Apart from writing as many songs as is humanly possible, Jeff Tweedy seems as though he’s on a mission to spread the joy of creativity. Because making stuff is how Tweedy finds peace.
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Tweedy’s been prolific during his long music career. Most notably, with two pivotal bands, Uncle Tupelo and Wilco, and now his latest solo release, a triple album called Twilight Override. He recorded it with friends, as well as his sons, Spencer and Sammy. Holed up in his Chicago-based studio and Wilco headquarters, The Loft, combating the world’s noise with a more beautiful and hopeful kind.
Regarding the decision to release a triple album, he told Stephen Colbert, “It’s a part of my lifelong project of leaving them wanting less.” Yet even across its sprawling 30 songs, I didn’t find myself saying “enough.” In fact, only Tweedy did. It’s how he ends Twilight Override.
About “Enough”
On “Enough”, Tweedy sings about finding joy in a chaotic world. Instead of succumbing to despair, he wants more life, more living, more experience, more everything. (Especially songs.)
Is your heart high?
Don’t lie
Is your heart higher,
Than your mind?
He quotes “Like A Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan and, with it, speaks to feelings of loneliness and isolation. But “Enough” could also be whether or not one is ever satisfied. You can have had enough and just want to leave. Or you can have enough and be grateful.
A byproduct of Tweedy’s life project of a song deluge may be the temporary bulwark it produces against how our attention gets hijacked by our phones. Human intelligence, emotions, and connection versus algorithmic and artificial experiences. So more of a refuge than an overflow.
Do you feel like you’re dying,
Tracing a line
Out on your own,
Like a complete unknown?
Abundance
Tweedy told NPR he “thought it would be fun to end a triple record with a song called ‘Enough’.” An endurance anthem on a nearly two-hour album.
Then there’s the moment when he sings, “It’s hard to stay in love.” Echoing the sentiment one feels in any long-term relationship, a romance, a friendship, a band. But it all requires hard work. Just like crafting songs. There’s an escape, a kind of transcendence, that happens in a creative pursuit. The bliss is in the process, not the finished product.
It’s why the idea of AI-generated songs feels so pointless. You miss the best part. The thing Tweedy keeps telling you about: The joy of creation. If you’ve ever experienced the feeling, you’d understand why he can’t get enough.
Photo by Austin Nelson
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