Happy 20th Anniversary to Wilco’s third studio album Summerteeth, originally released March 9, 1999.

“I dreamed about killing you again last night / and it felt alright to me.”

Never has a song lyric stuck with me so effortlessly. Listening to other people’s dreams is famously uninteresting, yet every time I hear this line, I wonder. I try to make it real and question if it could be. Then I think of my own dreams, how I wish I could forget some, and how I usually forget most as soon as my eyes open.

It’s a perfect opening line. “Via Chicago” features Jay Bennett on Moog, banjo, tambourine, and piano, instruments put in place to cover up Jeff Tweedy spilling his exposed, weary heart. The song goes avant-garde and then the piano comes in for the bridge. Time slows down and I feel every missing piece of Jay Bennett.

Wilco’s third LP Summerteeth turns 20 this week. A lot sits underneath the record, so let’s dig.

Summerteeth marks when Tweedy started writing down his lyrics. Inspired to become a better songwriter, he started reading 20th century literature (“Via Chicago” is a murder ballad inspired by Henry Miller). You can hear his songs turn on this album from straightforward short stories to puzzles. It’s here where he started using stranger vocabulary with weird word marriages on purpose to make you wonder how could someone be buried alive in a fireworks display?