Wilco Drops Free ‘Star Wars’ Album

American alternative rockers Wilco just shocked nearly everyone in the music news industry by dropping a new — and free — album for their fans. Titled Star Wars and featuring a fluffy white kitten on the album cover, Wilco is sure to have more than a few new fans following this move.

Available as a free download from wilcoworld.net, Wilco’s online base, Star Wars features 11 new tracks from the band for the first time since 2011’s The Whole Love. All you need to do is submit your email address, and the album is yours. The question is, why, when every music artist it seems is clamoring to ensure that they are paid appropriately for their work that is either downloaded or sold, would Wilco decide to make the album free?

Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, who, with son Spencer, released an album in September of 2014 as Tweedy called Sukierae, said the reason behind the free album was simple.

“The biggest reason, and I’m not sure we even need any others, is that it felt like it would be fun. What’s more fun than a surprise?” he asked.

Wilco, now in its 21st year, continues to enjoy popularity. Website The Verge says “Your dad is going to be really excited” about the free download, which features tracks like “Random Name Generator,” “The Joke Explained,” and “Taste the Ceiling” on its 33-minute long playlist. Over its two decades of existence, Wilco has spanned alternative country, indie rock, and alternative rock in general. Its genre has been loosely dubbed as “rootsy, feel good” music, and listening to the 11-track playlist will definitely recall 2011’s The Whole Love.

The album is already getting some solid reviews, who notes that downloading Wilco’s new album is a “pretty great” consolation for not being able to make it to the Pitchfork Music Festival, where Wilco is headlining.

Wilco is probably best known for their album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which nearly did not get released at all. Their label at the time, Reprise Records, refused to release the album, so Wilco left the studio and streamed the album online, eventually going on to release the album officially and sell a half million copies. That Wilco album was thought by many to be one of the best rock albums of what was then a new decade. A critically-acclaimed documentary was made about the creation of the album as well.

With Star Wars, Wilco continues to show that its fans are at the forefront, and the band has shown the public at large that it’s okay to do something simply because you have decided it could be fun. That is exactly what Wilco did with Star Wars; captured the fun in simply being surprising and doing something for someone else.

[Photo Courtesy of Consequenceofsound.net]