Though he began releasing music in the early ’90s, Jeff Tweedy has been a steady, calming force for aging indie fans for the past 20 years. After kicking a painkiller addiction and seemingly moving past the anxiety that fueled early Wilco classics such as Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Tweedy has mainly explored warm, genial sounds on 13 albums attributed to Wilco, the five under his own name and others (including Sukierae which is simply attributed to Tweedy). It’s as if Bob Dylan crashed his motorcycle in 1966 and then made records like John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline for the rest of his career.
Tweedy has always been prolific, from early double album Being There (1996) to the 21-track Cruel Country (2022). A restless spirit is inherent in his body of work, which has been consistent, even if not reaching the same twitchy crescendos of genius that inform the early Wilco records. However, Twilight Override, Tweedy’s latest LP, sets a new record for the musician in length: 30 tracks, spread over three discs.
The album takes time to reveal its gifts. Following a listening session of the Clash’s triple-LP Sandinista! with sons Spencer and Sammy, Tweedy felt inspired to create his own triple record. At first, 30 tracks may feel overwhelming, an onslaught of mid-tempo jewels. But if you give Twilight Override the proper attention, it ranks with the best of Tweedy’s post-A Ghost Is Born output.
It’s not as if the old Jeff Tweedy has completely vanished. Opening track “One Tiny Flower” is minor key twitchiness that gives way to the toe-tapping “Caught Up in the Past.” Meanwhile, “Parking Lot” sounds like Tweedy’s spin on Minutemen’s “History Lesson, Pt. 2” in its plaintive spoken-word delivery.
Tweedy said Twilight Override is broken into three sections: past, present, and future, even though each doesn’t strictly remain in their time period. It makes sense, as sons Sammy (synthesizer) and Spencer (drums) are part of the band that performs on Twilight Override. Now that his children are grown, Tweedy is likely more introspective, thinking not only of where they’ve been but where they’re going.
Highlights spring from Twilight Override, changing with each listening session. The cheeky “Lou Reed Was My Babysitter” may be the most rocking thing on the record, while the delicate “Too Real” reaches for the ghost of Alex Chilton for inspiration. Despite the variety of genres and influences Tweedy explores here, a positive warmth radiates from Twilight Override, a generous and genial light that envelops us for nearly two hours, keeping the evils of the world at bay.
