Nonesuch Records Announces 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Wilco’s A Ghost is Born
Photo by Danny Clinch
Today, Nonesuch Records has announced a deluxe edition of Wilco’s Grammy-winning 2004 album A Ghost is Born, due out February 7, 2025. The forthcoming box set will include either nine vinyl LPs and four CDs or nine CDs (including the album, alternate versions, outtakes and demos) that present the full making of the album, as well as a concert recording from Wilco’s show at the Wang Center in Boston and their “fundamentals” workshop sessions. The release will also include liner notes written by the great Bob Mehr and a 48-page hardcover book of previously unpublished photos.
To coincide with the announcement, an alternate version of “Handshake Drugs,” which was recorded during a studio session at Sear Sound 21 years ago this month, has been released. Earlier this year, Paste covered A Ghost is Born turning 20 years old:
“A Ghost is Born is a record about leaving made by somebody convinced he’d never be able to stay. It was never going to rip through the zeitgeist like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (though, thanks to The Bear’s seventh episode of season one playing all 12 minutes of the ‘Spiders (Kidsmoke)’ live version from Kicking Television, more people have become privy to Wilco’s fifth album than ever before). It had no ‘Jesus, Etc.’ The buildings in A Ghost is Born had already collapsed by the time we encountered them. But, in the same breath, the album told us all that the sun will rise and we’ll all climb into our cars—because, in Jeff Tweedy’s world, ‘the future has a valley and a shortcut around.’ Telescopic poems and private beaches flow through the viaducts of melodies and our strung-out worries while winged birds fight over keys on the Lake Michigan shoreline. On A Ghost is Born, it’s good to be fooled by a kiss, so long as it’s delivered by the stone ‘that raises from the dead and carries us all home.'”
Read the full piece here, pre-order the A Ghost is Born box set here, and watch the visualizer for “Handshake Drugs” below.
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