CD Review: Jenny Lewis And The Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat
Published February 24, 2006
Aw brother, I'm sayin, best you heed these words. I been up since the crack a yesterdays dawn chewin the teeth out my face on account a the wonders hidden in the grooves, the magic in the melodies, the alchemy in the voices poured o'er Rabbit Fur Coat by Jenny Lewis And The Watson Twins.
I fell asleep in that record an woke up somewheres carved out the concrete ashes o' delirium. What a narcotic that piece a work done revealed itself to be. What a blessed, divine shot a fuck-fryin splendor.
T'is a secular gospel record, y'unnerstann, t'is a fragile, glistenin tangle o' honey-doused voices an melodies picked out streams an left for to dry o'er the wooden hearths, t'is the kinda record to share wi folks know the ravages a your soul like the smoke a their chosen brand, kinda record you'll wish you'd never let them hear when it's four months later an the exchanges reek o' hurt an spite.
Kinda record you wanna believe is yours, see, an only folks who know the color your eyes turn when you weep, they're the only ones you wanna let in.
Course it ain't yours, not that trio a voices in "Run Devil Run", not the Dolly Parton via Gillian Welch tragedy o' the title track, not the country pop melodies o' "The Charging Sky", but it feels like it is.
Feels like Jenny Lewis knows every cranny o' your heartache when she sings;
"An it's a sure fire bet I'm gonna die
So I've taken up prayin on Sunday nights"
Or
"But you can wake up younger under the knife
And you can wake up sounder if you get analyzed
An' I better wake up...
There but for the grace of God go I"
An backtrack a time, look at him freezing the rhyme an pullin that liquorice wheel t'wards his chest;
First time I heard Jenny Lewis it was by way o' The Execution Of All Things, the sublime second record flung shelve-wards by Rilo Kiley, bein the band she fronts when she ain't out there dazzlin the black out the night wi these Watson Twins.
Rilo Kiley, you'll be aware, are responsible for three a the most precious records ever led to anyone supporting Coldplay. They defy any sorta categorization, lungin from the big ol' rock ballads to the kinda bluegrassery a fella can find on Rabbit Fur Coat, rollin back an forth from country to pop an all the while utilizing instruments folks only recently seem to've realized were there all the time, hidin behind those guitars an keyboards.
Right up front, there she is, Jenny Lewis, wi those barbed, broken sentiments an that voice captures the lonely middle-ground between defiance an resignation like nobody else.
Rilo Kiley are the kinda band to get obsessed with, y'unnerstann, an so I did, wakin up to More Adventurous, fallin asleep to Take-Off's And Landings an the aforementioned second album accompanying most every breath between.
The Duke (Aaron McMullan to his parents and the clergy) is a Northern Irish writer, performer and insomniac currently residing in London. He is the creator of Mondo Irlando, wherein his scribblings and hollerings can be found. He is currently working towards the completion of his first novel, and his debut "punk / country / folk / whatever" album has recently been released by Ex Libris Records . You can also pop by His MySpace Page and maybe have a coffee and a biscuit.
- CD Review: Jenny Lewis And The Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat
- Published: February 24, 2006
- Type: Review
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Bluegrass, Music: Country and Americana, Music: Roots Rock
- Writer: Duke De Mondo
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- Duke De Mondo's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
Steve C, that's my point, heh. Who knew three albums of such beautiful unique glory would lead to a band openin for Coldplay, among the blandest rock bands a fella might ever encounter.
Another excellent piece of original vocal wordsmanship from The Duke.
She is indeed a starlet. I'm still waiting for that song about the kid playing Mario...
haha with backin from Fred Savage!
an thank you, also!
Of course. I'm an idiot.
In my defense, I was rather drunk when I posted that...
I hesitated to mention this, not wanting to be pedantic about an otherwise keenly written review, but then I realized it's in the title and might adversely affect web-searchers' chances to find this fine writing.
Anyway, to the point: near as I can tell, there is no hyphen in the title of Rabbit Fur Coat.
Oddly enough, if there were to be a hyphen I'd expect to see it between the first two words (i.e., "Rabbit-Fur Coat") rather than where the Duke has placed it. But I expect that's just a difference in our national dialects of the language we both inherited from England.
Victor, thank you for pointin this out! An yeah, most likely the hyphen business has to do with linguistic nuances. either placing works for me. rabbit-fur makes more sense, but then fur-coat is correct also. maybe rabbit-fur-coat is the only way to go about it, which is why Jenny & Co left the damn things out, by the looks a things.
Or, like the Germans, we could just jam it all together: Rabbitfurcoat.
In any case, glad to be o' service to ya, Duke.
Duke, finally got around to reading this. Wonderfully done. It almost doesn't seem write to call this a review because it's something more than that. I have a feeling you have captured the essence of the record and if you have well then I am going to have to have it but I am going to have to be careful when I get it because this record mixed with me and the wrong time will brew a cocktail of total devastation. Who am I kidding? That'll happen whenever I get it. I don't think there's any protection to be found.
The lows are so extreme that the good seems fuckin' cheap is my favorite fuckery on the album, I think.
good review man.
I, too, love the album. Between this and the new Neko Case (which is drop-dead amazing) it makes for a great spring!
DJ, thank you, you hit on what i try to do here, but very often fail spectacularly; the old "essence" thing. sometimes how a record sounds an how it feels in the gut are two totally seperate things, an some times the latter is the only way of figurin out what's goin on, anyroad?
Theory, thank you, i ain't heard that Neko Case record you mention, but i'll keep a couple ears out for it.
I just noticed my hideous error in usage of the word "write" instead of "right." Shocking. Someone go delete that.
Duke, just bought the CD today. Haven't made it all the way through yet.
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Yeah, it's a pretty great album. Mentioning Rilo Kiley in the same breath as Coldplay, though, seems kinda... I dunno, heretical or something.