Rabbit Fur Coat - Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins

...tracks like Born Secular and Rabbit Fur Coat, this is distinctly country and folk music, right here. And the most astonish thing is that she pulls it all off so successfully. Starting with the gospel “Run Devil Run”, which is a low chant from all three women together of the title, the album slowly takes off and transports you to 50’s America.

Some of the best songs are the upbeat stompy numbers, such as foot-thumping ditty “The Big ...
...You Love”, perhaps the best song on the record. As the brush drums beat quietly behind her, jenny jumps straight in with a song about love, about not being afraid to try and find someone. “you are what you love/and not what loves you back/that’s what I’m here on your doorstep/pleading for you to take me back”. It’s the perfect pop song, a low-key ode to love which goes through a journey of it’s own and ultimately comes back better for it. Throughout ... more

I think it’s fair to say I’ve mentioned the fair Miss Lewis on the odd occasion throughout my time here on Ciao, but I doubt many people will have been lucky enough to have actually got the chance to listen to her music. She’s defiantly under-the-radar, a figurehead of the American country-rock scene, which also includes amongst others Conor “BrightEyes” Oberst, and possibly even folks like The Shins and Modest Mouse. As part of the frankly ludicrously brilliant band Rilo Kiley, she has cemented a reputation as Queen of American Indie Pop, and she’s darned pretty to boot.

Ater Rilo Kiley’s third album, More Adventurous, the band took a break to concentrate on side-projects. Guitarist Blake Sennett worked on his band, The Elected, whilst Jenny went off to go solo, with the help of Kiley’s drummer Jason Boesel. But she didn’t just bring along everyone’s favourite Rilo Kiley drummer to the project, oh no. She brought along wandering minstrel M Ward to produce the album, and operatic singing twins The Watsons to back her up. Somewhere on the sidelines was Jimmy Tamborello, best known as half of The Postal Service, and for her cover of “Handle With Care”, by the Travelling Wilburys, Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, M Ward, and Conor Oberst himself turned up to take on the other roles within the song. She’s evidently in very good company.

What surprised the entire world (well okay, maybe just me) was that Jenny wasn’t going to continue with her country-rooted indie pop goodness pioneered through Rilo Kiley, but was instead going the whole way, for a Neko Case, June Carter Cash, Americana country-fest. It’s so very country. From the opening refrain of “Run Devil Run” right through to tracks like Born Secular and Rabbit Fur Coat, this is distinctly country and folk music, right here. And the most astonish thing is that she pulls it all off so successfully. Starting with the gospel “Run Devil Run”, which is a low chant from all three women together of the title, the album slowly takes off and transports you to 50’s America.

Some of the best songs are the upbeat stompy numbers, such as foot-thumping ditty “The Big Guns” or the chiming, swirling keyboards of “You Are What You Love”, perhaps the best song on the record. As the brush drums beat quietly behind her, jenny jumps straight in with a song about love, about not being afraid to try and find someone. “you are what you love/and not what loves you back/that’s what I’m here on your doorstep/pleading for you to take me back”. It’s the perfect pop song, a low-key ode to love which goes through a journey of it’s own and ultimately comes back better for it. Throughout the album, Jenny avoids the typical route of having endless cover songs – everything here, minus “Handle With Care”, she wrote herself. On tracks like “Born Secular”, this means she takes on the character of a woman scared of religion – “God goes where he wants/and who knows where he is not?”, whilst on the racing beat of “The Charging Sky” she asks why people see a difference between “the evangelists, the communists, the lefts and the rights/the hypocrites, the jesuits, the blacks and the whites”. It’s a throwaway form of Dylan, almost. The Charging Sky, incidentally, is in itself a reason to fall in love with country music. A hoedown with duelling guitars, rolling drumbeats, eager cooing from the Watsons and Lewis’ distinctive Californian drawl, it’s a highlight of an album made of highlights.

Not everything works, though. “It Wasn’t Me” is a rather bland song with no heart in it, whilst “Rabbit Fur Coat” is a story-song about her past, albeit a past she appears to have totally made up and which involves her mother getting in a knife-fight over a coat, sleeping with the husband of her attacker in revenge, getting addicted to drugs and eventually growing rich through her daughter’s fame. Jenny was a child-actor, yes, but the rest of it? Highly likely to have been made up. The song itself though is barely a piece of music, really it’s simply Jenny sat on a chair, talking you through the story. It’s not that interesting.

Better are the opening attacks of “The Big Guns” and “Rise Up With Fists!!!”, the former a gradual build-up of guitar and vocals, split into two halves. The first has just Jenny, the Watsons and a quick racing bit of guitar, the second brings in a massive stomp of a drum section. The whole thing pieces together stunningly, Jenny’s voice reverberating across the room over the music, like a female Dylan (dare I say that?) looking over her domain. The latter is a lament which takes in all of modern society and sees it was upsettingly bland and worthless. “There but for the grace of God go I”, she sighs, as the guitar intricately picks in, out, sideways and upside-down, seemingly. There’s a wonderful solo from the acoustic in the middle, and the Watsons stand out amongst everything, offering gorgeous harmonies on the big notes.

The Watsons also appear strongly on “Melt Your Heart”, a quiet and hushed song about romance. The twins are an essential part of the song, humming and singing a stunning harmony throughout the chorus, as Jenny whispers about life being romantic and poetic, but generally being… not. There’s a highly pessimistic vibe throughout the album, shown through the lyrics, and this is best expressed in the highly sarcastic ballad “Happy”. Just from the title, you can tell it’s going to be downbeat, and so it proves. It’s the soundtrack to an indie film you’ve never heard of, and in it’s own way, inexpressibly lovely. It’s spectre returns at the end of the album, as a reprise. The reprise, as the Beatles found out, is actually better than the original, sounding this time really really spooky. On the cover of the album, Jenny and the Watsons look like they’re cast members from “The Shining”, and this track echoes that. It’s a kooky way to end the album.

One last note about the album. The one cover that does appear is of The Travelling Wilburys. Rather bravely, Jenny takes on the George Harrison role, whilst Ben Gibbard, M Ward, and Conor Oberst take their turn behind the mike as the modern day Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty. I think. I may have got some of those mixed up. Anyway, the song is revamped and updated, brought into the modern world, and although the players are obviously not really in the same field as the original Wilburys (pitchfork suggests it’s more like the new “Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Stephen Stills, and, of course, Linda Ronstadt”), the song is really enjoyable.

As is the whole album, pretty much. From head to foot, it’s a distinctive sounding record and one of 2006’s more enlightening albums. It’s not going to change the world, but it’s damn good to listen to while you’re driving down Route 66/stuck in traffic down the M62. Then again, I would say that. If you can get past the fact I have relentless love form anything Jenny is involved with, and that the album is essentially a country record, then you’ll find this has plenty to offer you. 

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