Wilco’s seventh release, Wilco (the album), took shape quickly in January ’09 after the band travelled to Auckland, New Zealand to participate in an Oxfam International benefit project. The band began cutting tracks for the new album, producing it themselves with the help of engineer Jim Scott (Tom Petty, Rage Against the Machine, the Dixie Chicks). The sextet completed the disc at its Chicago studio and performed in April at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival; where the Times-Picayune praised their “thrilling, nuanced set.” Wilco (the album) combines the intimacy of its previous studio disc, Sky Blue Sky (2007), with the experimentation of A Ghost Is Born (2004) in a set that boasts strong melodies and gorgeous, often unabashedly pop arrangements.