Rabbit Fur Coat

I've been stuck in the past lately with music, so I'm trying to catch up with the "today" sounds. Of course, top-40 crap doesn't interest me, so I took a look at a lot of the top ten critic's lists for 2006 and made note of those who appeared several times, in styles of music that I would like (sorry, I'll pass on Ghostface Killah). One of the records mentioned a few times was Jenny Lewis' Rabbit Fur Coat. I know very little about her. I know she is the singer for a band called Rilo Kiley, who I am unfamiliar with, and she was an actress, her most notable role coming alongside Angelina Jolie in Foxfire.

It turns out she has a wonderful singing voice and has made a gorgeous record. Backed by a duo called the Watson Twins, and with musicians from such indie stalwarts as Bright Eyes, Death Cab for Cutie and Maroon 5, Rabbit Fur Coat is a fine example of alt-country. There's a bit of gospel, evident in the opening a cappella track, "Run, Devil, Run," which bleeds into a honky-tonk foot-stomper called "The Big Guns." I also liked an ironically mournful song called "Happy," a country-rocker "The Charging Sky," and a deliriously catchy bit of pop called "You Are What You Love." The full lyric of that song goes, "You are what you love, and not what loves you back." I'm not sure what that means, but it could be something to meditate on.

The title track is an eerie little short story about a garment that the singer's mother wore. There's also a cover of the peppy Traveling Wilbury's song, "Handle With Care."

I've listened to this album about five times since I bought it last Saturday. It's habit-forming, both for Lewis' breathy voice and the sensational hooks of the songs.