#21 - A Ghost Is Born

#21
Artist: Wilco
Album: A Ghost Is Born
Year of Release: 2004
Label: Nonesuch

Wilco has burned through a lot of different sounds in three decades.  What began as an alt-country outfit gradually morphed into something resembling experimental indie rock which then gave way to the dreaded moniker of "dad rock."  Throughout all of this their output has been consistently great, which has allowed them to avoid being pigeon-holed in any one direction.  The critical consensus tends to favor other records (most notably Yankee Hotel Foxtrot), but I prefer this one precisely because I can't think of a record less beholden to the general concept of genre.   

Nowhere is this more evident than on the first five tracks of the album, one of the most perfect runs on this entire list.  Not only does the instrumentation vary throughout (ie. the organ in "Spiders (Kidsmoke)"), but Jeff Tweedy's increasingly common guitar solos play a different role every time.  In "At Least That's What You Said" his noodling serves to push the song's crescendo towards its conclusion, while in "Hell Is Chrome" his much more controlled work serves as a wistful detente.  A Ghost Is Born is the hardest Wilco album to describe which is exactly it's strength.  It's simply a great band at the height of their powers using every tool at their disposal to make something great.