[ Nonesuch Records / 2 CD ]
Release Date: Friday 7 February 2025
20th Anniversary Expanded Edition featuring the original album plus 1 CD of alternates, outtakes & demos.
A Ghost Is Born was released commercially on June 22, 2004, debuting at No. 8 on the Billboard chart. The album, which Grammy-winning writer Bob Mehr calls 'an eclectic array of dark ballads, upbeat pop songs, Krautrock chug, noise rock freakouts, and roots rock abandon,' was widely acclaimed as one of 2004's best, appearing in year-end lists of Mojo, NPR, NME, the Associated Press, The Wire, Rolling Stone, the Village Voice, and Uncut, among many others. The album earned the band its first Grammy, for Best Alternative Music Album. The album also won a Grammy for Best Recording Package.
For the A Ghost Is Born recording, Wilco was Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Leroy Bach, Glenn Kotche, and Mikael Jorgensen; Jim O'Rourke, who mixed the band's previous release Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, co-produced the album with Wilco. Leroy Bach left Wilco at the completion of the sessions and the band announced the addition of two new members: Pat Sansone and Nels Cline. Sansone and Cline toured with Wilco to promote A Ghost Is Born and that lineup has remained unchanged since 2004. As Tweedy said to Mehr for his new liner note, "Making that record, and then finding this lineup, that was the start of something - of having a band that can play anything. That's why, 20 years later, we're still here and still going."
[CD1]
1. At Least That's What You Said
2. Hell Is Chrome
3. Spiders (Kidsmoke)
4. Muzzle Of Bees
5. Hummingbird
6. Handshake Drugs
7. Wishful Thinking
8. Company In My Back
9. I'm A Wheel
10. Theologians
11. Less Than You Think
12. The Late Greats
[CD2]
1. At Least That's What You Said (8/13/02 SOMA-Chicago Version)
2. Hell Is Chrome (10/5/03 SOMA-Chicago Version)
3. Spiders (Kidsmoke) (9/28/03 SOMA-Chicago Version)
4. Muzzle Of Bees (7/15/03 SOMA-Chicago Version)
5. Hummingbird (2/8/02 SOMA-Chicago Version)
6. Handshake Drugs (11/13/03 Sear Sound-NYC Version)
7. Wishful Thinking (11/1/03 Sear Sound-NYC Version)
8. Company In My Back (2/8/03 Hothouse-St. Kilda, Melbourne Version)
9. I'm A Wheel (August, 2002 SOMA-Chicago Version)
10. Theologians (3/19/03 SOMA-Chicago Version)
11. Less Than You Think (11/11/03 Sear Sound-NYC Version)
12. The Late Greats (7/19/03 SOMA-Chicago Version)
13. Kicking Television (3/18/03 SOMA-Chicago Version)
14. The High Heat (2/5/02 SOMA-Chicago Version)
15. Panthers (March, 2003 SOMA-Chicago Version)
16. Diamond Claw (3/21/03 SOMA-Chicago Version)
17. Bob Dylan's 49th Beard (June, 2002 SOMA-Chicago Version)
18. More Like The Moon (2/8/02 SOMA-Chicago Version)
19. Improbable Germany (10/7/03 SOMA-Chicago Version)