Songfacts®:

• "Cousin" is the title track of Wilco's 13th studio album. The song explores Jeff Tweedy's conflict with a relative, but instead of engaging in an argument, he chooses to avoid fighting and holds the "opponent" in a figurative bear hug. This suggests an attempt at understanding or reconciliation.
  
  "Everyone's in this dissociative state right now," Tweedy explained to Uncut magazine. "The internet and social media have created this weird artificiality in the world - even to suffering. We can't completely embrace the world, so we look away. Even when we're looking, we're looking away. In spite of that, we still crave connection, we still crave beauty – things that only appear if you're paying attention. But you can't look at them."
• So why did Tweedy title the album after this song? "When people name their bands, a lot of times you try and look for a word that is enough that it can absorb what happens – absorb the personality of the band and become a different word that's attached to something different," he told Uncut. "That was the primary reason Cousin worked – other titles put the thumb on the scale too much, implied that there's some importance – you should be looking here! Initially the record was going to be called Infinite Surprise and it kept sounding more and more weighted."
• The Welsh singer-songwriter and producer Cate Le Bon produced Cousin. It marks the first time Wilco have handed the reins over an outside producer since 2009's Wilco (The Album).
• Cousin received positive reviews from critics. Mojo, Uncut and Under The Radar all placed it in the Top 20 in their lists of best albums of 2023.