It’s unclear why Jenny Lewis felt the need to do this right now – the mentioned Twins are a shot of extra flavouring, for all intents and purposes this is her first solo record. Her band Rilo Kiley, after years of belting out tweaked, bittersweet alt-country, finally achieved what MTV call breakthrough last year with their sumptuous major label debut ‘More Adventurous’. They toured the world with Coldplay, Bright Eyes and alone, very much led by Jenny’s infectious, radiant waiflike charms. And have they been played on the OC yet? Probably. So they became popular, but not too popular, an almost enviable position from which they could have forged forward, you’d guess, however they saw fit.
Like we say, it’s hard to understand why we hold this in our mitts rather than Rilo Kiley’s next record. But we shouldn’t split hairs. It feels a lot like Rilo Kiley, it’s similarly scented, but it does come with its own particulars. Either way, every moment on the album grips you so tenderly and so damn close that you won’t be concerning yourself with such minutiae anyway. Those were Jenny Lewis albums before, as is this. That’s good enough. ‘Rabbit Fur Coat’ picks up where the brilliant orchestral soul tearjerker ‘I Never’ from ‘More Adventurous’ left off. Where her band concern themselves with a decidedly indie-paced take on country, driven by a soulful leading lady, this soulful leading lady takes herself off down more traditional gospel, blues, bluegrass, and country lanes.
It’s traditional but it never feels that traditional, probably because of her sharp, engaging, questioning storytelling, very much a product of today’s world from the scattered references throughout the record. Immediately it feels religious, it uses its musical language certainly, on acapaella opener ‘Run Devil Run’. But it’s not that religious. “It’s just you and God. But what if God’s not there? But his name is on your dollar bill, which just became cab fare.” (‘The Charging Sky’). It’s not just her intelligent, cutting, darkly humorous words that hook you, it’s how she sells them to you with a voice as beautiful as a still lake at sunset with smoke rising from a small fire on the far shore. It feels gorgeous and it is exactly that. We’ll take you however you come, Jenny.