Jenny Lewis With the Watson Twins “Rabbit Fur Coat”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1051 in the Series) is Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat.
I wasn’t familiar with Jenny Lewis when she appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel Show a few years back. I’m surprised I hadn’t heard of her, since I was a little familiar with her band Rilo Kiley. I guess just not enough.
I had just walked in the door, flipped on the TV as they took the stage on that Kimmel episode. I really liked what I was hearing. This was my sound. This was square in “my wheelhouse” to lean on a cliche.
It was at the end of a day when I was in one of my “Gram Parsons moods” so her timing was right. I’ve attached a video of that performance below. I apologize for it not being that great of quality, but it’s the only one I could find of them doing “The Charging Sky” from the Jimmy Kimmel Show. If you’re not familiar with this act then check out that video and you can be introduced the exact same way that I was, from that old Jimmy Kimmel appearance.
The sound of that one song intrigued me. Then I went out and bought the album and found that I loved it. All of it! It really is that consistent.
They open with a short a capella song
called “Run, Devil Run” which smoothly segues into “Love Big Guns.” The performance of these two songs on Letterman’s show is also below. The quality of that is superb! Also look for a great rendition of The Traveling Wilbury’s hit “Handle With Care.” Another song to highlight is the playful, “It Wasn’t Me.”
As I mentioned earlier, there isn’t a bad note of music on this album. I highly recommend it. Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins Rabbit Fur Coat was released in 2006. It peaked at #88 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart. Jenny Lewis has since released another album with Rilo Kiley and an album with her main man, Jonathan Rice. It’s called I’m Having Fun Now. They call themselves Jenny and Johnny so look out for them.
Check out the videos below. You can listen to the full album or see the live performances that I wrote about above.
— Larry Carta
Track listing
(all tracks written by Lewis except where noted)
- “Run Devil Run” – 1:06
- “The Big Guns” – 2:32
- “Rise Up with Fists!!” – 3:36
- “Happy” – 4:14
- “The Charging Sky” – 2:56
- “Melt Your Heart” – 2:50
- “You Are What You Love” – 2:51
- “Rabbit Fur Coat” – 4:32
- “Handle with Care” (Bob Dylan/George Harrison/Jeff Lynne/Roy Orbison/Tom Petty) – 2:56
- “Born Secular” – 5:07
- “It Wasn’t Me” – 4:10
- “Happy (Reprise)” – 0:48
Links
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Here’s the album
Love this one. This is the way Jenny was. She was the cute little girl singer type with a tinge of country to her. The Watson Twins were great at taking the harmonies over the top. The last Rilo Kiley lp was abysmal. She tried to be the Hollywood starlet funky type. This change in style also turned me off to Acid Tounge (her solo debut). I will listen to Rabbit Fur Coat as soon as the album I’m listening to (The Wildhearts-Stop Us If You’ve Heard This One Before, Vol. 1) is over. Have a good one, Larry!
Huh? For one thing, Acid Tongue came after Rabbit Fur Coat. For another. Ah, screw it.
Anyway, these are nice albums. Accessible stuff, goes down easy, nothing earthshakingly original though so it will never be desert island material for me. But music I can recommend to others without freaking them out or having them look at me like I’m crazy after they listen to it. Nothing wrong with pleasing high competency in music.