t it? Well, Bennett the singer is no Tweedy, although his Costello-ish voice is hardly unlistenable. And, ultimately Bigger Than Blue does not bring forth the same level of craft and imagination of Wilco’s Being There or Summerteeth, the two albums it most recalls. But as Wilco continues to get lost in the post-rock ether, as documented on its first post-Bennett release, A Ghost Is Born, its former member does well to keep on keeping on with something closer to the source. Gratifying it is, and something new to remember him by.
