Listen to Jenny there, listen to how tenderly she coos even the most rancid o' 4 a.m. notions;
"You're sleeping with someone who doesn't get you
You're gonna hate yourself in the morning
It's bound to melt your heart one way or the other"
Listen to how bluegrass an folk an bubblegum pop are asked for to hold hands an wait for the first chards a blue from out the pre-dawn swell. Listen to how belief an love an politics an religion an lust get wound around one another till a fella can't tell the difference between them. Listen to those moments o' tranquillity an calm threaten to drown out every sound from here to the balls a the ocean.
Songs that taste so pure an so fragile a fella's scared to swallow. Songs that wake you at two in the afternoon sayin come now, the day's all afire wi the flames o' potential, come grab yourself a coffee an a smoke an we'll watch the sunlight dancin in the cracks atween the pavings.
Songs that sound like fragments o' melodies caught on some breeze tickled the doorsteps in late '65, passin for a moment an sayin best you pay attention here, chances are that wind's gon' pick up again sometime soon.
Songs kiss your cheek an say s'ok now, we all scream like that sometimes, just those mirrors round about got a habit o' swappin grimaces for smiles.
Rabbit Fur Coat, aye, feels wrong to be listenin wi the same ears hear the kinda terrors make this seem so special. Kinda record makes you wonder how many years Jenny Lewis must've spent learnin how to sound so young. Mean to say, that title track sounds like the sighs o' a twelve year old sat starin at lovers cross the street from a fourth-story window, an yet only someone wi a lifetime o' experience coulda written it, coulda performed it like this.
Near the half two in the A.M. an wi the caffeine an the nicotine an the record repeatin for the Nth time, "Run Devil Run" unfoldin above an beneath an beside me again, the smoke hung in sheets around the speakers an those transcendent voices slicin through the fog.
Article comments
1 - Steve C.
Yeah, it's a pretty great album. Mentioning Rilo Kiley in the same breath as Coldplay, though, seems kinda... I dunno, heretical or something.
2 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
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.
3 - Aaron Fleming
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...
4 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
haha with backin from Fred Savage!
an thank you, also!
5 - Tan The Man
Very good album...
6 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Agreed, Tan.
7 - Steve C.
Of course. I'm an idiot.
In my defense, I was rather drunk when I posted that...
8 - Victor Plenty
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.
9 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
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.
10 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
de-hyphenated. Thanks again Victor.
11 - Victor Plenty
Or, like the Germans, we could just jam it all together: Rabbitfurcoat.
In any case, glad to be o' service to ya, Duke.
12 - DJRadiohead
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.
13 - The Theory
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!
14 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
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.
15 - DJRadiohead
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.