Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot deserves all the accolades it has received since its release this spring. The critics called it a stunning and brilliant masterpiece, and said you’d be hard-pressed to find a more adventurous and rewarding release this year. They’re right: the album is a masterful blend of innovation, prophecy, and obscurity, both musically and lyrically.

I recently recommended Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to a coworker who appreciates indie-rock. He listened to the first two tracks and reported that he hoped the rest was better. He listened to the full album and told me it was okay. He listened twice more and called it one of the best albums he’d ever heard. This seems to be the normal listening pattern, because Wilco isn’t your everyday radio rock or even typical indie-rock fare. This band is making distinctive music all its own.

The first track, “I am trying to break your heart,” begins in obscurity. The opening music is raw, ethereal, and dissonant, yet somehow melodic. The first words cut through, proclaiming “I am an American aquarium drinker / I assassin down the avenue / I’m hiding out in the big city blinking / what was I thinking when I let go of you.” The second track has a faster tempo and demonstrates the upbeat rock they capably display in several songs on the album.

“Radio Cure” describes the relationship between men and music. “Cheer up / Honey I hope you can / there is something wrong with me / my mind is filled with radio cures / electronic surgical words.” The music to this song is driven in part by a throbbing drum and bass line reminiscent of a heartbeat. Innocent and fun, “Heavy Metal Drummer” tells of summer love lost to a member of a Kiss cover band.

“War on War,” “Jesus, etc.” and “Ashes of American Flags” make subtle and not-so-subtle socio-political statements, several eerily prophetic. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was supposed to be released a year before it was, but it was entangled in a label mess. So, long before September 11, 2001, Wilco recorded lyrics like “tall buildings shake / voices escape singing sad, sad songs / tuned to chords strung down your cheeks / bitter melodies turning your orbit around / voices whine / skyscrapers are scraping together / your voice is smoking / last cigarettes are all you can get / turning your orbit around.” What a coincidence.

It may be my romantic side, but I really enjoy “I am the Man who Loves you” and “Reservations,” two sweet love songs on the last half of the album. The first is upbeat and fun, and I love to sing along with lines like “but if I could you know I would / just hold your hand and you’d understand / I am the man who loves you.” The latter is a slow, purposeful apology. “I’m bound by these choices so hard to make / I’m bound by the feeling so easy to fake / none of this is real enough to take me from you / O I’ve got reservations / about so many things / but not about you.”

Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot has diverse and fitting instrumentation, thought-provoking lyrics, and the sort of catchy beat that makes listeners want to sing and dance. It defies description. You just need to buy it.