New Music Reviews: Snocaps, Hatchie, and Jeff Tweedy

The Crutchfield twins collaborate on Snocaps. Jeff Tweedy, formerly of Uncle Tupelo and Tweedy, releases a triple album. And Australia’s Hatchie releases another dreamy, 1990s-inspired album.

Snocaps

Snocaps

2025, 7.5/10
Before Katie Crutchfield formed Waxahatchee, she played in a duo, P.S. Eliot, with her twin sister Alison. The sisters reunite for 2025’s Snocaps, supported by drummer/producer Brad Cook and multi-instrumentalist MJ Lenderman. The quartet recorded Snocaps in Cook’s home studio in a week.

Allison put her music-making on pause a few years back and currently has an amazing career working on the other side of the music business as an A&R at Anti- but she had been dreaming of a return to form. Some time in early 2024 we found ourselves on opposite sides of some strange spectrum of output. I was feeling fatigued by my own voice and ideas. She herself hadn’t made any music in years and was living with a lot of creative frustration. We circled around the idea of making something akin to what we made when we were younger.

Katie Crutchfield’s Substack

The twins harmonise prettily on songs like ‘Brand New Story’ and ‘Cherry Hard Candy’. The raw, Americana-infused sound recalls the cowpunk of Uncle Tupelo.

Snocaps is substantial for a quickly recorded album.

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Jeff Tweedy

Twilight Override

2025, 7.5/10
I hadn’t checked in with Jeff Tweedy for years. Early Wilco records like Being There and A Ghost is Born were essential parts of my 20s, records that combined great songwriting with experimental arrangements. But as Wilco drifted towards predictability, I drifted away. But I was enticed back into Tweedy’s orbit by this triple album.

Tweedy was inspired to create a triple album after listening to The Clash’s Sandinista! in its entirety on a road trip. But triple’s a relative term – Twilight Override is 105 minutes, shorter than The Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie, which only counted as a double in the CD era. It’s easy for a long album to be inconsistent, but Twilight Override is surprisingly solid, despite a relatively subdued sound.

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.

Jeff Tweedy, press release

Tweedy remains an impressive songwriter, able to conjure imagery. ‘Lou Reed Was My Babysitter’ harks back to Tweedy’s fascination with the restorative power of rock and roll, like Wilco’s ‘Sunken Treasure’. It’s surprisingly vital, with wiry guitars and a spirited “raow” from Tweedy. The title track is another favourite, restrained and relaxed.

Twilight Override is worth some investment, thoughtful and consistent.

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Hatchie

Liquorice

2025, 6.5/10
Brisbane’s Harriette Pilbeam has recorded three albums as Hatchie. She’s inspired by the 1990s, the decade in which she was born. She blends dreamy vocals with guitars that draw on jangle and shoegaze. After time in LA and London, she’s moved back to Australia where she works part-time as an optometrist.

I know I have lots of like 40- to 50-year-old male fans and I’m not complaining, they’re the ones that buy records!

Hatchie, Line of Best Fit

Hatchie’s previous album was excellent, while this one’s a little more spotty. The jangly ‘Only One Laughing’ is a highlight, simple and elegant, somewhere between the Cocteau Twins and the Cranberries. ‘Carousel’ is another highlight, jangly and tuneful, while closer ‘Stuck’ is one of the toughest moments. It’s less ambitious than her previous work, and it can feel slight when it doesn’t connect.

Hatchie makes lovely music, and hopefully her next record is stronger.

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