How Wilco’s Massive ‘A Ghost Is Born’ Box Set Complicates the Album’s Harrowing Myth

Jeff Tweedy is so well-versed in the standard mythologies of rock’n’roll—rebellion, drug abuse, near-death dramatics—that he can embody them, tweak them, and be embarrassed by them all at once. This prismatic perspective is presented in full within the expansive new box set celebrating Wilco’s 2004 classic, A Ghost Is Born. This is the album that Tweedy almost didn’t live through, the one where his longtime struggles with migraines, panic attacks, and anxiety led to a painkiller addiction so serious that he thought he might die each night when he went to sleep. “Every song we recorded seemed likely to be my last,” he wrote in his memoir. “Every note felt final.”

As a music critic, I’m also well-versed in rock’n’roll myths—and sometimes embarrassed by my susceptibility to them. Basically since its release, A Ghost Is Born has been my favorite Wilco album. It’s because I love the songs, how they are sad and funny and strange and catchy. It’s because I love Tweedy’s lyrics, and the way he couches the confessional inside the incomprehensible. It’s because of Tweedy’s raucous guitar solos that explode throughout, their punk essence, the way they make short-circuiting sound transcendent. It’s because the record came out just as I was graduating college (near Wilco’s hometown of Chicago!), and I felt like I was embarking upon a terrifying new phase along with the band. But if I’m being honest, my affection for this Wilco album is also wrapped up in its story: How Tweedy faced off against addiction and death, coming away with his heartbeat intact. How he, you know, plumbed the depths of his tattered soul for his art. Because if he hadn’t come so close to calamity, how could he have made a freakily anthemic 11-minute epic like “Spiders (Kidsmoke)”?

The A Ghost Is Born box set both deepens and complicates the album’s legacy. It’s insanely comprehensive, with 80 tracks (including 65 that were previously unreleased) spanning more than nine hours of music. There’s also a 48-page book with a detailed retelling of the album’s genesis, including new interviews with the principal players, by the veteran rock writer Bob Mehr. (An abridged version of the set is available on streaming, but you’ll need to shell out for the full 9LP/4CD package to hear everything.) I’ve listened to this album hundreds of times, and this super-deluxe edition made me consider it anew.