{"id":47236,"date":"2025-09-22T18:01:41","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T18:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/22\/album-review-jeff-tweedy-twilight-override\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T18:01:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T18:01:41","slug":"album-review-jeff-tweedy-twilight-override","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/22\/album-review-jeff-tweedy-twilight-override\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Jeff Tweedy &#8216;Twilight Override&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tHumanity is in a bad way these days, in case you haven\u2019t noticed. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/jeff-tweedy\/\" id=\"auto-tag_jeff-tweedy\" data-tag=\"jeff-tweedy\">Jeff Tweedy<\/a> has, and he made an album about it \u2014 three albums, in fact. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/wilco\/\" id=\"auto-tag_wilco\" data-tag=\"wilco\">Wilco<\/a>\u2019s prolific frontman has described his new triple LP as his humble effort to push back against the overwhelming darkness of life in the 2020s. And if you\u2019re in the market for 30 new songs by the man who wrote <em>Schmilco<\/em>, then he\u2019s onto something: <em>Twilight Override<\/em> is a collection that will make you feel better about everything, at least as long as it\u2019s playing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tRecording with a backing band made up of his two grown sons, Spencer and Sammy, and several of their closest friends, Tweedy spends much of this project in a warm, comfortable folk-rock mode that he\u2019s spent decades honing. <em>Twilight Override<\/em>\u2018s first disc eases you into his world with the magisterial melancholy of \u201cCaught Up in the Past,\u201d the lovestruck reverie of \u201cSecret Door,\u201d and the gently loping twang of \u201cBetrayed.\u201d Even his memories of prom-night puking turn golden on \u201cForever Never Ends,\u201d thanks to a yearning hook that\u2019s worthy of Alex Chilton. The alienated young man Tweedy once was has rarely seemed further away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tHints of noise and doubt start to creep in around the edges of the songs on disc two. \u201cOut in the Dark\u201d is a bright, catchy guitar-pop song with an undercurrent of worry; \u201cBetter Song\u201d is haunted by the questions artists ask themselves late at night. Things get looser on disc three, whether he\u2019s hooting and hollering on the terrifically titled rec-room jam \u201cLou Reed Was My Babysitter,\u201d wringing unexpected pathos out of a rockabilly concert on \u201cStray Cats in Spain,\u201d or turning in a long-lost, finger-picked sequel to Wilco\u2019s underrated \u201cMuzzle of Bees\u201d on this album\u2019s title track. When Tweedy\u2019s lyrics lapse into obscurity, the healing power of group vocal harmonies is always there to carry him through. And those harmonies, provided by Sima Cunningham, Macie Stewart, Liam Kazar, and the Tweedy boys, can lift him to some pretty sublime places: \u201cAin\u2019t It a Shame,\u201d a sun-soaked reflection on mortality and youth, is one of the most flat-out gorgeous ballads he\u2019s ever written.<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ editors-pick-module lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tIf you\u2019re looking for an overarching idea that connects all these songs, you might find it in \u201cFeel Free,\u201d where Tweedy shares some of the wisdom he\u2019s accrued over the years in a series of mantra-like verses. He\u2019s got encouraging words on making your way through the rock canon (\u201cFeel free\/<em>Let It Bleed<\/em> or <em>Let It Be<\/em>\/John or Paul, Mick or Keith\u201d),\u00a0 following your dreams (\u201cFeel free\/Think of your name on a marquee\/Aim for something you can\u2019t see\u201d), and being a kid at heart (\u201cFeel free\/Kick a ball at a tree\/Trying to retrieve your frisbee\u201d). Most of all, though, he wants anyone listening to try tapping into their own creativity as a renewing, redemptive force: \u201cFeel free\/Make a record with your friends\/Sing a song that never ends.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tOr maybe the song that explains all the others on this album is \u201cAmar Bharati,\u201d where he sings about an Indian <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Amar_Bharati\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">peace activist<\/a> who\u2019s kept one arm hoisted high for more than 50 years (\u201cIt\u2019s not a made-up story\/Or hyperbole\/It\u2019s right there\/In the air\/Since 1973\u201d). For a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/jeff-tweedy-new-album-book-election-interview-1079155\/\">daily practitioner<\/a> like Tweedy, songwriting might be the same kind of gesture, a symbolic commitment that requires a lot of hard work to mean something.<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules trending-in-article lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tSome longtime listeners will likely have another kind of question: Why aren\u2019t these Wilco songs? It\u2019s not as if any of them are in such a drastically different style that Tweedy\u2019s main band couldn\u2019t handle them. But that query is rooted in a sense of entitlement that we\u2019d do better to check. Jeff and the guys have given us some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-album-reviews\/wilcos-provisionally-anti-depressant-ode-to-joy-893843\/\">truly<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-album-reviews\/wilco-cousin-review-1234834138\/\">excellent<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-album-reviews\/wilco-cruel-country-review-1357151\/\">Wilco records<\/a> lately \u2014 stack up their recent output next to that of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/radiohead\/\" id=\"auto-tag_radiohead\" data-tag=\"radiohead\">Radiohead<\/a>, to name one band with whom they were often compared at one time, and see how good we fans have it. Maybe there\u2019s an appeal in stretching out without the expectations attached to a new Wilco album. Maybe he just likes how these songs sound with these musicians. Either way, it\u2019s hard to argue with the results.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tTaken together, these 30 tracks amplify and enrich each other, adding up to a whopper of an album that rewards the time you spend with it. Go ahead and make your own shorter playlist if you want \u2014 Tweedy would surely tell you to feel free \u2014 but the truth is there are few obvious candidates for the cutting-room floor on <em>Twilight Override<\/em>. Even a surreal spoken-word interlude like \u201cParking Lot\u201d adds something to our understanding of where his head is at right now (daydreaming about himself as a guy from a Springsteen song, apparently). By the time he signs off with the ambiguous reassurance of \u201cEnough,\u201d complete with a blazing electric-scuzz solo that\u2019s pure Tweedy, you\u2019ll believe this is a triple album that needed to be that way. How\u2019s that for a miracle?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-album-reviews\/jeff-tweedy-twilight-override-review-1235432410\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Humanity is in a bad way these days, in case you haven\u2019t noticed. Jeff Tweedy has, and he made an album about it \u2014&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":47237,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}