While
Wilco's debut,
A.M., spread its wings in an expectedly country-rock fashion, their sophomore effort,
Being There, is the group's great leap forward, a masterful, wildly eclectic collection shot through with ambitions and ideas. Although a few songs remain rooted in their signature sound, here
Jeff Tweedy and band are as fascinated by their music's possibilities as its origins, and they push the songs which make up this sprawling two-disc set down consistently surprising paths and byways. For starters, the opening "Misunderstood" is majestic psychedelia, built on studio trickery and string flourishes, while "I Got You (At the End of the Century)" is virtual power pop, right down to the handclaps. The lovely "Someone Else's Song" borrows heavily from
the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood," while the R&B-influenced boogie of "Monday" wouldn't sound at all out of place on Exile on Main Street; and on and on. The remarkable thing is how fresh all of these seeming clichés sound when reimagined with so much love and conviction; even the most traditional songs take unexpected twists and turns, never once sinking into mere imitation. "Music is my savior/I was named by rock & roll/I was maimed by rock & roll/I was tamed by rock & roll/I got my name from rock & roll," Tweedy sings on "Sunken Treasure," the opener of the second disc, and throughout the course of these 19 songs he explores rock as though he were tracing his family genealogy, fervently seeking to discover not only where he came from but also where he's going. With
Being There, he finds what he's been looking for. [
Being There was released in a five-CD Deluxe Edition in 2017, featuring the original album remastered on the first two discs; a third disc of outtakes, alternate takes, and demos; and a 20-song live performance recorded at the Troubadour on November 12, 1996 on the fourth and fifth discs. The fifth disc also includes four additional songs from
Wilco's appearance on radio station KCRW the day after the Troubadour show.] ~ Jason Ankeny