Though Tweedy is the one with a new album to promote, it is Wilco that has hogged the headlines this week. On Tuesday morning, the beloved Chicago band announced a string of hometown concerts, December 5–12, at the Riviera Theatre. Want to hear a certain deep cut live? Fans can request songs for those six shows on the official Wilco website. With no fresh tunes to push, the Riv residency has an air of looking backwards. In fact, the band is doing just that, offering up its first greatest hits album, What's Your 20? Essential Tracks 1994–2014, and a box set of rarities, Alpha Mike Foxtrot: Rare Tracks 1994–2014, both set for release November 17.
Even with two discs worth of material, the best-of compilation leaves off some of our favorites, and some surprising sorta-hits. Isn't that always the case? Wilco has only officially released nine singles over its two decade career, and rarely made videos, so there's a lot of leeway as to what constitutes an "essential track." Here then are 10 omitted tracks that I, Kris Vire and Zach Long found equally, if not more essential.
"Too Far Apart" from A.M. As lazy music writers constantly like to remind us, Wilco was once an alt-country band, formed from the ashes of genre pioneers Uncle Tupelo. Nowhere is this more evident than on the A.M. closing track "Too Far Apart," a twangy rocker that harkens back to of Tweedy-penned Tupelo tunes like "Gun" and "The Long Cut."
"Far, Far Away" from Being There This laid-back, laconic track finds charm in Tweedy’s lower-register underselling, almost submerged under pedal steel and piano. Plus, how many songs can name-check “Kiss & Ride on the CTA”?
"What's the World Got in Store" from Being There Wistful and sweet with a touch of worry and self-doubt (“I've been trying hard not to feel like a liar”), this banjo– and organ-led tune from Being There reads as a lullaby for then-newborn Spencer. (Oh God, we’re old.)
"Nothing'severgonnsstandinmyway (Again)" from Summerteeth Summerteeth is well represented on the new collection, with six tracks. But this cheerily defiant love song, with all its tambourines, handclaps and Jay Bennett’s E-bow guitar undercurrent, deserves its due.
"Kamera" from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
The most befuddling oversight is arguably this buoyant chugger. Like "Heavy Metal Drummer", it's a rare break of sunshine on an otherwise stormy, arty album. But not as dopey.
"A Magazine Called Sunset" from More Like the Moon EP There is no other Wilco rarity that has become as much of a live set mainstay as "A Magazine Called Sunset." A cast-off of the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sessions, this epitomizes the group's penchant for deconstructed pop songs, saddling a haunting melody with chopped-up violin strains and oblique lyrics.
"Spiders (Kidsmoke)" from A Ghost Is Born Oh, you thought Foxtrot was Radioheady? Suck on ten minutes of krautrock. At once blissful and antsy, this progressive groove ushered in the Wilco Weird Era, wherein the skronk-able Nels Cline would eventually replace Americana classicist Jay Bennett.
"Company in my Back" from A Ghost Is Born If you're going to present the full Wilco narrative, you need "Company in my Back." Recorded in the wake of the band's departure from (and subsequent return to) the Warner Music Group, Tweedy decries the "steady crushing hand" of his major label overlords with this subtle snub of corporate control. Holy shit, it's a great song.
"Either Way" from Sky Blue Sky Tweedy’s lyrics for Sky Blue Sky’s plaintive opener may be cagily noncommittal, but musically it confidently established the tone of a relaxed, reflective album.
"Bull Black Nova" from Wilco (The Album) It's not surprising that there aren't many songs from the tepid Wilco (The Album) represented on the band's best-of, but its a shame that the record's most interesting song was excluded. Armed with a staccato beat, lyrics that allude to Pulp Fiction and one of Nels Cline's most impressive guitar freak outs, "Bull Black Nova" proves that Wilco still has the capacity to be strange.