Wilco Announce Cate Le Bon-Produced New Album ‘Cousin’

August 1, 2023

Chicago indie rock outfit Wilco will release their 13th studio album, Cousin, later this year. Cate Le Bon, a long-time favourite of Wilco frontperson Jeff Tweedy, produced the album. It’s coming out via Wilco’s in-house label, dBpm Records, on Friday, 29th September.

The forthcoming album follows the band’s 2022 double album, Cruel Country. “I’m cousin to the world,” Tweedy said in a statement regarding the album title. “I don’t feel like I’m a blood relation, but maybe I’m a cousin by marriage.” Listen to the album’s lead single, ‘Evicted’, below.

Wilco – ‘Evicted’

The inclusion of Le Bon is significant, as Wilco haven’t brought anyone new into the studio since working with Jim O’Rourke on 2004’s A Ghost is Born and 2007’s Sky Blue Sky. The two parties met at Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival, in Massachusetts, in 2019.

The previous year, Tweedy told Pitchfork that Le Bon was “one of the best out there making music now.” “It’s really rare for people to have a specific sound anymore, but I can always tell when it’s her playing guitar,” he said. Wilco embraced Le Bon’s unique sound during the creation of Cousin, leading to the incorporation of saxophone, cheap Japanese guitars, and new wave drum machine.

“The amazing thing about Wilco is they can be anything,” Le Bon said in a statement. “They’re so mercurial, and there’s this thread of authenticity that flows through everything they do, whatever the genre, whatever the feel of the record. There aren’t many bands who are able to, this deep into a successful career, successfully change things up.”