Wilco's 'A Ghost Is Born' Turns 10

By Jon Graef in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 22, 2014 8:30PM

Ten years ago today, Wilco released A Ghost Is Born, their wildly anticipated follow-up to their Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album, which is one of the best records of the early aughts.

While Ghost didn't quite receive the universal accolades it's predecessor did (indeed, the album earned some outright pans, at least by previous standards anyway), A Ghost Is Born is an underrated, notable—though hardly flawless—entry in the Chicago band's back catalog.

One of those pans was from this very site, via Tankboy:

We believe that Tweedy is best suited when he has a song-writing partner against whom to bang his head rather than a producing partner who will indulge every inward-turning whim with a constant pat on the back. As a whole we thought, and still think, A Ghost Is Born was one of the biggest musical let-downs of the last year.

Released June 22, 2004, Ghost earned the band a Grammy, was the band's highest charting album at the time, and earned the band it's highest opening week sales at the time as well. Ghost was also the band's first album without Jay Bennett and the first with pianist Mikael Jorgensen. Tweedy also went to rehab around the time the album was released. [This fascinating Reader profile lays the story all out there.]

But enough Wikipedia factoids. For better or worse, the strengths and weaknesses of Ghost lay with Tweedy, who took on a stronger lead guitar role for the album after Bennett's dismissal. For much of Ghost, Tweedy's artistic control successfully guides the band through the wry somnambulism of one-two opening combo "At Least That's What She Said" and "Hell is Chrome"; the hypnotic Krautrock stomp of epic "Spiders"; and romantic, wistful philosophical ballads like "Wishful Thinking" and "Hummingbird."

With those handful of songs, you've already got a great album already--and we haven't even gotten to "Muzzle of Bees or "Company in My Back." (Though the live Kicking Television version is much, much better, revisiting Ghost reveals the studio rendition of "Company" to be no slouch either.)

The problem with Ghost, one that keeps it from occupying the upper echelon of Wilco albums like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Summerteeth, or even The Whole Love, is that the more adventurous, or even playful, Ghost gets, the less successful of an album it becomes.

Jaunty songs like "Theologians," "I'm A Wheel" and "The Late Greats" are undermined by goofy lyrics (being an "ocean of emotion" is something you or I could've written, and we're a pack of assholes) while only people paid to review the album got through the 15-minute entirety of "Less Than You Think." (This is coming from someone who has been recently falling asleep to Good WillSmith's new album, just FYI.)

But listeners couldn't blame Wilco for thinking outside of the box. For all their immediate pop pleasures, Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot are just as risky and adventurous as Ghost is. It's just that those risks paid off fantastic dividends. Here, those same risks yield some great, best-of material, and some throwaways.

Still, despite its flaws, A Ghost Is Born is still a really, really good album, one that merits repeated listening, even 10 years after Wilco fans likely declared it to be the band's No Code. If nothing else, major propers to Jeff Tweedy for name checking NEU! as an influence on "Spiders," thus turning new generations of music fans onto the group. (**coughcoughyourtrulycoughcough**).

Here are some of Ghost's better tracks, plus a great outtake, "Panthers."