Track Listing

1. Run Devil Run - (with Jenny Lewis)
2. Big Guns, The - (with Jenny Lewis)
3. Rise Up With Fists!!! - (with Jenny Lewis)
4. Happy - (with Jenny Lewis)
5. Charging Sky, The - (with Jenny Lewis)
6. Melt Your Heart - (with Jenny Lewis)
7. You Are What You Love - (with Jenny Lewis)
8. Rabbit Fur Coat - (with Jenny Lewis)
9. Handle With Care - (with Jenny Lewis)
10. Born Secular - (with Jenny Lewis)
11. It Wasn't Me - (with Jenny Lewis)
12. Happy (Reprise) - (with Jenny Lewis)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14529 in Music
• Brand: Watson
• Released on: 2006-01-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Album Description
Known and loved by many as the enchanting front-woman for LA's Rilo Kiley, Jenny's vocal and songwriting gifts have continued to blossom at a rapid rate since that band's first album in 2000. Jenny's hauntingly soulful voice, sometimes bursting with buoyant spirit and at other times plaintive and world wearied, is deep, sensual and beguiling. Intricate storytelling and evocative lyrics infuse these songs with a captivating vibrancy but may be knocked sideways by the musical alchemy at play as a result of folk, country, and Southern gospel influences.

Amazon.com
Channeling the evocative storytelling of Laura Nyro and the soulful sexiness of Dusty Springfield, singer/songwriter Jenny Lewis skips all contemporary studio gimmickry to proffer a near-perfect solo debut. The front-woman for indie darlings Rilo Kiley breaks away from the songwriting democracy she shares with that band's co-leader Blake Sennett (also of the Elected), drawing inspiration from the crackling vinyl albums of her youth. And from the opening notes of "Run Devil Run," an acapella gospel hymn sung with the Watson Twins, through the note-for-note cover of the Traveling Wilbury's "Handle With Care" (with Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst and Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard), Lewis verifies this is her record. Her goose-bump voice can be as mournful as it is optimistic, but remains perpetually mesmerizing on Rabbit Fur Coat's best songs: the god-fearing country-rocker "The Charging Sky," the radio-poppy "You Are What You Love" and, especially, the title track, a haunting, solo-guitar waltz of poor meets rich. --Scott Holter

Customer Reviews

Effortlessly enjoyable
Jenny Lewis from the Los Angeles quartet Rilo Kiley has stepped out on her own with a collection of country-folk enchantment that is sure to win her a legion of fans. Accompanying her on this journey are the enigmatic Watson Twins (Chandra & Leigh) who embellish Lewis's clear-as-crystal vocals with their gorgeous harmonies that are best described as `other-worldly'. Lewis also draws on a stable of indie stars from Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard and Maroon 5's James Valentine.

Rabbit Fur Coat sports a magnificent sleeve photograph that serves as a perfect visual insight to the classy affair within. Modelled on `white soul classics', in particular the stunning Laura Nyro/Labelle collaboration Gonna Take A Miracle (1972) this lofty goal is skilfully achieved with tracks such as the luminous Rise Up With Fists!!, The Changing Sky and Melt Your Heart.

The pace is smooth, the songs sound spectacular, dare I say magical, and the album is only briefly brought down by the somewhat stilted title track mid-way through. Much has been made of the cover of The Travelling Wilbury's Handle With Care, but this for me this is one of the weak points on the album. Although a good choice of song the unnecessary introduction of male vocalists somehow taints the otherwise pure female vision of this album. The disappointment is short-lived though as more aces reside in Lewis's scalloped sleeve with the majestic Born Secular that again takes this record into orbit.

Sporting all the requisite country musical touches - steel and acoustic guitars, wire drums and electric piano, Lewis's collection of country/folk/gospel songs make this an effortlessly enjoyable record, although a small leaning to country music is probably necessary. Whether the charms of Rabbit Fur Coat will last over time or if this is just a giddy summer fling only time will tell, but my inner Criswell thinks this one has legs. Either way ladies and gentlemen, welcome to your first favourite album of 2006.

Put on the Coat
I admit I'm probably not young and/or hip enough to know Rilo Kiley - so this is my first exposure to Jenny Lewis, let alone the Watson Twins.

Going from that statement - this review will make almost no sense. It won't be logical, just based on pure gut. My first thoughts were that Lewis comes across as a non-twangy Loretta Lynn. It is music on her terms. She is a non-traditional songwriter - almost a deconstruction take on the process. Her performances take on the same form. It's not country. It's not folk. It's just......Lewis.

One of my initial thoughts was that this was like the first time I heard k.d. lang or Dwight Yoakam initial releases. I am *not* saying Jenny Lewis is like either in style or sound. She's just one of those performers where the mold either doesn't fit or has been broken. Either way - it's a *good* thing.

I won't review songs per se - but "Rise Up With Fists!!!" and "You Are What You Are" are stand-out cuts. A cover of the Traveling Wilbury's "Handle w/Care" is ok, but nothing more than that.

The Watson Twins really do add some nice backing vocals - and video-wise, they are extremely intriguing. I know - that latter part isn't enough to make a good CD, but for the curious - it's a worthy purchase.

A Coat Worth Wearing Over and Over
Several reviews have praised this CD enough so that I wanted to hear for myself. That's my advice to you - buy it and listen! The influence of vinyl pressings and late seventies to early eighties "folk" artists (I agree with Mr. Baklava's hearing less Nyro and more Aimme Mann and Roches influence) set the mood but Ms Lewis and her cohorts, Las Watsons, make the album uniquely Jenny Lewis'.

I worried that the lyrics would be twisted into "me me me" knots and there are moments; sure, Ms Lewis wants us to know that she's lived many lives beyond her years (who hasn't in Musicland) but she's quick to put the focus on the musicianship: hers and her collaborators. Overall it is always a joy to listen to an artist worth listening to.

Best way to listen - put the CD in with others that evoke specific settings/memories - more introspective than dance floor fabulous. Ms Watson's Coat will hold up against those CDs and add its own voice to the mix.