by Adam (Toronto, Canada) - Each week I preview an album (every Saturday) which I think deserves a listen to and if it's worth to buy, I will cater for all tastes of music from R'n'B to Rock, Country, Hip hop and Pop.
A Ghost Is Born - Wilco
Release Date: June 22, 2004
It's a classic mistake - a big name band comes out with a new album, and critics and fans alike step in immediately to give their first impressions. If there's one band for which that approach is a consistent a mistake, it's Wilco. Like many, I'm frightened of albums that I instantly like; they invariably begin to fade away sooner than later.
I remember when U2 released zooropa and pop, and how they got trashed by the criticts The same band who released "The Fly" As their first single off "Achtung baby." For some reason people wanted another 'Joshua Tree.' Screw giving the people what they want. It would be to boring. 'A Ghost Is Born' is the gem of the Wilco catalog. The record sounds like a John Lennon/Neil Young duet album with lead guitar by Robert Fripp, arrangements by "Ziggy"-era Bowie, and production by Ric Ocasek or Todd Rundgren.
Some critics (see Kelefa Sanneh's review in the NY Times) decry the long songs. I think these lengthy instrumental passages suit the songs and Tweedy's intentionally slight delivery perfectly. I am so ashamed of my pre-listening skepticism (after reading some backpacker on newspapers/magazines saying they weren't feeling it and that the songs were weak).
Later for that!
This jam "Kidsmoke" is like Gary Numan's "Cars" meets Neil Young's "Down By the River" meets Velvet Underground's "European Son." Every cut on this record seems to fit another genre (or, more exactly, rock style). It's like they take what's become almost cliche and, through unusual juxtaposition and extreme attention to detail, make it sound new.
For example, the rolling Duane Allman acoustic guitar sounds of "Little Martha" get flipped on "Muzzle of Bees" (incidentally, more dope harmony singing by John Stirratt on this cut too). The album unfolds like one highlight after another.
Wilco has always been a band who stands out above the rest, with one of the most original, if not best sounds of modern music. I think the most important aspect of the 'A Ghost Is Born' is that it's fundamentally a concept album. Not like the bombast of 70's art rock, but like a late night conversation that veers into the metaphysical while retaining its warmth and cameraderie. Tweedy talks to us of feelings of alienation, inefficacy, despair, as well as hope and a few other brighter things. And because the songwriting is so appealing, it never gets uncomfortable to sit and listen to him. YHF had great songwriting too, but to my ear, Ghost works much better as the product of a band that knew how to play the songs.
On tour, the 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' material at first (when the album hadn't been released except online) was stiff, lifeless. By the third time I saw them, they had reworked msot of the songs and breathed real life into them. The approach on Ghost was to record everything in the studio, then work up the songs, and go back and re-record them nearly live. And this, I think, is why the album feels so warm and makes you want to listen to some uncomfortable (and at times awfully obtuse) stuff from Mr Tweedy's maybe kinda warped imagination.
On second hearing, on third hearing, on fourth hearing, Tweedy and Wilco pulled me into their mad and beautiful whirlwind. Astounding guitar riffs, complex instrumentation, and yes, really really catchy tunes, even if they are not packaged in a linear commercial way. And layers of meaning thrown in the mix. Listen to this album, and keep listening. Wilco gives us the best of both worlds - Rock and Roll experimentation combined with music that will make you want to dance.
My final note is that one of the great things about Wilco is their desire to create albumns designed to be listened to straight through. Each song fits and serves as a bridge to the next on each one of their albumns, and Ghost is no different. When I listen to Wilco, I have no desire to forward through a song. Its like listening to the Beatles' Abbey Road, you would never skip through that albumn, because to do so would ruin the whole experience!
'A Ghost Is Born' is an excellent album that just needs some time to warm up to. If you don't like it at first just give it a few listens and it will grow on you. Once you have, I have little doubt you'll agree - this is likely to be the best album of 2004. Whether or not it's Wilco's best album will largely be a matter of personal tastes: with such a vast array of sounds in their library, it's hard to call one 'better' than another when they are all distintly different.
In this day and age, it's unlikely you'll find a music review that focuses its judgment solely on the sound coming out of the stereo. I think that all one needs to do is throw away the baggage trailing this album, forget what band it is, forget about what other people think about it, and pretend it's a blank cd you found in the back of your closet.
Now put it in the cd player and listen to it all the way through; listen to the music, nothing but the music, and you might just find this is an amazing album.
The only reason some cirtics would give this album a bad review is because they're still stuck in the splendor of 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,' and aren't yet ready for the next step that Wilco have taken, a step in the right direction, to say the least.
I can write this on Top40 Charts review: 'A Ghost Is Born' cements Wilco's reputation as the best band in America, and one of Top-5 worldwide. The sheer songwriting craft and musical ability expressed on the record is leaps and bounds beyond what anyone else is doing right now, and is probably what every other band will be imitating two years from now.
If I was in Wilco, I'd be terrified of trying to top this. This album has echoes of genius, and is worth buying for them alone. Mr. Tweedy and Wilco continue to grow and make some of the best and most interesting albums in music today. Hey, maybe they'll save popular music with their next album, just like Radiohead, Modest Mouse, Blur, Spoon, and the Pixies...
Thank God for Wilco and Radiohead, two bands that are doing what they want and doing it well!!!
Highlights of the albums:
"At Least That's What You Said" starts the album so quietly that I thought my iPod had died. I turned it up to hear, only to nearly lose one of my eardrums when the amazing (an understatement) guitar crunch begins. As much as I hate instrument "solos", this one is amazing. It sounds like Jeff Tweedy's guitar is literally flying apart in pieces.
"Hell is Chrome" sounds like Paul Simon backed by Dark Side-era Pink Floyd.
"Spiders (kidsmoke)" is a lot of fun. Some people might find the beat too repetitive and lengthy (over ten minutes), but when the guitar starts to scratch around the beat, and then builds up to a power chord extravaganza, you can't help but tap along and fall in love with it.
"Muzzle of Bees" provides my favorite moment on the entire record. What spends three minutes or so as what seems like an exceptionally good folk-rock song, suddenly breaks out into instrumental euphoria in the last ninety seconds, with a guitar line that seems to take off like a spaceship. It's amazing that the most emotional moment on the record does not have any words. It reminds me of "War on War" a little bit, as its synthesizers during the chorus took the song from being very good to being exceptionally good and emotional.
"Hummingbird" is one of the best pop songs to come out since abbey road. The piano playing is briliant!
"Wishful Thinking" is an exceptional example of how to control timing and quietness in a song. The instrumental interludes in the choruses, with just a muffled backbeat and (synthesizer or guitar feedback?) are perfect, and allowed to run their course, something that a lesser band wouldn't have the genius to do. This is must be the most breezy/bittersweet song of the album, great to hearing it on your car's cd player or on the radio when you are driving far awy from your city...
"Company in My Back" is probably the most straightforward song on the album. The instrumentation and arrangement take the song to another place, though.
"Theologians" has a slightly 70's feel to it, and is probably one of Wilco's catchiest songs ever. For some reason, it reminds me of "Jesus, Etc." from YHF. The track is a blue-collar manifesto that supplies the album's thesis with cleverly employed Biblical analogies.
"The Late Greats" is a really good song that sounds more like Wilco did before "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot". The band sounds live and like they are having fun, something that was missing from YHF.
Rating: 8
Tracklisting:
1. At Least That's What You Said (9/10)
2. Hell Is Chrome (8/10)
3. Spiders (Kidsmoke) (8/10)
4. Muzzle of Bees (9/10)
5. Hummingbird (9/10)
6. Handshake Drugs (7/10)
7. Wishful Thinking (10/10)
8. Company in My Back (7/10)
9. I'm a Wheel (7/10)
10. Theologians (7/10)
11. Less Than You Think (8/10)
12. Late Greats (8/10)
