Wilco has always had a gift for pairing sunny day reflections with late-night jitters, shifting subtly over the course of a single track from breezy pop and rock to brooding minor keys. On "Everyone Hides," the latest track from the band's upcoming album Ode to Joy, the shuffling rhythms and skipping guitar line suggests they just want to have fun.
In its accompanying video, frontman Jeff Tweedy even punks the rest of the band in an elaborate and comical game of hide and seek in the shops and streets of Chicago. But by the end of the song, as a subtle wash of guitar noise from Nels Cline seeps in, the beats ramp up and the whole mood morphs toward darkness.
"If you're telling yourself a story," sings Tweedy, "where the secrets twist like vines / And you know where the bodies are buried / But you can't remember where you buried your mind / Oh, no one denies everyone hides." It's both a reminder that we're all in this mess together and an admission that sometimes you just have to bury your head in the sand to get through it.
"Everyone Hides" is the second track Wilco has shared from Ode to Joy. In announcing the album in July, the band released "Love is Everywhere (Beware)." An earlier version of "Everyone Hides," performed by Tweedy (Jeff Tweedy's project with his son, Spencer), appeared on the soundtrack to the 2014 film St. Vincent.
Ode to Joy is due out Oct. 4 on dBpm Records.
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