Wilco rules. A Ghost Is Born is excellent. AM sucks. Everything else is great. A Ghost Is Born is not avant-garde, you're just reading too many irrelevant reviews. They're my favorite current rock'n'roll band, and live, you just can't beat them. I didn't get into them until YHF, and it wasn't because of the hype, it's just because that's what I wanted from them.
Jeff has always been into "avant-garde" music anyway, and nothing about A Ghost Is Born is "arrogant." The only "difficult" track would be "Less Than You Think," but because of the noise at the end, people forget the first 3 minutes, which is a fantastic, sad little folk song. I think A Ghost Is Born definitely requires patience and repeated listens at first, but what you'll discover is that there's nothing that different on it and the songs are incredible. The only songs mentioned on this thread have been from the first half of the LP. What about "The Late Greats"? "Theologians"? "Company In My Back"? "I'm A Wheel"? All very "accessible" and all very perfect.