October 10, 2025 • 6 mins
The fifth solo studio album from American musician Jeff Tweedy, Twilight Override is packed full.
It’s a triple album, with a total of 30 tracks, created with the intention of overwhelming the ‘ennui’ that was being squeezed into his life with his own creative works.
He’s credited the prolific output to his belief that creativity “eats darkness”.
James Irwin joined Jack Tame to review the album.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame podcast
from News Talks at b.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I'm a lasting.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Lines, swings, you want, stands a chance, get it. Cut
Up in the Past, there's not crowd.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
That is Jeff Tweety. The song is called caught Up
in the Past. He's got a new album called Twilight Override.
James Irwin has been listening and is with us this morning.
Hey James, I have been looking.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Hi Jack, I've been swarming, not just listening. I've been
swimming in this new Jeff Tweety triple album, Twilight over Right,
And I mean it's a deeply human masterpiece. Thirty tracks,
three discs, one big emotional swing at the darkness. I
mean off the top of your head, Jack, I don't
know if you can think of any thirty track albums
that are not you know, not solid gold compilation hits.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, I'm sitting here.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I'm thinking the White album and Beatles' heads will either
be texting in going yeah it's only twenty eight out,
you know, or thirty two maybe one at home. I
know the minute Man's classic double Nickel on the Dime.
This this album is it the album to save humanity?
Possibly not, but it's the kind of album that asks
you to kind of slow down, unplug, spend some time.
(01:51):
You don't just throw this one on when you're you know,
making toast all all the kids lunches, your book time
with it, like it's like that special family dinner. This
almost needs the old proper sit down with the stereo,
the not the mono bluetooth speaker in the corner, but
the old school get it set up in the garage
with that warmth and hum. Tweedy's gone big here and
(02:11):
you can really feel the effort. It's not just quantity,
it's quality, and it's kind of loaded up with the motion.
Right from the very first track, Tiny Flower, Wilco lovers
are going to recognize that familiar acoustic glow. It's glorious
experimental folk and in a way, you know, thirty tracks
that kind of feels like it's a vault clearing mission.
(02:33):
But it's not the old dusty vault left over kind
of way. This is already fresh, it's alive, it's overflowing.
He's giving us everything all in one hit, warts and all,
instead of kind of you know, like the Princess of State.
They drip feeted over ten or twenty years. This is
almost like going to the opshop finding a Scorsese film
Directors Cut on DVD and then going home and watching
(02:55):
all the outtakes and the extras and the you know
and the alternative you know cuts. Tweety's main gig is
a lot of people know is fronting the band Wilco,
the guy behind seminal albums Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. So he's
I mean straight away, he's no strangers. He huge ideas.
But this is I would say, is his most ambitious
(03:17):
solo project yet and it's not. At first, I was
worried when it was thirty tracks. I was like, Oh,
this is just gonna be one of those rock star flecks.
But it's not. It's a it's a real musical lifeline
he's given us here. He recorded it all at his
at his Chicago studio, The Loft, with a band that
includes his son Spencer and Sammy. So it's a big
old family affair and you can kind of feel that
(03:39):
in the closeness and all the harmonies and those fuzzy
guitar licks and the whispered lyrics, and in a way
it has parallels to our own Neil Finn and his
lads Limb and el Roy here and Alta.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
He's got that.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
I feel like there's that same spirit of, you know,
keeping it all close, keeping it family, keeping a musical.
Disc one eases you in ever so gently. It's all
acoustic textures, lyrical flashbacks, and it's got the signature tweedy
vocal half whisper, half sort of shrug. It's really intimate,
and I feel like he's playing in my lounge when
(04:14):
I sit there and listen to it. This two starters
starts to stretch it out a bit more. The arrangements
get a bit bolder. There's electric guitars, lad percussion, there's
fiddle and some synse. There's a track that I think
we're going to hear at the end called feel Free,
which I just think is gorgeous. It really stands out.
It's a slow building seven minute mantra that just is
kind of like a love letter to music, to creativity.
(04:37):
It's gorgeous. And then we get into buy disc three.
Things start to get a little bit wild, but not crazy.
He's got The first track of this three is called
lou Reed was my babysitter. I don't think he was.
I think it's part homage, part sort.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Of feed connection.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah. Yeah, it's a velvet underground style sort of jam.
And there's another track on disc three that I love.
Twilight Override is just quietly devastating. It's just got something
about it that's just grabbing me. Lyrically. Tweety's all over
the place. He's like a fifty eight year old in
that post midlife crisis. So he's done it all. He's
got rid of the lifestyle, lifestyle with the rock star lifestyle.
(05:15):
It's there's memories, there's middle aged weirdness, there's the joy
of just making music with the people he loves, and
you can really feel it. You can hear a closeness
in the mix. The harmonies are warm, but they're not perfect,
and I love that. You can hear some some harmonies
and you're like, that's not quite right, you haven't quite
hit the note. The guitar tones a little bit fuzzy acoustically,
but it's all really familiar for Wilco fans. You can
(05:36):
hear this is one of the things I always love
about records. You can hear a cheer scrape in one
of the songs, and you can you can catch the
creaking and the heaving. Yeah, yeah, you can hear the
heaving of that piano sustained pedal, and it reminds me
of the old you know, the old primary school teacher
belting out of tune in the school hall on a
slightly out of tune piano. It's got that feel about it.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
So what did you give it? James?
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Oh? Look, this is a solid If we're out of ten,
I can't remember' out of ten or five? It's out
of ten? What are we out of?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Out of ten?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Out of ten? I would give it for Wilco fans
and Tweety junkies, it's a nine out of ten. For
your average listener, it's probably a seven.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Okay, it does sound sounds really good. I'm into Wilco,
so it sounds like a bit to me. Thank you
so much, James. So, Twilight over Read is Jeff Tweety's
new album, Twilight Override. We'll have a bit more of
a Listen to a couple of minutes for more.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
From Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live to News
Talks at b from nine am Saturday, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame podcast
from News Talks at b.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I'm a lasting.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Lines, swings, you want, stands a chance, get it. Cut
Up in the Past, there's not crowd.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
That is Jeff Tweety. The song is called caught Up
in the Past. He's got a new album called Twilight Override.
James Irwin has been listening and is with us this morning.
Hey James, I have been looking.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Hi Jack, I've been swarming, not just listening. I've been
swimming in this new Jeff Tweety triple album, Twilight over Right,
And I mean it's a deeply human masterpiece. Thirty tracks,
three discs, one big emotional swing at the darkness. I
mean off the top of your head, Jack, I don't
know if you can think of any thirty track albums
that are not you know, not solid gold compilation hits.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, I'm sitting here.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I'm thinking the White album and Beatles' heads will either
be texting in going yeah it's only twenty eight out,
you know, or thirty two maybe one at home. I
know the minute Man's classic double Nickel on the Dime.
This this album is it the album to save humanity?
Possibly not, but it's the kind of album that asks
you to kind of slow down, unplug, spend some time.
(01:51):
You don't just throw this one on when you're you know,
making toast all all the kids lunches, your book time
with it, like it's like that special family dinner. This
almost needs the old proper sit down with the stereo,
the not the mono bluetooth speaker in the corner, but
the old school get it set up in the garage
with that warmth and hum. Tweedy's gone big here and
(02:11):
you can really feel the effort. It's not just quantity,
it's quality, and it's kind of loaded up with the motion.
Right from the very first track, Tiny Flower, Wilco lovers
are going to recognize that familiar acoustic glow. It's glorious
experimental folk and in a way, you know, thirty tracks
that kind of feels like it's a vault clearing mission.
(02:33):
But it's not the old dusty vault left over kind
of way. This is already fresh, it's alive, it's overflowing.
He's giving us everything all in one hit, warts and all,
instead of kind of you know, like the Princess of State.
They drip feeted over ten or twenty years. This is
almost like going to the opshop finding a Scorsese film
Directors Cut on DVD and then going home and watching
(02:55):
all the outtakes and the extras and the you know
and the alternative you know cuts. Tweety's main gig is
a lot of people know is fronting the band Wilco,
the guy behind seminal albums Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. So he's
I mean straight away, he's no strangers. He huge ideas.
But this is I would say, is his most ambitious
(03:17):
solo project yet and it's not. At first, I was
worried when it was thirty tracks. I was like, Oh,
this is just gonna be one of those rock star flecks.
But it's not. It's a it's a real musical lifeline
he's given us here. He recorded it all at his
at his Chicago studio, The Loft, with a band that
includes his son Spencer and Sammy. So it's a big
old family affair and you can kind of feel that
(03:39):
in the closeness and all the harmonies and those fuzzy
guitar licks and the whispered lyrics, and in a way
it has parallels to our own Neil Finn and his
lads Limb and el Roy here and Alta.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
He's got that.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
I feel like there's that same spirit of, you know,
keeping it all close, keeping it family, keeping a musical.
Disc one eases you in ever so gently. It's all
acoustic textures, lyrical flashbacks, and it's got the signature tweedy
vocal half whisper, half sort of shrug. It's really intimate,
and I feel like he's playing in my lounge when
(04:14):
I sit there and listen to it. This two starters
starts to stretch it out a bit more. The arrangements
get a bit bolder. There's electric guitars, lad percussion, there's
fiddle and some synse. There's a track that I think
we're going to hear at the end called feel Free,
which I just think is gorgeous. It really stands out.
It's a slow building seven minute mantra that just is
kind of like a love letter to music, to creativity.
(04:37):
It's gorgeous. And then we get into buy disc three.
Things start to get a little bit wild, but not crazy.
He's got The first track of this three is called
lou Reed was my babysitter. I don't think he was.
I think it's part homage, part sort.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Of feed connection.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah. Yeah, it's a velvet underground style sort of jam.
And there's another track on disc three that I love.
Twilight Override is just quietly devastating. It's just got something
about it that's just grabbing me. Lyrically. Tweety's all over
the place. He's like a fifty eight year old in
that post midlife crisis. So he's done it all. He's
got rid of the lifestyle, lifestyle with the rock star lifestyle.
(05:15):
It's there's memories, there's middle aged weirdness, there's the joy
of just making music with the people he loves, and
you can really feel it. You can hear a closeness
in the mix. The harmonies are warm, but they're not perfect,
and I love that. You can hear some some harmonies
and you're like, that's not quite right, you haven't quite
hit the note. The guitar tones a little bit fuzzy acoustically,
but it's all really familiar for Wilco fans. You can
(05:36):
hear this is one of the things I always love
about records. You can hear a cheer scrape in one
of the songs, and you can you can catch the
creaking and the heaving. Yeah, yeah, you can hear the
heaving of that piano sustained pedal, and it reminds me
of the old you know, the old primary school teacher
belting out of tune in the school hall on a
slightly out of tune piano. It's got that feel about it.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
So what did you give it? James?
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Oh? Look, this is a solid If we're out of ten,
I can't remember' out of ten or five? It's out
of ten? What are we out of?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Out of ten?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Out of ten? I would give it for Wilco fans
and Tweety junkies, it's a nine out of ten. For
your average listener, it's probably a seven.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Okay, it does sound sounds really good. I'm into Wilco,
so it sounds like a bit to me. Thank you
so much, James. So, Twilight over Read is Jeff Tweety's
new album, Twilight Override. We'll have a bit more of
a Listen to a couple of minutes for more.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
From Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live to News
Talks at b from nine am Saturday, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
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