If nothing else, Wilco’s last album illustrated the bizarre business practices of the corporate music industry. Sacked by a subsidiary of Warner Bros for recording an album deemed too uncommercial, they were later signed to another subsidiary of Warner Bros which released the album Hotel Yankee Foxtrot and achieved massive commercial success.

Such an ironic turn of events has left the Chicago quartet in the almost unique position of being able to release whatever they please. By turns pastoral, bluesy and Beatles-esque, A Ghost is Born pushes commercial rock to the boundaries. Unlike most records of the past 20 years, this could be classed as “album rock”; it is the kind of collection that only works as a whole — releasing a single would be like breaking up a family. The other pleasantly old-fashioned element is how often the band hits a groove and sticks with it for an uncommonly long time.

The lyrics of the opening track, At Least That’s What You Said, finish in under two minutes, but the fade-out lasts for another four. This might sound indulgent, but it feels right. It’s a trick that they repeat on several other songs: Spiders (Kidsmoke) goes on for ten glorious minutes; Less Than You Think for 15, most of them taken up by a monotonous drone. This disappears into the final song, The Late Greats, which introduces itself with the opening line: “The greatest last track of all time”. Neat. As with every other song on the album, you just don’t want it to end.

(Nonesuch)

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