Little Toy Robot

I wasn’t sure if Jenny Lewis, without her band Rilo Kiley, could produce an album as good as 2004’s More Adventurous. With Rabbit Fur Coat, she has. Lewis must be easy to fall in love with: she has a sweet, urgent voice and the looks and lips to go with it. But all that aside, she could sing her way out of a traffic jam. This latest album turns the volume down a little bit, which only serves to highlight her voice, which is backed the Watson Twins.

Every single interview with Lewis mentions her affinity for country music, but that’s just an easy observation for an album that’s full of acoustic and slide guitars, and three-part harmonies. Lewis doesn’t break any new ground, but she delivers solid, catchy pop songs that don’t need any sort of apology.

Highlights for me include “Born Secular,” a sort of gospel number that doesn’t go, musically, where you think it’s going to go, and “Happy,” which I think is Lewis’ most heartwrenching vocal performance yet. But like I said, the whole album is consistently good. The only dud is the cover of the Traveling Wilburys’ “Handle With Care,” which suffers for some sub-par vocal contributions from the likes of Ben Gibbard and Connor Oberst.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 7th, 2006 at 8:39 am and is filed under music.