In their first release since 2004's A Ghost is Born, Wilco has taken another step in a new direction. While keeping with the usual dose of piano-driven, post-modern minimalism, its newest album Sky Blue Sky also marks the progression of Jeff Tweedy and Co. toward a greater degree of cohesion and organization in their music.

Each successive Wilco album has been different in the nature of its content, and Sky Blue Sky is no exception. While both Ghost and 2001's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot seem to elude a firm definition — sometimes so sparse you wouldn't know Tweedy was even there, and other times filled with enough grunge guitar riffs to make even the Velvet Underground proud — their newest effort appears to have finally achieved a compromise.

In the past, the band's dedication to experimentation yielded a wealth of interesting compositions — a little something for everyone, you might say. Although the resulting feedback-laden, "colored noise"-filled tracks of these albums can be difficult for the casual listener to wrap his or her ears around, this album is certainly more accessible. Even with Wilco's most challenging songs, there remained a general formula to the compositions, a method behind the madness.

With the release of Sky Blue Sky, Tweedy and the band have left behind much of the madness in favor of the method that brought them their notoriety in the first place.

The most easily recognizable development is the pace of the album. While on Ghost, Tweedy was guilty of disappearing at times, drifting off into the endless space created by the understated and often slow-moving, piano-driven ballads, there is no denying his presence in this album.

While his lyrics remain mellow and ponderous (Would it be a Wilco album without them?), the band itself has given its instrumentation greater purpose and direction. In the past, Wilco has taken many an opportunity to create songs regardless of length (with what some might term pretentiousness), but on this album, every song on the album seems to be going somewhere.

Even on tracks with lengthy guitar solos, as in "Impossible Germany," the songs never seem to lose focus. From the opening track, "Either Way," to the tightly-constructed pop hook of "On and On and On," there is a noticeable return to the alt-country roots upon which the band was founded.

Despite Wilco's readily apparent efforts toward reversion to the more simplistic folk-pop sound of its 1995 debut A.M., the band does continue to foster some creative experimentation. Behind Doors-esque guitar riffs and a spacey choral line, Tweedy shines on "Shake It Off," and on "Hate It Here," it's possible for listeners to even mistake him for Mick Jagger. At other times, namely on "Please Be Patient With Me" and "Leave Me Like You Found Me," his vocals evoke memories of the similarly soft-spoken Elliott Smith, whose voice likewise belied a raging current of emotions surging just below a stoic surface.

Behind the pensive vocals of Tweedy and the focused, more purposeful musicianship of his band, Wilco's Sky Blue Sky is a departure away from the meandering experimental phase that defined the group's past few albums and an introduction to a new era — albeit one strikingly similar to the band's origins. Certainly the most cohesive album in the band's decade-plus existence, this album represents a decidedly more mature side of Wilco.

After years of constructing a menagerie of music from a host of different genres, it seems Wilco has finally settled in a niche where it feels comfortable. Sky Blue Sky just happens to be an album created within that same uber-American alt-country niche the band initially explored before restlessness or perhaps boredom caused the band to change course. The rediscovery of their roots and the return to polished folk-pop sensibilities seem to suit Wilco very well indeed.

Grade: 4 out of 5.