Being There

iTunes Review

Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy never set out to lead a musical movement. Yet with his previous band, Uncle Tupelo, and then with Wilco, Tweedy found himself representing “alt-country,” a neo-traditionalist strain of country music that merged with guitar rock’s tough edge. But like any artist worth his dreams, Tweedy consistently questioned his role and made a conscious effort to thwart whatever limitations might come with the crown. Being There is Wilco’s second album and was formatted as a double album, two CDs each coming in around 40 minutes, declaring itself both a weighty artistic statement and a probing stylistic tour de force. “Misunderstood” begins things with guitar feedback and strings to signal that Wilco will not go quietly into the country-western night. The band finds plenty of space to politely swing with pedal steel and banjo (“Forget the Flowers,” “Someday Soon”) and sing quiet acoustic reveries (“Someone Else’s Song”), but they’re just as likely to crank up the amps like they’re the Replacements (“Outtasite (Outta Mind)”) or weep at the piano until things build to apocalypse (“Sunken Treasure”).