Autumn Defense – Circles

Intricate “Silence” opens this sophomore release by Wilco sideman John Stirratt and his Autumn Defense collaborator Pat Sansone. It’s a silence that speaks volumes about their aesthetic. They manage to make a painterly bass the star of this piece without letting it steal the show from the song, the gilded harmonies, or the mood.

The lightest touch of electronic fancy links “Silence” to Stirratt’s comparatively rococo adventures on Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but the balance of Circles is relentlessly romantic and nearly edge-free. The lovely, Bread-pop-esque “The World (Will Soon Turn Our Way)” features washes of violin arrangements courtesy of Andrew Bird. “Why I’m Like This” a coulda-been-a-’60s-hit, features Jeff Tweedy contributing an electric guitar part and a low, Byrdsian harmony. Stirratt and Sansone tip their hand to their influences most clearly on “Some Kind Of Fool”, with its three-part ooh-oohs and memorable chorus directly quoting the Beatles’ “Across The Universe”.

Except in “Silence”, where it shines, the bass is an astute and tasteful accent with a keen eye for color and depth in service to the dimensions of Stirratt that are less apparent in Wilco: His supple tenor and his artful, upbeat songwriting. As in any inspired pairing, though, it’s hard to tell where Stirratt leaves off and Sansone begins. Neither takes songwriting credit; both provide vocals, guitars and bass. In contrast to The Green Hour, the band’s relatively pedestrian 2001 debut, Circles is a polished pop masterwork, irrespective of its Wilco pedigree.