Wilco is a weathered band. Starting in 1994 playing alternative-country, Wilco has since lost all but two of its original members, taken on an alternative rock sound, released six studio albums, one live record and two collaborative tribute albums to famed folk singer Woodie Guthrie, dabbled with progressive and experimental sounds, sent its leader singer to rehab, angrily switched record labels and won three Grammys.

“Will Comply” was born after the breakup of the popular ‘80s band Uncle Tupelo. Two of Tupelo’s previous members, lead singer and guitarist Jeff Tweedy and bassist John Stirratt became the cornerstone of Wilco and have been the only consistent members throughout the band’s 13-year career. Although Wilco currently includes four other members, including a pianist, second guitarist, percussionist and multi-insturmentalist, seven other band members have come and gone, mainly amicably although occasionally huffily in the band’s long career.

As equally varied as Wilco’s roster is the band’s sound. Following the country influences of Uncle Tupelo, Wilco’s first album “A.M.” was also mainly country. The band’s sophomore effort “Being There,” however, diverged from the down-South influences and included R&B, orchestral and pop sounds as well. Wilco was then approached by Billy Bragg to collaborate on a project commissioned by Norah Guthrie to set music to some of the thousand-plus song lyrics her father had left behind at his death. This project resulted in the folky albums “Mermaid Avenue,” which won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album and “Mermaid Avenue 11,” which continued the collaborative project. In between these folk albums, Wilco released “Summerteeth” whose low sales led to record label tension. Urged to make a more commercial-pop-friendly album, Wilco left their Warner Bros. label, bought their studio tapes for $50,000 and released “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” in 2002. Claimed by many critics to be one of the best albums of the year, “Yanke”e peaked at #13 on the Billboard Top 200. Their next release, “A Ghost is Born,” reached #8 in 2004, providing Wilco with its highest chart rankings to date. Following the release of “Ghost,” Tweedy entered rehab for a painkiller addiction, which he had a prescription for in order to fight persistent migraines and a panic disorder. Following a live album in 2005, Wilco released their latest album “Sky Blue Sky” on May 15.

As opposed to previous albums, Wilco is touting “Sky” as a much more collaborative effort. Instead of Tweedy fleshing out songs and presenting them in a more or less complete form, the band modified songs as an ensemble, ultimately reaching a final product by consensus. “Sky” once again presents a blend of styles, offering this time a strong retro-rock sound mixed together with a more traditionally Wilco indie-folk-rock sound — not to mention the one-to-two song dabblings into other musical genres. “Side with Seeds” channels ‘70s soul while the quirky Beatles-esque “Walken” features the endearingly simple, love-filled lyrics, “I’m walking all by myself/ I’m talking to myself/ About you/ I was singing this song about you/ I was thinking about singing this song about you.” Long, tri-part retro-rock electric guitar riffs punctuate “Impossible Germany” while the title track “Sky Blue Sky” is a slow country shuffle about a parade making its way through the singer’s hometown. The acoustic “Either Way” is completely Dylan-esque for the first half until violins enter, followed by an electric guitar. The angry and disgruntled “Let’s Not Get Carried Away” is the rockiest track, while in the outstanding country/folk single “What Light” Tweedy channels Guthrie, singing “If you feel like singing a song/ And you want other people to sing along/ Just sing what you feel/ Don’t let anyone say it’s wrong.”

The strange juxtapositions of acoustic folk, retro-rock riffs, Dylan-esque ballads, Beatles-styled serenades, sometimes mixed and matched into one song, creates a hodge-podge that doesn’t blend into a cohesive record but rather ends up sounding like exactly its is: loosely stitched-together sound-bites. Electric guitar comes out of nowhere, and angsty rock songs butt up against oh-so-indie we-all-die-but-I-will-love-you-until-the-end numbers. Wilco delivers a few great songs, but they are buried in a rather jumbled album that ultimately can’t step out of the shadows of the band’s previous successes.

Download: “What Light,” “Walken,” “Sky Blue Sky,” “Impossible Germany”