I guess I should start by declaring an interest. From the first time I heard Jenny Lewis’ voice gliding from the radio I was smitten. Rilo Kiley have stolen the keys to my heart and haven’t returned them.
Lewis writes songs quicker than the band can record them. So here she ventures out for the first time under her own flag. Often such productivity can be profligate. It’s not a problem when you are the best songwriter currently line dancing across the floor of alt.country America.
See, Jenny Lewis really is something special. Sure she is a songwriter of rare exceptional talent; the added bonus is that voice. The stories in her voice can morph from a sultry honeyed hiccup to heart broken plea with a single phrase. It’s like watching a comet streaking across a clear winter sky. It has warmth, dazzle and a clear tone that is effortless romantic. The Watson Twins harmonies add subtlety and counterpoint to the songs allowing Lewis’ voice to shimmer in all its radiant glory.
On Rabbit Fur Coat, her songs are statued in another light. The indie rock dynamics of Rilo Kiely have been pared back. This is part spectral country/soul and part 50’s country strut. The material breathes deeply, sighs, with the hard won optimism that marks out the best country music. Think of a young Dolly Parton fronting Bright Eyes heard through a cranky AM radio. Happy is Patsy Cline jamming with The Velvet Underground. The vocals swimming in fragile acetate reverb as slight whispers of guitar feedback ghost past. M Wards’ production coats the song in his trademark static hiss and shellac grain. The song is sprinkled in stardust swept up from the floors of Sun Studios. You Are What You Love is Hope Sandoval as a carriage hopping hobo, sharing her liquor with Johnny Cash, all frantic train rhythm and soaring vocals.
Like Richard Hawley’s beautiful Coles Corner, the 1950’s are mined for musical inspiration and the retro styles are applied with love to thoroughly modern songwriting. These songs come from the heart; this is not a shallow exercise in genre pastiche. When the half spoken half sung lyrics of Rise Up With Fists!!! dissolve into the chorus the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention. It’s a sweet sugar rush, a caffeine bomb, the perfect kiss. The sweetness and ache that Lewis wraps around the words “There but for the grace of God go I..”is spell binding. It’s a wonderful reminder of how music can winch you up the mast. Slap you awake, feed your soul. Breathtaking.
Melt Your Heart couldn’t be more aptly name unless it was titled Here Jenny is My Heart on A Sliver Platter. Haunting vocals, a melancholy chord progression and embittered pace, it’s a heart shaped purple hickey. Born Secular takes Gospel and inverts it. Framed by a fragile drum machine waltz and glistening piano chords, the three voices harmonise like a choir of angels. The twist, that its about not believing in God. Proof that Jenny Lewis has an acid wit, the true mark of a gifted songsmith.
Only the cover of the Travelling Wilburys Handle with Care stops this record from getting a 10. A guess they where just having fun but it sounds like a b-side and should have stayed in the vault. Rabbit Fur Coat is record to love, cherish and obey. |