A Ghost Is Born
by Wilco
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Wilco bestography
A Ghost Is Born is ranked 3rd best out of 23 albums by Wilco on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Wilco is Yankee Hotel Foxtrot which is ranked number 62 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 16,270.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
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A Ghost Is Born track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 83 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
A Ghost Is Born rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 1 hour ago)
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TamthebamA Ghost Is Born collection
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A Ghost Is Born ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 510 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 08/01/2026 03:17 |  imacgill | 2,811 | 79/100 |
| ! | 07/16/2026 12:05 | glebrus | 469 | 81/100 |
| ! | 04/29/2026 08:14 | marcoserra1966 | 867 | 59/100 |
| ! | 04/13/2026 07:26 | Juneof44 | 2,617 | 69/100 |
| ! | 03/16/2026 11:13 |  Milhaud | 2,135 | 71/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 80.0/100, a mean average of 79.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 80.1/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.1.
A Ghost Is Born favourites
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A Ghost Is Born comments
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Hypnotic rhythms that just draw you in. However, points are lost due to the 15 minute track 'Less Than You Think'. It's nothing but noise which conjures up images of pretentious wankers thinking they're neat avant-garde with their music. I don't hit the skip button much but this will be constantly by-passed. It spoiled a fine album. Such a shame (Edited)
Was never going to be as good as Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but it still contains some good songs. At Least That's What You Said and The Late Greats are my highlights. There is a bonus track on another version of the album called Panthers which is awesome too, shame it didn't make it on to the album. 15 minutes of Less Than You Think just kills it as an album for me though - makes the album way too long. (Edited)
Brad1770 11/22/2021 12:50 | #276547
My favourite Wilco albums will always be ‘Y.H.F’ and ‘Summerteeth’ but this one sits comfortably in third place. My favourite track is “Less Than You Think”, I simply can’t explain how 11 minutes of white noise sounds incredible to my ears as Tweedy mimics a migraine in auditory fashion such as he was experiencing at the time
Missed opportunity though, “Less Than You Think” should have been the album closer. How amazing would it have been to end on that white noise migraine section? I get why they went with “The Late Greats” but still . . . .
More ambitious than usual, maybe doesn't have the consistency to back it up, but it's always good to hear a guitar based album - something that wasn't very common at that period of time.
spigelwii 04/27/2020 21:11 | #250597
The other perfect Wilco record, and a fantastic follow-up to the magnificent Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. In some ways, the songs are even better, but the production isn't quite as strong and many of the songs received a more enjoyable treatment on the live album. (Edited)
A well done experimental on par with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (maybe a little better). Less Than You Think had zero business being 15 minutes long.
Key Three: At Least That's What You Said, I'm a Wheel, Theologians
Sandinistar 12/17/2018 00:34 | #227322
Perhaps too formulaic and Beatles-esque, but there's not really a bad song on this record and the songwriting is very good. Lots of good choruses that will stay in your head, and as usual with Wilco, great instrumentation.
By removing 'I'm a Wheel' and maybe placing 'Less Than You think' as a bonus track, the album would've ended perfect. I feel it would be a much stronger album if it closed with the perfect 4-pack of Wishful Thinking/Company In My Back/Theologians/The Late Greats. Those are all strong tracks and the album would be more memorable and playable.
And, Muzzle Of Bees is my fav Wilco song.
Sandrof1969 02/11/2018 22:54 | #207759
La vetta di Jeff Tweedy e dei Wilco. Il disco dove le sperimentazioni dell'album precedente, pur grande, diventano Arte.
best tracks: spiders (kidsmoke), muzzle of bees
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