“Tall buildings shake
Voices escape singing sad, sad songs
Tuned to chords strung down your cheeks
Bitter melodies, turning your orbit around”
— Wilco, “Jesus, etc.”
While searching for a new name for this site, I did something that was routine since I was a teen — listen to Wilco. The answer revealed itself immediately. An in-depth dive into Wilco’s discography was warranted, so here are their 75 best songs ranked.
The list mostly consists of Wilco’s five album stretch from 1996-2007, and depending on who you ask, they might all be considered classics. A.M. arrived before Wilco hit their stride and consists of mostly straightforward alt-country. Jeff Tweedy hadn’t found his signature voice yet as he sings often in a twang that feels out of character. A couple songs made it here, but it’s clear why people often skip to Being There to start with Wilco. Being There is still Wilco’s biggest album, spread across 2 CDs that nearly immolate each other. The two openers — “Misunderstood” and “Sunken Treasure” — are the clearest examples of Wilco’s newfound greatness, as they use alt-country as a catapult into anarchic experimental territory. This was the first album with Jay Bennett, and his prowess as a multi-instrumentalist allowed the band to expand their sound. It cemented Wilco as the greatest American band of the late-90s.
Summerteeth was where Wilco became associated with pop-production/overdub rock, as Bennett extensively used a Mellotron to boost up Tweedy’s macabre lyricism. Heavy synths fly across each track as Tweedy sings lyrics like “You know, she begs me not to hit her.” It’s jarring and a risky retooling for a band that seemed to have no need to do so. Wilco’s new sound paid off as they reached new heights of popularity and critical reverence. The album mostly consists of bouncy 3-4 minute indie rock anthems, but the best songs slow things down and have Tweedy offering his best lyricism to date. This includes the previously-alluded “She’s a Jar” and “Via Chicago” — the underrated epic that stands as their best work of the ’90s and an ode to their hometown.
Channeling the mythos of Chicago carried over onto Yankee Hotel Foxtrot with the iconic album cover of the Marina City towers. Even in Wilco’s stout discography, there should be no doubt that YHF is their best album. Perfection is hard to achieve, and the documentary on the making of YHF showed footage of Bennett and Tweedy getting under each other’s skins with a seemingly simple six-second transition. Listening back to “Ashes of American Flags” leading into “Heavy Metal Drummer,” you realize how necessary that obsessive tinkering needed to be. The end result is perfect; eleven tonally-distinct songs working in harmony, flaring up in chaos, and crashing back down to bare-bones heartland rock. It’s an American classic, with all the turbulence necessary to embody such a place. Dividing up the eleven songs in this list is a disservice to the magic of YHF, but they all stand on their own very well.
While YHF is their best, A Ghost Is Born is their most exciting — a great album that refuses such an easy categorization. Once the opener “At Least That’s What You Said” explodes in a fuzzed-out guitar solo halfway in, it’s clear nothing’s going down easy like their last three albums. Two of their three 10+ minute tracks exist here, and they’re understandably the most prickly songs in their discography. Jay Bennett was out of the band for this album, and he is often wrongly credited as the experimental voice for the band. If anything, he was the steady melodic hand that guided the band to its mainstream popularity. Without him on A Ghost Is Born, Tweedy often has his vocals mixed down with harsh guitar-playing taking the spotlight. Their pop sensibilities are mostly gone here, which explains why the album is the least popular of their peak run. A Ghost Is Born is the cult favorite that remains an intense listen and a startling discovery for people just getting into Wilco.
Sky Blue Sky is a bit of a course corrector (not as if they needed it). Their melodic side returns as Nels Cline comes on as a guitarist who provides much of the “Dad Rock” pleasantry that this album is praised/dismissed for. Tweedy writes in a straightforward manner on songs like “Either Way” and “What Light,” where instant quotables can get stuck in your head on one listen. This isn’t Jack Johnson we’re talking about though, and the back halves of “You Are My Face” and “Impossible Germany” feature some of the previous album’s frenzied instrumentation. It’s a nice meeting place of Wilco’s golden-age experimentation and congenial legacy act status. Some critics were initially harsh on what they considered the new “safe” direction, and considering what came after, their worries were confirmed. Sky Blue Sky contains enough great tracks to be above such criticism though.
Wilco (The Album) was the first time since A.M. that the band didn’t move the needle. It’s not a bad album (Wilco have yet to make one), but there’s just never a wow factor. “You and I” (ft. Feist) has broken through as one of the band’s most popular tracks; it’s nice but Wilco has a lot of great folk pop material to choose from. The album’s peak might be “You Never Know,” which opens like “Badlands” off Darkness on the Edge of Town. Their next album The Whole Love has some better tracks, like the electrifying and melodic “I Might” and the 12-minute album closer “One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend).” The opener “Art of Almost” also is one of the weirdest and longest songs in their discography.
Wilco have released three albums in the last six years, but you’d be forgiven for forgetting they happened. With each new Wilco release, there’s always the question of “reclaiming their magic.” The short answer is mostly no, but a few tracks have broken through recently to stand with the best in their discography. Star Wars is the only album without a track on this list, but Schmilco as a whole is probably worse. The latter just has one track here — “If I Ever Was a Child” — which is one of Tweedy’s better straightforward ditties. Last year’s Ode to Joy is the best of the three as they finally sounded a bit like the important act that they are. Grimy guitar play comes through on “We Were Lucky” and “Love Is Everywhere (Beware)” could be a guiding template if Wilco wants to become an accessible indie pop band once again.
The band marches on, certainly past their peak but still an act that makes headlines whenever a new album is announced. Ode to Joy suggests they can still make stellar songs, and maybe another classic is possible. It’s perfectly fine if they don’t; any act with 75 songs as good as this can rest on their laurels.
(The Billy Bragg collaborations were not included for this list.)
75. “My Darling” (1999, Summerteeth)
74. “Born Alone” (2011, The Whole Love)
73. “Someone Else’s Song” (1996, Being There)
72. “We Were Lucky” (2019, Ode to Joy)
71. “I’ll Fight” (2009, Wilco (The Album))
70. “Black Moon” (2011, The Whole Love)
69. “Why Would You Wanna Live” (1996, Being There)
68. “The Lonely 1” (1996, Being There)
67. “Passenger Side” (1995, A.M.)
66. “Less Than You Think” (2004, A Ghost Is Born)
65. “Pieholden Suite” (1999, Summerteeth)
64. “Box Full of Letters” (1995, A.M.)
63. “If I Ever Was a Child” (2016, Schmilco)
62. “Bull Black Nova” (2009, Wilco (The Album))
61. “What’s the World Got in Store” (1996, Being There)
60. “Everyone Hides” (2019, Ode to Joy)
59. “Hummingbird” (2004, A Ghost Is Born)
58. “Everlasting Everything” (2009, Wilco (The Album))
57. “You and I” (ft. Feist) (2009, Wilco (The Album))
56. “Please Be Patient With Me” (2007, Sky Blue Sky)
55. “One Wing” (2009, Wilco (The Album))
54. “Sky Blue Sky” (2007, Sky Blue Sky)
53. “Far, Far Away” (1996, Being There)
52. “Art of Almost” (2011, The Whole Love)
51. “Summer Teeth” (1999, Summerteeth)
50. “Whole Love” (2011, The Whole Love)
49. “Leave Me Like You Found Me” (2007, Sky Blue Sky)
48. “Hotel Arizona” (1996, Being There)
47. “Company in My Back” (2004, A Ghost Is Born)
46. “Wishful Thinking” (2004, A Ghost Is Born)
45. “Theologians” (2004, A Ghost Is Born)
44. “Hate It Here” (2007, Sky Blue Sky)
43. “Side With the Seeds” (2007, Sky Blue Sky)
42. “Love Is Everywhere (Beware)” (2019, Ode to Joy)
41. “Radio Cure” (2002, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
40. “We’re Just Friends” (1999, Summerteeth)
39. “On and on and On” (2007, Sky Blue Sky)
38. “You Never Know” (2009, Wilco (The Album))
37. “When You Wake Up Feeling Old” (1999, Summerteeth)
36. “Outtasite (Outta Mind)” (1996, Being There)
35. “Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway (Again)” (1999, Summerteeth)
34. “Forget the Flowers” (1996, Being There)
33. “ELT” (1999, Summerteeth)
32. “A Muzzle of Bees” (2004, A Ghost Is Born)
31. “One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend)” (2011, The Whole Love)
30. “Say You Miss Me” (1996, Being There)
29. “Reservations” (2002, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
28. “Hell Is Chrome” (2004, A Ghost Is Born)
27. “Red-Eyed and Blue” (1996, Being There)
26. “I Got You (At the End of the Century)” (1996, Being There)
25. “At Least That’s What You Said” (2004, A Ghost Is Born)
24. “Monday” (1996, Being There)
23. “You Are My Face” (2007, Sky Blue Sky)
22. “I’m Always in Love” (1999, Summerteeth)
21. “I’m the Man Who Loves You” (2002, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
20. “I Might” (2011, The Whole Love)
19. “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” (2004, A Ghost Is Born)
18. “Either Way” (2007, Sky Blue Sky)
17. “Sunken Treasure” (1996, Being There)
16. “How to Fight Loneliness” (1999, Summerteeth)
15. “Kamera” (2002, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
14. “Heavy Metal Drummer” (2002, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
13. “Can’t Stand It” (1999, Summerteeth)
12. “War on War” (2002, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
11. “Pot Kettle Black” (2002)
10. “Impossible Germany” (2007, Sky Blue Sky)
9. “She’s a Jar” (1999, Summerteeth)
8. “Ashes of American Flags” (2002, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
7. “Poor Places” (2002, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
6. “A Shot in the Arm” (1999, Summerteeth)
5. “Handshake Drugs” (2004, A Ghost Is Born)
4. “Misunderstood” (1996, Being There)
3. “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” (2002, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
2. “Via Chicago” (1999, Summerteeth)
1. “Jesus, etc.” (2002, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
Bitter Melodies 
Pretty well done. Missing some AM and at least one Star Wars track.
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