Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat

Jenny Lewis’s first album sans the members of her indie-rock outfit Rilo Kiley is an understated and, at times, poignant affair. While lyrically Lewis travels thematic roads similar to those of Rilo Kiley (songs about complicated relationships, complicated sex and complicated feelings about religion), she finds herself in a wholly new musical landscape. Sparsely arranged and steeped in the fundamentals of traditional, AM-radio friendly country/western, the songs on Rabbit Fur Coat allow Lewis’s vocal and lyrical presence to become the album’s centerpiece. Choosing to embrace a more fluid sonic approach than on her band’s most recent disc, More Adventurous, Lewis assumes the burden of creating subtle yet recognizable alterations to each shuffling mid-tempo number and torch song present here. At times brimming with knowing confidence (best evidenced on “Rise Up with Fists”) and at others, cracking with fragility (see the title track), Lewis’s compelling vocals more than meet the challenge. The album’s finest moments come when Lewis allows enough personal reflection to accommodate both boldness and vulnerability, such as on “The Charging Sky,” where she offers her best lyric on an album full of carefully ordered words: “Still they're dying on the dark continent, it's been happening long enough to mention it/Have I mentioned my parents are getting back together again/It's been 25 years of spreading infection, somehow we're not affected/ So my mom, she brushes her hair and my dad starts growing Bob Dylan's beard/ And I share with my friends a couple of beers in the Orlando streets, in the belly of the beast.” Though receiving assistance from such notable figures as The Watson Twins, Ben Gibbard, Conor Oberst (who participates in a formidable vocal trio with Lewis and Gibbard on “Handle With Care”), Matt Ward, Johnathan Rice and members of Maroon 5, Rabbit Fur Coat prevails as a revelatory look at a complex and versatile songstress in her prime. [www.jennylewis.com]