2006 In Music: Rabbit Fur Coat

Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins – Rabbit Fur Coat

By 2005, Jenny Lewis had undeniably become an indie-pop "it girl". But, that status came with a price…One began to get the feeling that people appreciated her more for her style and beauty and than for the substance of her music. I mean, at the core of “A Better Son/Daughter” or “Does He Love You?” can be found great songwriting, but Rilo Kiley is at its heart a pop band containing two former child actors, one of which happens to be a cute woman. Attributes like that will unfailingly invite the scorn of the supercritical Radiohead-worshipping Indie Illuminati.

And so, Rabbit Fur Coat begins with an announcement: This is a woman who wants to be taken seriously. This is a woman who can wrestle with “The Big Guns”. Stand up and listen or be left behind. This is not a Rilo Kiley album. It’s something new and different…A “re-imagining”, if you will, of Jenny Lewis.

At the same time, this is an album that’s also playful and funny and relaxed, because that’s who Jenny Lewis is. This is not just more Rilo Kiley, this is something new and different. This is music that is folky without being anachronistic; thoughtful without being pretentious; fun but not bubble-gum. In many ways, this is an anti-gospel album; taking the gospel sound and creating songs of doubt.

The contribution of The Watson Twins to this album should not be forgotten. The harmonies are one of the things that really make this album special. Without their backing vocals, this album would seem lifeless and if they had chosen to simply double track Jenny, it would seem overproduced. Without them there would undoubtedly be a void. The choice to bring on these two sisters gives the album an air of genuineness that’s sorely missed on a lot of records.

This isn’t Jenny Lewis recording a solo album, this is Jenny Lewis creating her own work of art.

One thing I love about this album is the Traveling Wilburys cover Handle With Care featuring Jenny Lewis with M. Ward, Ben Gibbard, and Conor Oberst. It’s as if this generation of twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings is stepping forward to pick up the reigns rapidly being left by the aging generation of musicians (Harrison, Dylan, Orbison, etc) who laid the foundations of pop music in the 50s and 60s…Reigns which the mainstream has yet to hand to anyone of substance.