Album of the Week: Wilco- A Ghost Is Born

For all its so-called indulgences--the guitar solos, the long noise-drone-fest at the end of 'Less Than You Think', the sleight and I-hope-intentionally-kind-of-stupid lyrics to 'I'm A Wheel'--I think we can all agree that A Ghost Is Born opens with one of the most stunning and arresting moments in Wilco history. Barely above a whisper Jeff Tweedy sings "When I sat down on the bed next to you, you started to cry" and this incredibly visual scene of delicacy and pain gives me the absolute chills every time I hear it.

A Ghost Is Born is one of those albums that has a muddled reputation. Shortly before its release, Tweedy entered rehab. Perhaps the album was so consuming that it causes a breakdown?? At the same time, reviews were all over the place--some calling it better than Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, some calling it much worse--and I've never been quite clear what the general consensus actually is. In my case, it's overwhelmingly positive.

For all its successes, I've never found Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to be a particularly human or listenable album. Despite the fun tracks like 'Heavy Metal Drummer', it's became a museum piece that I dust off every once in awhile to make sure I wasn't wrong; then, satisfied, I file it back away. It's the kind of album that, when I listen to it, I usually find myself skipping over tracks--not out of spite or dislike, but because I feel I don't need to hear them. They aren't "fun" to listen to, and I certainly don't relate to them. I'm no slouch when it comes to figuring out the meaning of things, but the album opens with "I am an American aquarium drinker/I assassin down the avenue" which certainly sounds cool but doesn't mean anything. Even the ones where Tweedy is writing in a fairly plain language about human feelings, I can't help but think he's writing about other people, or things he's imagined. Do I like heavy metal, let alone think it's kitschy or funny to write a song about nostalgia for being in one??

Thus I find A Ghost Is Born to be a better album, both because of its fantastic, enjoyable songs and its humanity. 'Heavy Metal Drummer' and 'I'm The Man Who Loves You' are good songs, but they're not my favorites from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I think this is what I mean when I say it's not a listenable album: my favorite songs from it are the slower, more experimental ones, and it's hard to listen to music like that all the time. The opposite is true for A Ghost Is Born. My least favorite song, 'Less Than You Think', is the slowest, most experimental one here, while everything else moves with force and purpose even if it's more mellow and nuanced('Hell Is Chrome', for example). I can listen to this album all day long (and by extension, Sky Blue Sky) because the songs are just fun to listen to. They're catchy, but they aren't fluff or classic rock Frankensteins (like the creature, not the song). It's the same reason I love Surfer Rosa by the Pixies; the songs are addictive, listenable, and fun, but they aren't easy, obvious, or compromised.

As for the humanity of A Ghost Is Born, well, you wouldn't think it on first glance. The artwork and packaging, not to mention the song titles, suggest something cold, unfeeling, austere, and drained of life. But listen to the album with a lyrics sheet--get past the guitar solos, and noisy bits--and you'll find an album with a vulnerability and poetry in its veins that few seem to notice. 'Muzzle Of Bees' contains the following lines, which send me into fits of jealously and awe every time they come on:

And the sun gets passed from tree to tree
Silently, and back to me
With the breeze blown through
Pushed up against the sea
Finally back to me

I'm assuming you got my message
On your machine
I'm assuming you love me
And you know what that means

It's very rare that a writer can be both vague and direct at the same time, but Tweedy accomplishes this here. Everywhere else the album seems to deal, explicitly or implicitly, with Tweedy's personal problems, from the oddly upbeat 'Handshake Drugs' to the pained love song 'Company In My Back' to 'Hell Is Chrome', which I've always assumed was either about him going into rehab or deciding to start abusing painkillers. Even the two "fun" tracks, which aren't about these issues, have a humanity to them that surpasses Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. 'I'm A Wheel' is a stupid tossaway that sounds amazing live, where such broad strokes work well, while 'The Late Greats' is nothing more than a pleasant relief, a pill to be taken, if you will, to recover from the migraine-simulating ending to 'Less Than You Think.'

Though I'm sure no one will agree to this, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is the type of album that critics and fans will call the band's best and most essential release, always voting for it on lists, but never really listening to it much. No, I think, if people are being honest with themselves, they would prefer any of the other Wilco albums--other than A.M., that is. And so, A Ghost Is Born is mine. It didn't generate the praise and hoopla which Yankee Hotel Foxtrot did, but, actually, it's better. Give it another chance.