Jenny Lewis: Acid Tongue (Lost Highway)

 |   |  <1 min read

Jenny Lewis: Godspeed
Jenny Lewis: Acid Tongue (Lost Highway)

Frankly I'm a bit ho-hum about too much of this by the woman who brought us the terrific Rabbit Fur Coat (with the Watson Twins).

When it is good it is very, very good (the eerie alt.folk of Pretty Bird, the fragile Bad Man's World with stabbing cello, the dsriking title track) but then in other places she veers off into alt.rock (The Next Messiah is an ordinary slide guitar blues rock), chipper pop-rock (See Fernando) and the ubiquituous Elvis Costello pops up to quiver through the Tom Petty-styled power-pop of Carpetbaggers.

At its best (the spare piano ballad Godspeed and the quasi-Motown girl group-soul of Trying My Best, and those mentioned) it is excellent but there are too many other songs which drag this back.

And oddly enough a consistent power-pop album sounds well within her grasp - and would be welcome. 

 

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Death Vessel: Island Intervals (Sub Pop)

Death Vessel: Island Intervals (Sub Pop)

It does seem odd that the label which brought us Nirvana should now be so attached to alt.folk (and sometime mope.folk) with Luluc and Death Vessel. DV is in fact singer Joel Thibodeau (born in... > Read more

Ghost Town: Sky is Falling (Ghost/Southbound)

Ghost Town: Sky is Falling (Ghost/Southbound)

Perhaps because he moved on fast, offered seriously disturbing music and performances with often terrifying visual effects and then left New Zealand, Jed Town never really got the recognition he... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

Tahuna Breaks: Reflections (Chewy/Rhythmethod)

Tahuna Breaks: Reflections (Chewy/Rhythmethod)

While I understand the wide appeal of Fat Freddy's Drop -- a laidback distillation of reggae, soul and so forth -- it is too mellow for my taste. Tahuna Breaks -- who also distill elements of... > Read more

GUEST WRITER KEVIN BYRT recalls touring the strangely troubled Townes Van Zandt

GUEST WRITER KEVIN BYRT recalls touring the strangely troubled Townes Van Zandt

I first met Townes Van Zandt at Auckland airport in 1988. He and guitarist Mickey White were waiting on the pavement, Townes sitting on his suitcase and Mickey standing next to him. Even in that... > Read more