I first started listening to Wilco in 1999 (I think), when “Summerteeth” came out. Rockford bought it on the way to a summer vacation in Minnesota, and I spent an entire day in the cabin, reading and listening to the album. I don’t often listen to an album all the way through, but that one hooked me. I still love it.

Whether you want to call them “experimental” or not (lead singer Jeff Tweedy certainly doesn’t), Wilco’s subsequent albums were a bit of a departure, sonically, from “Summerteeth.” The dissonance made it hard to listen to “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” at first, but it’s grown on me. I loved “A Ghost is Born” from the first time I heard it, even though it hurt to listen to it. I was not in a terribly happy place when it came out, and some of the lyrics can still bring me to tears:

I’m going away
Where you will look for me
Where I’m going you cannot come.

No one’s ever gonna take my life from me
I lay it down
A ghost is born.

I know that’s very junior high, but it’s true. It was a cathartic album for me.

I’ve been reading about the new Wilco album, “Sky Blue Sky,” for a month or so now. I’d only heard one song from it, even though the band has been streaming the whole album on their Web site for a good long while. (I wasn’t avoiding hearing it; I just couldn’t get it to download.) Rockford pre-ordered it, and it finally arrived today.

And I love it. Right away, without hesitation. I love the bittersweet humor of “Hate it Here.” I love everything about “Walken,” which I first heard in September 2005 on our whirlwind Wilco-following tour. I love the resigned optimism of “Either Way.” I love the guitar work, and I love that Mr. Tweedy doesn’t seem to be hiding his voice behind a wall of noise.

EW called it “the best Eagles album the Eagles never made.” It’s probably the most accessible album Wilco has made. I think my dad might even like it, and he doesn’t like any music that I like.