Wilco -- A Ghost Is Born

7/10

I just didn't get it. The guys who hosted the radio show after mine in the autumn of 2002 had the best musical taste. They introduced me to so much great music. Why were they so into this Wilco band? They were acting like 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was the best thing since sliced bread, but when I listened to it, all I heard was boring adult contemporary music. Through the next few years, I tried to get into Yankee Hotel Foxtrot again and again. I don't know how many times I checked it out from the library, which is a thing you used to do to hear music for free. However, the much heralded album just kept boring me to sleep. The last night I even tried, I was lying on my cousin's couch in Monroe, two nights before Katrina hit. I think I made it five tracks before I was snoring...and that's knowing a hurricane was coming and I had to drive toward it the next morning. 

However, that year, 2005, is the one where I purchased my only Wilco album, 2004's A Ghost Is Born. I bought the album after having a special moment with the song "Wishful Thinking" that summer. One night in July--actually, it was July 4th, God Bless America--my friend Jon and I had met up in New Orleans with my friend Crystal and her boyfriend to see the band Eisley play at the House of Blues. I've been married to Crystal for almost 15-years now, so you can imagine that when I wandered into the hazy bar that night, and saw her walking toward me, smiling and looking beautiful in this low-cut green top I still obviously remember to this day, then also saw her boyfriend walking next to her, my heart jumped off a cliff onto some jagged works, before getting pummeled by some 50-foot waves. It sucked.

Jon and I did enough stuff in New Orleans to not get back to Baton Rouge until the sun was rising, but at some point, we were just sitting in his truck, tiniest sliver of moon floating above the foggy New Orleans streets. He could tell seeing Crystal with her boyfriend bothered me, and asked how I was doing. "Fine," I lied. "She's not my type anyway." At just that moment, as we sat back in our seats, Wilco's "Wishful Thinking" came on the radio--on the station I'd DJ'd at before I graduated from college eight months before...the station where I'd DJ'd with Crystal. So I did some wishful thinking. And eventually we went home. I found 2005's A Ghost Is Born used at my local Blockbuster Music/Warehouse Music/FYE for cheap, and picked it up, not expecting to like more than just "Wishful Thinking." What I got was...something similar to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but with a little more experimentation.

Early 00's Wilco is basically the epitome of dad rock. The songs are all pretty chill, and frontman, Jeff Tweedy, sings in a a laidback, scratchy, sleepy voice. The drum beats aren't complicated. The keyboard is...pleasant. On this album, Tweedy plays some abrasive, but pretty fun guitar solos. Every now and then, but not very often, the band rocks out. Since this one is more experimental, the third track hit a continuous groove, and sticks in it for almost 11 minutes. The penultimate tracks features drones that are supposed to approximate the feeling of having a migraine for almost 15 minutes. Other than those two very out of the ordinary (and pretty self-indulgent) things, A Ghost Is Born is fairly ordinary.

I do feel like a lot of the guys--and I only remember guys going nuts over Wilco back in the 00's--were praising this album because they were trying to look mature. I mean, people younger than you are (no matter how old you are!) are probably into more energetic, far less listless music than this, so how great must it feel to ride this band's jock and pretend like there is something you are getting that younger folks who still like to rock out aren't. At least, that's what I felt back when I was 23 when this was hot stuff.

Now, I think Wilco is the bee's knees. 

Just kidding, this still isn't my favorite kind of music. I get why classic rock and alt-country purists would go nuts over this, even past the point of just going nuts over it because they feel like they have to go nuts over it. If you like bare bones, minimalist soft rock music, this band kill that, and baby, this is your jam...but I still don't think there's much here to get excited about. I do, however, find some enjoyment in A Ghost Is Born now...and it's mostly a nostalgic enjoyment of this album's high quality as background noise.

The other day, I went on my weekly 10-mile run. I'm in between marathon seasons right now, and 10 miles is about as far I want to go in South Louisiana summer heat, regardless of the time of day. The week of that run, I had major sleep struggles, so I was downing energy drinks and ibuprofen essentially all day every day. The day of that run, I had to be out of the house very early, and was busy all day, so I didn't get to the run till almost 8 pm. Three miles in, I started feeling awful. Just as I passed City Park, I puked my guts out. I haven't puked during athletic activity since maybe junior high. It was rough. I kept trying to shake it off, but I puked even more. I finally reached a point where I could turn around, and by then, I felt absolutely awful, though I'd thankfully quit puking. As I ran the last four miles through the night, overly quiet headphones in my ear, I listened to Wilco's A Ghost Is Born for this review. My focus drifted in and out, as at moments, I was thinking about other things, and at others, I could barely even hear anything coming out of my worn-out headphones. It was perfect. It was just like leaning back in Jon's truck, "Wishful Thinking" playing while my thoughts were elsewhere. In fact, I felt drawn back into that moment, connected to that year of all years. I'm gonna get this album on vinyl.


2004 Nonesuch Records
1. At Least That's What You Said 5:29
2. Hell Is Chrome 4:33
3. Spiders (Kidsmoke) 10:41
4. Muzzle of Bees 4:51
5. Hummingbird 3:06
6. Handshake Drugs 6:02
7. Wishful Thinking 4:37
8. Company in My Back 3:42
9. I'm a Wheel 2:33
10. Theologians 3:31
11. Less Than You Think 15:00
12. The Late Greats 2:30