Wilco - Being There

Wilco's follow-up to A.M. impresses first with its size: 19 tunes fill the double-CD package, and the packaging unfolds like a larger-than-life 1970s-era gatefold album cover. But the love affair with the artwork is short-lived, fading as the music takes center stage, making plain the band's overwhelming stretch into innumerable styles. Jeff Tweedy's love of pop and the mechanics of making pop albums is clear almost immediately, as he and his cohort utilize the studio to create and manipulate undertows and snaky recorded elements throughout many of their tunes (a keyboard touch, a guitar's flair, a cymbal's unexpected crash). There are the plainspoken acoustic numbers, recalling Tweedy's tenure in Uncle Tupelo, and there are also unwinding swoops of tinted, guitar-heavy rock--one of which collapses into chromatic jabs at a piano only to resolve in silence on "Sunken Treasure." Oodles of influences fill Wilco's collective mind, and they're perfectly content to pile the trace elements atop each other and make scrambled pop perfection. --Andrew Bartlett Amazon.com essential recording

Something 4 Everyone

I cant recomend this album enough, Its all very good. This was my first WILCO album and should be yours too if you dont have any yet. The first disk is the better one, no wait the 2nd is better oh i cant decide better go listen again. Jeff Tweedy is the most talented guy around today. April 30, 2008

Being There Lives up to its Reputation

Being There by Wilco has been rightly praised by critics and fans alike since its release, but unlike many critically acclaimed albums, this one actually lives up to the hype and reputation. Well, "hype" may not be the right term, as Wilco still hasn't really broken wide into the mainstream of music, and may never do so. However, Being There is one of my favorite albums, because it is so listenable, so accessible, and mostly, the songs are just so darn good. They have plenty of songs on the edge of what some may call country music, but Wilco are able to take the best parts of the country sound while leaving the dregs behind. Great, sprawling album, fun to listen to, musically all over the place - easily 5 of 5 stars. June 17, 2007

After Ten Years

There's been ten years of "Being There" playing first in my c.d. player then on my computer and mp3 player. Simply put, it's one of the greatest albums of all time.

That's it. June 14, 2007

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun

While I much prefer Tweedy & Co.'s shift away from alt-country after this record, Being There is still a really great double-album that I hold in high regard. Like every Wilco record, this one takes a couple of listens before you can fully appreciate it. The fringe-country stuff (Far, Far Away / Forget The Flowers / Someday Soon) is fantastic and provides the backbone for the band's foray into rock (Hotel Arizona / I Got You / Monday) and Tweedy's quieter ballads (Sunken Treasure / The Lonely 1). Kingpin and Dreamer In My Dreams tend to fall somewhere in the middle of the rock/country spectrum, and are great examples of how talented each musician is. I gave this one four stars, but a good argument can be made that it deserves five. May 19, 2007

Wilco's last country/roots rock albumn

I love Uncle Tupelo and the early work of the two splinter bands: Son Volt, led by Jay Farrar, and Wilco, led by Jeff Tweedy. Although this is only the second albumn from Wilco, it is their last as a country-rock band. The song writing is solid. The instrumentation is simple and direct. Tweedy's raspy vocals and Jay Bennett's guitar playing really came together well. For people like me who love the roots rock stuff, this is a great albumn, and the last before Wilco got into some strange alt-pop stuff. April 20, 2007

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