David Clinch
On
A Ghost Is Born, Wilco follows the minimalist footsteps of Nonesuch
artists, but without much luck
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The avant-garde streak that sets Wilco aside from its peers can be the
band's best friend or its worst enemy. A Ghost Is Born, the fifth
album from Jeff Tweedy and company, is a bold but sometimes obtuse work
from a group trying a bit too hard to reinvent itself.
In 1995, Wilco rose from the ashes of the alt-country band Uncle Tupelo,
and on its first two albums, it stayed close to its twangy roots. But by
1999's Summerteeth, the band was dabbling in synth-driven art
rock, and in 2001, Warner Bros. deemed Yankee Hotel Foxtrot too
strange to release, so Wilco moved to the more avant-minded Nonesuch
label.
A Ghost finds Wilco and co-producer Jim O'Rourke (Sonic Youth)
following the minimalist footsteps of Nonesuch artists like Phillip
Glass and Steve Reich, but without much luck. The 12 cloying minutes of
industrial noise in "Less Than You Think" will have you reaching for the
skip button faster than you can say Metal Machine Music.
The CD also finds Mr. Tweedy struggling to take over as lead
instrumentalist after Jay Bennett left the band post-Foxtrot.
While he fancies himself a free-form jazz guitarist, he's not quite
there yet.
He does an OK job imitating Neil Young on "At Least That's What You
Said." But his haphazard soloing undermines what could have been the
CD's most potent song, "Spiders (Kidsmoke)," a 10-minute collage of new
wave, German rock and psychedelia.
He fares better when he concentrates on actual songs, not guitar-driven
noise, like "Hummingbird," a Beatlesque ditty laced with viola and
dulcimer, or the meditative ballads "Wishful Thinking" and "Hell Is
Chrome." Like most Wilco CDs after 1995's A.M., this one is
heavy on slow songs with drowsy vocals and cryptic lyrics. Still, Mr.
Tweedy definitely remembers how to rock: "I'm a Wheel" is the best song
T. Rex never wrote.
It's a side of Wilco that A Ghost Is Born could have used more
of. Art-rock is perfectly fine – as long as you don't focus so hard on
the art that you forget about the rock.
Securitas