Can Recovery Sound Good?

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ilco's history has been defined by its strife. Tweedy founded the band in 1994. By 2001, the year of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, three members had left or been forced out; since then, two more have departed. "I wouldn't in a million years have wanted to put together a different band for every record," Tweedy says. "But we've tried to respond to the changes with open arms." Tweedy dismisses the idea that the band's high casualty rate may be related to his emotional undulations — though he admits that "it's a total chore to be around someone so unhappy. I don't doubt that it's difficult for people to work with me on some level." Stirratt says the expectations that Tweedy set for himself after the success of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot contributed to his eventual meltdown. "He has a certain high-mindedness — he really feels people need things in these times to make them feel better," Stirratt says. "We had this little cultural echo, and I think he felt the pressure that he might disappoint a lot of people."

A Ghost Is Born isn't always easy to digest. But its deliberate raggedness reflects Tweedy's newfound confidence in both his writing and the band's musicianship. The organic feel of songs like Muzzle of Bees and I'm a Wheel came out of the recording process, which consisted largely of Tweedy singing lyrics from his notebook and strumming an acoustic guitar while the rest of the band tried to follow along. The album includes Wilco's longest-ever songs: Spiders (Kidsmoke), a glorious 10-minute psychedelic mess about arachnids filling out tax returns on the Michigan shore, and Less Than You Think, an affecting ballad followed by 12 minutes of droning industrial machines. Wilco can still produce damned catchy tunes: Hummingbird and Theologians combine the verve of the Beatles and Bowie with Tweedy's noodlings about losing your identity and recovering it.

It's in moments like these that you get hints that Tweedy is having fun again. "There's more hope in my music than there was in me before I got help," he says. "There's always been some part of me that wanted to figure it all out." He's getting closer.