Next Wilco Album

Happy to see A Ghost is Born getting so much love. I like them all, but starting from Sky Blue Sky, I'd go to Wilco (the latest) and then work backwards. Everything after AM takes some time, but they're all well worth it.

A Ghost is Born is at the top of my list, too. It's not actually the current lineup: no Nels Cline. I loved Jay Bennett (RIP). He was a fantastic guitar player (anyone ever hear, or better yet see, Titanic Love Affair?), and he got jobbed in I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (OK, he didn't get along with Jeff Tweedy, that's fine; but to watch the other band members pile on is pathetic). But Tweedy's guitar work on A Ghost is Born is amazing--reminds me of post-Velvets Lou Reed.

I'm gonna disagree and say that A Ghost Is Born is probably the worst record Wilco ever made. Way too much "navel-gazing" on that one.

How could they possibly put out a song such as "Less Than You Think"? It can truly change your mood for the worse!

I will admit that the songs from AGIB did sound better onstage, such as "Spiders".

Fair enough. But songs like "Less Than You Think" (or the last ten minutes of it anyway) are what skip buttons were made for!

"Being There" always struck me as Wilco's "purest" record - simple but terrific. Tweedy's aspirations to do MORE! than straight pop/rock always yielded mixed results for this band, IMHO. True, the music's highest points may have gotten higher, but those low points.....

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is easily my favorite late period Wilco, followed by Sky Blue Sky, with Ghost and Summerteeth being just too much for me to swallow.

Just providing another data point for you - from someone who admittedly prioritizes the straight pop elements in this kind of music.

Marty

Incidentally, I'll second the Jay Bennett cheerleading movement. A wonderful talent who had a tough life. I much prefer his record, "The Palace at 4AM", recorded with Edward Burch (sic?) to any of the Wilco records. Ironically, I found that Bennet's other recordings suffered somewhat from "Late Period Tweedy Syndrome" (as described above), with aspirations overpowering his greatest musical strengths.

http://zak425.blogspot.com/2008/05/jeff-tweedy-letters-to-santa-volume-1.html