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Wilco
A Ghost is Born
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Alright. I'm not a bandwagon jumper...never have been. And I'll probably be dragged around the walls of the rock'n'roll Parthenon for saying this, but here goes: Wilco's new CD, 'A Ghost is Born', is good, but only just barely good. It is not 'really good' or great, as some would have you believe. It is just good. In fact, I'll bet that if some unknown band had released this album, it would probably go largely unnoticed.
Wilco's last really good album was, arguably, 'Summer Teeth', released in 1999. Their best album is, arguably, the double-disc 'Being There', from 1996. Both had abandoned alt-country for pop-rock. Their first release, 1995's 'A.M.' was truer to alt-country, and pretty good, coming about as Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy split from co-founder Jay Farrar, thus ending popular alt-country band Uncle Tupelo. 'Summer Teeth' and 'Being There' were really more pop-rock than alt-country, which none but the hardest-core alt-country fans bemoaned.
2002 saw the release of Wilco's most heralded album, 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot'. There are those who believe (and I am one of them) that 'YHF' caught on more due to its backstory than anything else. You see, Wilco's then-label Warner Brothers refused to release 'YHF'. There began a big buzz about this and Wilco started streaming a free release of the disc on their website, causing more of a buzz. Then Tweedy bought back the rights to the album from Warners for $50,000, and Nonesuch (it turns out, a Warner's subsidiary) released it, all of this very publicly "advertised". That's the backstory in a nutshell, and it created a large demand for the storied album before its proper release. (Publicity stunt, any of you conspiracy theorists out there?). Well, here I go again. I'll probably get my wiener whacked for this one, but...'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' wasn't that great an album. It was good, even pretty good, but it received a whole bunch more accolades than it truly deserved. Granted, it was nothing like Wilco had done before, it was quite experimental, and it was not really alt-country, or pop, but it was not the rock'n'roll Holy Grail that so many made it out to be, either, and I'll bet that most owners of the disc haven't listened to it in quite a while (ie, did it stand on its own, after the hype died down?).
June 22, 2004 saw the release of Wilco's latest, 'A Ghost is Born'. (One might as well say "Tweedy's latest", as all former original Wilco-ers [save for John Stirratt] have since departed, the last being Jay Bennett, whose yin Tweedy's yang definitely needed for balance.) This album is barely a piss in a soft breeze. Examine it too hard and it falls apart. Little, flakey tweedle-dees of soft-spoken melodies that barely make a dent in the psyche. The good parts mainly consist of Tweedy's Neil Young-patented-shakey-spastic lead-guitar interruptions. The really bad part - the part that shows true arrogance and disdain for the fans taste, is the unforgiveable 15 minute minor amplifier drone at the end of "Less Than You Think", and just before the last song throw-away "The Late Greats". Tweedy tries to get away with calling it "minimalist'. Come on, Jeff, don't piss on my head and tell me it's raining, okay. We're not all that dumb. Young's own 'Arc' sounds like a freakin' masterpiece compared to this drone-drivel.
So, come on, all you bandwagon jumpers. Show that you can, indeed, think for yourselves. "A Ghost is Born' is really not that good, is it? It's okay, but no more than that. And Mr. Tweedy had better get over his "holier than thou" routine pretty quickly. I know I'm getting awful tired of it. Buy this one if you're a fan. If you miss it, it's no great loss.
(Note: We have said that we don't do negative reviews, and, in truth, this is not a negative review. We have said that we will post reviews of "warnings", or "differing opinions" from the mainstream, as a heads up that some readers may be interested in. This is one of those cases. Truly, I wish I had saved my money on this one.)
Release Date: June 22, 2004
Tracks: 12 - Time: 69:56
Produced by: Wilco
Format: CD
Website: www.wilcoweb.com
Track Listing:
At Least That's What You Said / Hell is Chrome / Spiders (Kidsmoke) / Muzzle of Bees / Hummingbird / Handshake Drugs / Wishful Thinking / Company in My Back/ I'm a Wheel / Theologians / Less Than You Think / The Late Greats / CD Rom Track.
Wilco:
Jeff Tweedy: Vocals / Guitar
John Stirrat: Bass / Vocals
Glenn Kotche: Drums / Percussion
Mike Jorgensen: Keyboards / Laptop
Leroy Bach: Organ / Synthesizer / Guitars / Bass / Piano
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