Woven throughout the lyrics of A Ghost is Born is a desire for understanding. A reverence laden in every distorted chord and buzz of white noise for that “illiterate light”, that disproportionately favors the damned.
The Chicago band’s fifth album was born from chaos during Wilco’s lead man, Jeff Tweedy, arguably most tumultuous period of life. His troubled relationship to opioid-addiction and subsequent poor mental health submerged him not only into a physical crisis, but also an ideological one, after a slew of difficult experiences within the medical industry. Additionally the band experienced notable destabilization after losing their Yankee Hotel Foxtrot guitarist Jay Bennet, compelling Tweedy to step up to plate as the lead guitarist for the first and last time.
After a stint with inpatient rehab, Tweedy rose from the ashes and produced what would be Wilco’s most experimental and ambitious album to date. Twenty years after its release, the album is as poignant as ever, with the deluxe release bursting with 65 tracks organized into nine LPs, and four CDs of previously unreleased alternates, outtakes, and recording sessions
From an excerpt of Wilco: Learning How to Die, Tweedy explains his guiding principle throughout the writing process:
“I wanted to make an album about identity, and within that is the idea of a higher power, the idea of randomness, and that anything can happen, and that we can’t control it,”
The search for identity is the root of the album; Tweedy’s own confrontation with meaning and self clearly traced through the tracklist. Exemplified through lines such as: “I looked like someone I used to know / I felt alright and if I ever was myself I wasn’t that night,” from “Handshake Drugs” that brings internal conflict to the forefront. Also present is a communal affirmation of sound being explored by the band as a whole. This lens into the inner workings of Wilco is only deepened with the addition of new material. It continues to reveal a more intimate view of the band’s creative process.
Following Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, an album grounded in tangible geography, A Ghost is Born’s abstraction initially borders on alienation. The band was clearly trying to distance themselves from their previous work, both in sound and place, by choosing to record primarily in New York City as opposed to their hometown of Chicago. The album, which is deeply cerebral, places the listener within the bounds of their own mind, detached from a tangible guiding theme, the album morphs from moment to moment. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which is deeply bound to an understanding of the specific yet communal experience of Chicago, is juxtaposed with A Ghost is Born’s broader yet intangible purpose; the cohesion of identity. Drawn out periods of sparse metallic static and distortion create space for contemplation, and while criticized by some as overly indulgent, the album willfully demands engagement. Listening all the way through is a deeply cathartic experience that has been meticulously crafted by Tweedy to evoke the very self-exploration that guided his own writing. It is not an album that is conducive to casual listening, at least not in its entirety.
Most of the outtakes are distinct compared to the original versions, both in composition and production. They showcase different facets of each song, akin to an anthology. The early version of “Less Than You Think,” is originally fifteen minutes long with a ten minute period of lyric-less drones, flanging ornaments, and an underlying static pulse is completely upheaved to under three minutes on the final record. Tweedy’s yearning vocals are placed atop a more organic composition, a similar metallic tone drifts from wind chimes, what once sounded extraterrestrial is now distinctly mortal. The track serves as one of the central points of abstraction within the album and the stark contrast between final and outtake emphasizes Tweedy’s creative priorities within the original release. “Hummingbird”, is bright – propelled forward by teasing staccato keys, while its alternate on the outtakes is darker and drone filled. The pivot in tone is specifically indicative of Tweedy’s caution of smothering the original release in darkness, an anxiety he has since expressed in retrospect. “Muzzle of Bees” undergoes an inverse of this transformation with the guitar centered track instead featuring a series of piano harmonies that morph the sound from loose and airy to a deeper more melancholic composition.
Many of the songs on the Deluxe lean on folkier notes; the timbre is smokier and generally more acoustic. Although “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” and “I’m a Wheel” are energetic peaks within the outtakes. “Spiders” distorted guitar solo maintains some of its punk inspiration and sustains a cheeky manipulation of a traditional riff. “I’m a Wheel” is full of breath, Tweedy’s airy vocals propelling the listener forward with a softer instrumental backing compared to its original release. The album is a conceptual back and forth, shifting between light and dark, harsh and soft. Many of the changes that are featured on the original release seem to be directly linked to Tweedy’s creative collaboration with producer Jim O’Rourke (Sonic Youth, Joanna Newsom), whose contributions to the album are monumental. The original is consistently more energetic, the production fleshing out critical elements from the outtakes that generally have a bit more of raw sound.
Further themes of the metaphysical are present throughout many of the tracks, though perhaps most explicitly “Theologians.” Tweedy sings of the most ignorant among us being the closest to the divine, the latin line Illiterati lumen fidei, roughly translating to the light of faith for the illiterate. These tidbits of divine commentary provide a depth to the work that is not new for Wilco, “Jesus, Etc.” coming to mind, though they are most extensively flushed out in a Ghost is Born. The songs swell with questions about the nature of existence, and of relationships to selfhood. These notions, while expressed lyrically, are most deeply explored through the soundscapes presented within the work. Tweedy himself has said that the music preceded his emotional understanding of its content, the work being both dark and joyful, a full range of experience: “I reached that in the music, before I could get there emotionally on my own.”
The title also serves as a point of reference for better understanding the work as a whole. A Ghost is Born is a paradoxical phrase – for a ghost to be born, death must come to pass. It speaks to the sentiment that when one door closes another opens, leaning into Tweedy’s struggles and subsequent recovery that inspired the album.
In the full deluxe edition, not readily available for streaming, there is the inclusion of 7 “Fundamentals” each hovering around 30 minutes, or over three hours of listening in total. These “Fundamentals” are easily the most abrasive inclusion within the rerelease. They are a series of conceptual improvisations from the Soma studio that served as the building blocks not only for the album but for the deepening of Wilco’s band identity. The “Fundamentals” provide a raw look at the creative process.The band was separated during their recording, with Tweedy only being able to hear himself and drummer Kotche, the rest of the band riffing off them. They showcase the band’s devotion to innovation and intentional growth, though they are truly most appealing to the most obsessive of fans, being quite gritty and unrefined in nature, scattered pieces of the overall puzzle.
Aside from the studio sessions and alternates, the deluxe version has scattered throughout previously unreleased and modified tracks. “Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard” (More Like the Moon EP) and “Improbable Germany” all appear on other Wilco albums in varying forms, with Improbable Germany shifting into “Impossible Germany” on Sky Blue Sky. Tweedy referenced the shift on his Substack, Starship Casual, musing that impossible was a better word to sing. Aside from the lyric change, the two versions are quite distinct in composition. “Impossible Germany” is more pop infused and an overall lighter track. It features distinctive rising chords that uplift the work when compared to the darker more folk leaning “Improbable Germany” which heavily features acoustic guitar. “Diamond Claw” is a previously hidden gem, which Tweedy notes on Starship Casual as one of his favorite unreleased tracks. The song is brighter and more chipper than any original song on the album, light strumming paired with pensive lyrics, most likely the perpetrator of its absence. The inclusion of these tracks show the traces of later works within the creation of A Ghost is Born. Truly the project set the stage for later works, and continued to be a well of inspiration for Wilco’s following projects.
The first time I ever heard Wilco I was five years old in the back of my mom’s station wagon. The meandering drums of “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” bubbling out from the car’s CD player. At the time it was not an option to listen to the album out of order, the experience determined by the artist’s narrative. A Ghost is Born truly should be listened to in this format, from start to finish, at least initially, and especially in regards to the Deluxe edition. Tweedy is taking the listener on a journey through the dualities and complexities of his interpretation of the human experience. The album is not immediately cohesive on a track by track basis and impossible to box in, which is part of its merit. There are many sounds, genres, and interpretations all coming together to form one singular work. And yet the fractures of the individual coming together, in a messy cluster to form a singular identity, a coherent whole. The lasting sentiment is a paradox: it works because it shouldn’t, it lasts because it is fleeting, it is born because it dies.