Being There by Wilco

Something I rarely do is buy records on the basis of the cover alone. Instead, all too often I'm prompted into new purchases by either knowing a band already or reading endless rave reviews. Buying blind (or rather, deaf) may seem a wasteful approach but it does also have the potential to make record buying more rewarding if it leads you to something you would otherwise never have listened to.

I bought Being There by Wilco purely on the basis of the cover when it first came out. I can only assume I wandered into a record store with some spare change in my pocket and was attracted to the nice upended shot of a guitar and the left hand playing it (but with the player otherwise not visible). What I heard on the album wasn’t exactly a revelation, but it was great music - an eclectic mix of country, white noise, blue-eyed soul and folk (The White Album as if played by the Flying Burrito Brothers maybe) - but it was the start of a hugely enjoyable journey exploring their music. The cover photos were by Brad Miller, of whom I have been able to find little information, but they did perfectly capture what was fundamentally rootsy music inside.

The white noise on the opener “Misunderstood” was a pointer their fourth album, the excellent Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. An album that led some to dub them the ‘American Radiohead’, as well as to them being dropped by their record label. A story captured on the riveting film by Sam Jones, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco. A whole other story in itself, Sam Jones talks to Pitchfork about his experience making the film here.