Release Date: September 26, 2025
Personnel: Jeff Tweedy (vocals, guitar); Liam Kazar (bass); Spencer Tweedy (drums); Sima Cunningham (synths, piano); Sammy Tweedy (synths); Macie Stewart (violin); James Elkington (guitars)
Produced by Jeff Tweedy and Tom Schick
Disc One: One Tiny Flower; Caught Up in the Past; Parking Lot; Forever Never Ends; Love is for Love; Mirror; Secret Door; Betrayed; Sign of Life; Throwaway Lines
Disc One: One Tiny Flower; Caught Up in the Past; Parking Lot; Forever Never Ends; Love is for Love; Mirror; Secret Door; Betrayed; Sign of Life; Throwaway Lines
Disc Two: KC Rain (No Wonder); Out in the Dark; Better Song; New Orleans; Over My Head (Everything Goes); Western Clear Skies; Blank Baby; No One's Moving On; Feel Free
Disc Three: Lou Reed Was My Babysitter; Amar Bharati; Wedding Cake; Stray Cats in Spain; Ain't It a Shame; Twilight Override; Too Real; This Is How It Ends; Saddest Eyes; Cry Baby Cry; Enough
On "Wilco: The Song" from 2009 Jeff Tweedy pledged to listeners that "Wilco, will love you baby." His new triple solo album Twilight Override lives up to that promise from years back, offering everyone some tempered but hopeful words in the fraught year of our lord 2025.
Tweedy has stated each disc was intended to loosely represent the past, present, and future. "One Tiny Flower" opens the album on a somber note, channeling a thread of hope by way of mantra. The image of a flower blooming amidst decay provides the metaphor, the hazy production recalls A Ghost is Born - cloudy, but melodic.
On "Caught Up in the Past" Tweedy sings, "I'm the last in line and the line is moving fast" in a tune channeling late period Dylan ("Not Dark Yet") but with a post-punk sound. Listeners are reminded "it's a race against time/but you're never gonna be that fast" setting up the recurring theme of mortality running through the record. "Parking Lot" is a wry spoken word track in a zone somewhere between pastiche and parody. "Forever Never Ends" is an offering of jangly country rock, semi-autobiographical with Tweedy recalling getting stranded after the Prom on a dark road - and reliving the moment through recurring nightmares. "Love is for Love" is moody with dueling guitars and thundering percussion.
On "Mirror" there's an undercurrent of electronica in a track about staring at one's own reflection. "Secret Door" interrogates a complex relationship; the fadeout sounds like a lost '70s theme to a paranormal themed TV show. "Betrayed" recalls Tweedy's Uncle Tupelo days with its swinging Sweetheart of the Rodeo grooves. "Sign of Life" is more cosmic country with ethereal background vocals, 'Throwaway Lines" ends the first disc on an acoustic number - confessional in sentiment.
"KC Rain (No Wonder)" muses on middle age and elusive clarity. On "Out in the Dark" existential malaise and confusion set to power pop. "Better Day" interrogates the place of art amidst turmoil within and without. "New Orleans" recalls Yankee Hotel Foxtrot at its more stripped-down moments on tracks like "Radio Cure." In a similar vein, "Over My Head (Everything Goes)" evokes George Harrison at his most melancholy and insightful.
'Western Clear Skies" begs for comparison to "Sky Blue Sky" from Wilco's 2007 album of the same title, sonically this track allows traces of light peak through the heavy grey tone of this movement on the album, a cheerful surrealism. "Blank Baby" achieves near Pet Sounds harmonies, but with the mood more wintery Midwest than sunny SoCal. "No One's Moving On" is like late period David Bowie, plus we're treated to a guitar solo. "Feel Free" is vintage Tweedy, ending the second part of the record with a secular sermon of sorts, not unlike John Lennon at his most optimistic and poetic, Jeff even references the Beatles and Stones (even a shout out to his 2000s side project Loose Fur!).
The third disc opens the explosive "Lou Reed Was My Babysitter" in perhaps the emotional high point of the record. Tweedy promises, "rock 'n' roll ain't ever gonna die/not as long as you and I are alive." "Amar Bharati" is a ballad about the Indian ascetic who never lowers his right hand. "Wedding Cake" is the shortest song at 1:51, a spare acoustic track, "Stray Cats in Spain" offers a travelogue of vague memories. "Ain't It a Shame" muses on perspectives on death in the tenderest ballad on the album.
The eponymous track "Twilight Override" echoes a tranquil '70s Cat Stevens ballad. "Too Real" goes even further into the cosmic, evoking a moment of enlightenment. "This Is How It Ends" stays in the cosmic realm, building to an epic finish. On "Saddest Eyes" Tweedy sings "All the best brains are broken" in the closest the album comes to speaking to the current moment but could easily belong on All Things Must Pass. "Cry Baby Cry" is a psychedelic country ballad in the Gram Parsons mode, background laughter floats in the background. The final track titled "Enough" ends the album, promising continuity, sending us off with a slushy guitar flourish.
Twilight Override eschews social commentary in favor of introspection, the importance of inner strength and insight (not in the dopey pop psychology sense), but a political act in itself. The album feels like a tightly wrapped box with its fierce interiority. Moments when it lets loose may leave one hoping for more such moments but never diminishes its fragile power.
