Jeff Tweedy Poetically Muses List of Methods for Personal Liberation on ‘Twilight Override’ Lead Single “Feel Free” 

Jeff Tweedy has shared the lead track off his fifth solo effort, the triple album Twilight Override, due on September 26 via dBpm Records. “Feel Free” hands over the very best of Tweedy’s skillset, his ability to poetically mold messages without relinquishing the whole truth; instead, he builds a narrative that promotes a meditative reverb of the title, coupled with modes for personal liberation. At seven minutes, the track is a list of reminders that the mundane moments carry the capacity to break the mold, and, well, feel free. 

“The freedom I’m talking about in this song comes in both small doses and large doses. It arrives at me, at the most free I feel in my life. Which is making a record with my friends and singing a song that I feel like is a part of the past, present and future,” Tweedy says of the single, which features accompaniment from his Chicago-based musical support system: James Elkington, Sima Cunningham, Macie Stewart, Liam Kazar, and sons, Spencer and Sammy.

The acoustic framework promotes Tweedy’s sprightly reminder, “Feel Free,” which sandwiches the start and end of each verse, a double reminder to go with each action’s inspired effect. The result presents like an indie-informed father’s sage advice: “Feel free/ Think of your name on a marquee/ Aim for something you can’t see/ Feel free.” With family values accounted for, the track also leans into a more abstract form of freedom that also promotes Tweedy’s title of wordsmith: “Feel free/ Swim alone in the open sea/ Bounce around holding a baby/ Feel free.”

Twilight Override comes a half-decade after Tweedy’s prior infectious solo release, Love Is the King, as an expansive three-disc album that threads together thematic overlaps that emerge as beacons of light during a period of global uncertainty. The self-produced and recorded set came out of Tweedy’s beloved The Loft studio in Chicago, the location of the music video paired with today’s single release. 

Like a three-part series, each entry of Twilight Override exists as an independent collection, but together, they knit a larger story, meditations on the what was, what is, and what could be. Levitating on a different creative level than before, Tweedy says, “When you choose to do creative things, you align yourself with something that other people call God. And when you align yourself with creation, you inherently take a side against destruction. You’re on the side of creation. And that does a lot to quell the impulse to destroy. Creativity eats darkness.”

He continues, “Sort of an endless buffet these days—a bottomless basket of rock bottom. Which is, I guess, why I’ve been making so much stuff lately. That sense of decline is hard to ignore, and it must be at least a part of the shroud I’m trying to unwrap. The twilight of an empire seems like a good enough jumping-off point when one is jumping into the abyss.”

Twilight Override adds another layer to Tweedy’s prolific solo career. It serves as the latest pursuit of his creative output and ability to connect with listeners through deeply personal, poetically crafted lyrics. In addition to his latest release, Tweedy has launched a fan-submitted lyrics project in conjunction with the track’s final line: “a song that never ends.” Tweedy will pull from the submissions and record an extended version of the song, shared to his Substack, Starship Casual, at a later date. Submit lyrics here.

In support of the impending release, Tweedy will tour behind Twilight Override. For tickets and additional information, visit wilcoworld.net/shows. 

Watch the official music video for “Feel Free.”