Album: Wilco, The Whole Love (DBPM Records)

What have we come to expect from a new Wilco album – the Beatles-y pop of Summerteeth, the experimentation of A Ghost is Born or the laid-back vibe of Sky Blue Sky?

The band's understated eighth studio album delivers all these things and more.

Will it satisfy every Wilco fan's expectations? No. Nothing could. But with REM's announcement last week, there is a sudden vacancy at the top of the US rock tree and the truth is that Jeff Tweedy's songwriting talents have outstripped Michael Stipe's for years. There will be those who consider The Whole Love a mish-mash, a cop-out. Try to please these people, and you stagnate before you can say REM.

Listen to The Whole Love on headphones. Because it may not be the best Wilco album ever, but with care and consideration it may well turn out to be your favourite.