To my way of thinking there are essentially two types of Wilco fans. There are those of us who love Being There and that's about the extent of our Wilco knowledge, and there there is everyone else. All of us who loved Being There probably had it as our number one player for at least a 6 month period at some point, but for some reason that love never translated into a further exploration of Wilco. But for the fans who stuck with Wilco they've had an interesting journey.
For one thing Wilco changes their lineup pretty much for every album. These guys are pretty prolific putting out 9 albums in 16 years. Each lineup change brings a slightly different sound to the band and so each album is kind of like a fresh discovery. But also Wilco has not allowed themselves to fall into any kind of pattern with their music. With Yankee Hotel Foxtrot they established themselves as a group who was interested in exploring new territory and they have really never looked back from that decision.
I say all of this to get to this place. If you are one of the Being There fans then you probably don't have any reason to go running after this album. It's not like they have now decided to redo that album. If, however, you have stuck with Wilco then you'll be happy to know they are back and still putting together solid experimental music with smart lyrics and good hooks.
Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 2 out of 5 stars for Not Bad.
This is, of course, where I should jump in with stories about Wilco's (and Son Volt's) predecessor, Uncle Tupelo, playing around Bowling Green in the late 1980s when Government Cheese was on fire ... but I'll spare you.
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