Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins
Rabbit Fur Coat
[Team Love]
Las Vegas-born Jenny Lewis worked her way into the limelight fronting indie-rock darlings Rilo Kiley in the late 1990s. This, her first solo effort, has been two years in the making and she has drawn on the talents of Chandra and Leigh Watson as backup singers to give it a distinctive bluegrass hue.
The sleeve notes give the game away: there's Lewis looking winsome as she waits in a diner, or staring silently at a rose. Although Lewis' sugary sweet vocals do much to lift the recording above the ordinary - think Cat Power, but without the growl - at times they're a little too saccharine.
Although she sings of heartbreak and times when her daddy done her wrong, things sometimes end up a little too cute for her own good.