Wilco makes lo fi pop, with the occasional noisy outlier à la Sonic Youth. The group was formed in 1994 around songwriters Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett. Four albums followed AM (1995), Being There (1996), Summerteeth (1999) and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002), during which there was a lot of haggling with the record company Warner. For that reason, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was released with a different
… company. Being There in particular is considered a masterpiece of the 1990s. A Ghost Is Born is again produced by Jim O'Rourke (also known from Sonic Youth). Multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennet has left the band, however, and that has changed the timbre. Some songs have become very long-winded like the Sonic Youth-esque Spiders. Yet the album also has a lot of beautiful modest pop songs such as the piano songs Hummingbird and Hell Is Chrome. In terms of atmosphere, A Ghost Is Born is most reminiscent of other American bands such as Lambchop, Elliot Smith and Sparklehorse. (JdD)more
