Track Listing

1. Misunderstood
2. Forget The Flowers
3. I Got You (At The End Of The Century)
4. Red Eyed And Blue
5. Was I In Your Dreams
6. Dreamer In My Dreams
7. Lonely One
8. Why Would You Wanna Live
9. Kingpin
10. Someone Else's Song
11. Outta Mind (Outta Sight)
12. Someday Soon
13. Sunken Treasure
14. Say You Miss Me
15. Hotel Arizona
16. What's The World Got In Store
17. Far Far Away
18. Monday

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12848 in Music
• Released on: 1997-02-03
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .18 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Wilco's follow-up to A.M. impresses first with its size: 19 tunes fill the double-album 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

CD Description
Wilco's second album is a sprawling collection of songs--19of them on 2 CDs--about the rock and roll life and the price you pay to live it. A second album may seem a bit early tobe getting into this sort of thing, but Wilco knows the life well; singer-songwriter Jeff Tweedy and most of his bandmates had been on the road for years before with their underground country band Uncle Tupelo. Wilco rocks harder than Uncle Tupelo, and Tweedy's songs, which continue a theme previously explored by road warriors from Grand Funk Railroad to Paul Westerberg, offer a variety of characters and scenarios from that road.
From the struggling Floridian rocker who can't figure out why no one will come to hear his band (the Stones-inspired "Monday") to the lonely fan who lives throughhis idol's exploits (the gorgeous "The Lonely 1"), to that first taste of star treatment ("Hotel Arizona"), Tweedy captures these stories with grace and elegance. Despite all thisintrospection, Wilco hasn't forgotten how to rock. "Monday"truly burns, and "I Got You (At The End Of The Century)" has the guitar-driven, big rock sound of Wilco's debut. There's also plenty of the country-rock that put Uncle Tupelo on the map. The smooth lilt of "Far, Far Away" and "Someday Soon" offer quite a contrast to the thrashing, distortion-laden songs that precede them.

Customer Reviews

Double Perfection
Listening to Wilco has become what can only be considered as an absolute delight. The way that Tweedy and company weave together genres and styles so effortlessly is often breath-taking.
The most surprising element about Wilco's music (and this album is the best example of this) is the way in which they manage to retain their pop sensibilities throughout often complicated seemingly detached sonic landscapes. The first track on disc 1, Misunderstood, is a perfect example it manages to initially confuse the ear into thinking it is listening to a radiohead B-side before rewarding every doubt with a beautifully simple lament of confusion and longing, and it is in this juxtaposition that the true beauty emerges. You begin to wish that you had written this song and when you see the chords you are fooled momentarily into thinking you could have. Before i digress into the conclusion i should mention some of the highlights. Red Eyed and Blues emerges as a contender from the middle of disc 1 and Sunken Treasure introduces disc 2 to amazing effect. I often judge an albums greatness based on the first and last songs and this does not disappoint on that level either, when 'the Lonely 1' ends you think there is no way they can top that for a finale, you would be wrong.
Each of the 19 songs has merit and class taking you into backwater Nashville one moment, then into the Midwest for a spell then into the dark recesses of the mind the next. It is in this blend of styles that the excellence of the album lies, yes some of the songs stand out on their own but like all good coffee, it is all in the blend. Being There is at its best when listened to as it was intended, from start to finish.
It is truly a fantastic double album up there with, Exile on Main St. and in some ways similar. Buy it and listen to it on repeat until you want to write a review on Amazon, then and only then will you know how i feel.

The perfect homage to all things past
Following an indifferent reception to Wilco's debut album "A.M", and chastened by the success of Jeff Tweedy's former band member Jay Farrar, this double album reaffirms the brilliance that was the hallmark of Uncle Tupelo, Tweedy's former band. With Jay Bennett ably assisting with the songwriting, Being There is a double CD romp through all that is best about American music. A blend of country, roots rock, 1970's rock and roll and soulful blues, this album established Wilco as the foremost purveyors of genuine Americana amidst so many other pale imitators.

The dynamics across each tune are stunning - from Misunderstood, where acoustic guitars give way to ragged Crazy Horse style feedback, through to the Rolling Stones-esque rock and roll tunes (Monday, Outtamind (outta sight)) Wilco create beautiful renditions of music from an age gone by but manage to keep it sounding fresh and contemporary through clever arrangement and Tweedy's vocal yearnings. Rather than repeat this sound on their next album, Wilco moved in favour of a more rock orientated sound for Summerteeth. However, if you are looking for a definitive homage to old school American rock and roll/country, there is no better album for you to own. As well as being a fascinating history lesson in music, it stands head and shoulders above most other albums of this type released in the 1990s. Long after people have forgotten that bands such as the Counting Crows existed, someone somewhere will still be playing this album to death.

Wilco get there
This album provides many of Wilco's greatest moments and represents the best album of their formulative years. Wilco are a band that suffuse country sensibilities with any number of styles; hard rock, bluegrass you name it. I ought to confess now that I am a devout Wilco fan; I've seen them at the Astoria a few years back and own six of their albums. Yet, although this is the album I keep coming back to, this is the album that has several defining Wilco moments. Wilco's sound has evolved since this early album, shedding much of the alt-country tag and moving into more progressive territory.

The first half of this album is divine. Anyone who is sceptical to start with will instantly be won over by listening to Misunderstood, the opener which dispels any notions that this is a superficial or what you see is what you get album. It starts off with a Radiohead like fuzz intro, then gives way to a beautiful, touching melody. The lyrics are heartfelt and intimate; 'when you're back in your old neighbourhood the cigarettes taste so good'.

Many of Wilco's best moments come when they use just two chords and simple chord changes. The country acoustic styles suit the band very well. Red Eyed and Blue is a greast illustration of this, just Tweedy's singing and the guitarist's strumming. Forget the Flowers is another typical country rock track, with twangy guitar lines intertwining and a ukulele behind. The Lonely One is another soft, acoustic number, truly poetic and elegant. The potency of Tweedy's lyrics are fully revealed and the song becomes as much about the words as the music.

However, that isn't to say Wilco can't work outside the box. Far Away is a beautiful track with a soaring melody backed by a keyboard and guitar, influencing by jazz and clearly by Pink Floyd (not just in the title, but in the soft groove). Following along the classic rock lines Somebody Else's Song is rather Beatle's Norwegian Woodesque. I Got You is a straight up rocker, Say You Miss me a gorgeous pop track with an uplifting harmony.

This is one of my favourite albums of all time, an eclectic albums that merges many different styles but delivers them all with the same tear rendering beauty and harmony.