Twilight Override

I saw the length and winced. But when I started listening, I forgot about the length. I really bought into this. A lot of really great tracks on here. Could it have been made into a more focused single album? Sure. But I was happy to have the extra songs.

Okay I'm sorry but convincing me this is worth my time is going to be a tough ask. First of all this is a a TRIPLE album from Wilco frontman and lead songwriter, Jeff Tweedy, and you might think "hey, aren't there already 3 main list and one user list Wilco albums? What makes Tweedy 's solo work so special", to which the answer is, not a whole lot. Twilight Override is essentially a 5th Wilco album, and honestly it's closer to a Wilco album than Mermaid Avenue was.

Anyway with that scathing introduction out of the way, you probably expect me to loathe this, right? I actually don't, if anything I think my opinion of Tweedy as a songwriter has improved from listening to this, primarily because it proves that he IS Wilco, at least in terms of his songwriting ability. For the most part this is a very well made album, and I enjoyed the first disc thoroughly. My issue is of course the length and there is a noticeable drop in quality in the second half. The best songs are the country themed country songs which are primarily in the first half.

Should it be on the main list: No. We have four Wilco albums between the main list and user list, we don't need what is essentially a fifth Wilco album.

Top 3 songs: There's too many to distinguish from a first listen, but I really like the second track Caught Up in the Past.

Dude wrote a book called How to Write a Song and has been advertising it by showing how effective his method really is - his 5th solo album in 8 years (in addition to 4 Wilco records this decade) is a triple disc 30-song album. How much do you really have to say? His method is kind of random word association/imagery based - but he is a genius of wringing meaning from this. How many musical ideas do you really need to get out there? He writes to stay sane, creativity is a compulsion, but a bit of curation would help. These are remarkably consistent (if a bit samey) tracks though - broadly starting from his alt country folk rock foundation before building/flowering into more abstract spacey textural atmospheric passages with motorik drumming. Tastefully assembled, expertly arranged, a master at work just doing his thing. It’s actually really very good. Compulsion as creativity.

"2-hour triple album from the Wilco guy" really scared me, especially because Wilco's already a band that I think is really boring. This one kind of worked for me, though? Not sure what made the difference, but while this album was also kind of boring, It was kind of nice to just sit and let it wash over me. Not sure why, I don't often get to that kind of headspace.

Nice album but jsut too long for me to ever come back to this one. Felt a slog come the end.