Wilco Announce A Ghost Is Born Reissue, Share New Version of “Handshake Drugs”: Listen

Wilco have announced the reissue of their 2004 album, A Ghost Is Born, with 65 unreleased tracks, comprising alternate versions, demoes, improvisations, and outtakes from the era. Out February 7, 2025, via Nonesuch, the reissue comes in two versions—a 9xCD set and a mammoth 9xLP and 4xCD collection—both of which include a 2004 live album, from Boston’s Wang Center, and a hardcover book of photos and liner notes from Bob Mehr. Below, listen to an alternate version of “Handshake Drugs,” recorded at New York’s Sear Sound in 2003. Find the digital album’s tracklist below.

In the liner notes, Jeff Tweedy told Mehr of the LP, “I was worried the album was going to feel like something dark and not me anymore. But the album was ahead of me as a person. It was the part of me that I was trying to preserve—enthusiastic and furious about the world, as well as open and loving. I reached that in the music, before I could get there emotionally on my own.”