On more that one occasion on these pages I've declared my favorite album ever to be Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot." It's a delirious album with gigantic hooks and melody hidden behind a strange wall of fuzz, distortion and sound effects. It was a quantum leap from the band's previous output and was an album that really suggested, nay required, careful repeated listenings. Even now, more than three years after we first got our hands on it, I still discover new corners and angles while marvelling at the songcraft.

I managed to get a copy of the band's latest, "A Ghost Is Born," about two months ago. I put it on, I think, expecting to hear more of the melodic output. I expected it to be comfortable, in other words. It wasn't. It was jarring. It was challenging. It was odd. As a result, I must admit that I gave up on it pretty quickly.

Fast forward to this week. After lead singer Jeff Tweedy's well-publicized stint in rehab the album finally sees an official release. It immediately found a nice snug spot on my iPod. I listened and listened and listened and somewhere along the way the light came on.

It's never going to be YHF. The hooks are all but gone. The lurking melody is non-existent. Wilco is now a band working in a different game. The opening track, "At Least That's What You Said" starts as mournful piano dirge that wouldn't be out of place on "Being There." But at the two minute mark it becomes a head-bobbing (and mind-boggling) Crazy Horse jam. By the third track, "Spiders (Kidsmoke)," we're almost being dared to tolerate ten minutes of chaos as Tweedy spits out non-sequiturs about Michigan beaches over randomly strummed guitars and throbbing synth loops.

Our reward for making it through "Spiders" is yet another challenge. Parts of "Muzzle of Bees" would fit well on Nick Drake's "Bryter Layter." The end, however, would almost fit on Lou's "Metal Machine Music." I told ya it was a challenge.

But suddenly the onslaught takes a break. From the Sesame Street bounce of "Hummingbird" until the almost flawless "Theologians" six songs later, things become much more tame. There's still nothing as immediate as YHF's "Pot Kettle Black" or "Jesus, etc." but there are plenty of interesting diversions and some near hooks.

Things come to a screeching halt, though, with the already infamous "More Than You Think." Lou once said of the aforementioned "Metal Machine Music" that "anyone who gets to side four is dumber than I am." Tweedy's pretty much said the same of this track. The first three minutes are a somber affair seemingly about a migraine headache. The next twelve minutes consist of one single note drawn out, oscillated, distorted and joined by feedback. Anyone who finds any enjoyment whatsoever in it has serious issues. It's patently absurd.

The album draws to a close with the only real radio-friendly track. "The Last Greats" is about as close to alt.country as Wilco 2004 gets. A very palatable end to a challenging album.

In the end, it's a work that I marvel at. It's ambitious, it's thought-provoking, it's a challenge. It's also fairly frustrating and fairly schizophrenic. Somehow I think that's exactly what they were hoping for...