Wilco

A Ghost Is Born

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Review Score:

(8/10)
At first I was really underwhelmed by the new Wilco. I loved the first few Wilco records, they were chock full of catchy hooky songs that would stick in your head like crazy. As the band got more adventurous and experimental, culminating in Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the hooks took a back seat to the overall sound and the process, which was okay because the sound was so overwhelmingly alien and beautiful. So on first listen, I'm struck with the same lack of obvious hooks, but also a decided absence of experimentalism. But like I said, that was on first listen. Closer inspection shows that the weird sounds and wild experimentation are still present, just sort of focused and contained within certain tracks. This record is surprisingly quiet and introspective, lots of just vocals and piano. But almost as surprising is Wilco's tendency to rock out towards the end of songs. Like Crazy Horse before them, Wilco let melancholy country ditties, build and eventually explode into a full on rock jam with wild chaotic drumming, peals of feedback and screaming guitar leads. Very exhilarating and a good balance to the minimalism of the rest of the record. The two standout tracks for those waiting for the 'weird parts' are track three, "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" which is based around a strangely proggy krautrock song structure. A definite head nodding NEU! rhythm with lots of scrabbling guitar and weird skronky atonal bleats. And there's the fifteen minute long track eleven "Less Than You Think", which is mostly a noisy, fuzzy ambient drone, equal parts feedback and what sounds like shortwave radio, building and building to an almost Merzbowian frenzy. Pretty cool. But as always, it's Tweedy's songs, that manage to shine through, no matter what sort of sonic detritus is piled atop them.

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