If you could summon the spirit of a Ralph Waldo Emerson poem and put it into song, it would sound like Jenny Lewis.
Not because the child star turned-indie rock songstress writes anything like the 19th century transcendentalist. But there is something in the lyrical, angelic voice of Jenny Lewis that conveys a gut sensation in the vein of the latter. One uses words, one sounds, but the effect is the same: a subliminal honesty that engages self-reliance and discourages falsity.
Jenny Lewis’ folksy evocation of life, part science and nature rock, part alt-country and Americana, is complimented well by her work as lead singer-songwriter for the band Rilo Kiley, whose songs, for the sake of this list, have been considered as part of her body of work.
10. It’s a Hit (Rilo Kiley)
Perhaps the most literary of her songs, “It’s a Hit” can be seen as a mockery of artistic endeavor in a modern age of dishonesty and phoniness. Anyone, through disingenuous expression, can create some passable bastardization of art for the sake of monetary gain. Any asshole can open up a museum” and pretend to be some kind of aficionado while really just living “ordinary moments in his ordinary life.” His studies and displays have not transcended his being, he is only pretending they have. “Any idiot can play Greek for a day” she sings, adding, with biting sarcasm, “And articulate all that pain, and maybe you’ll get paid.” Some writer, instead of being true to himself, will pretend to be Greek and convey emotions that are not his own. Maybe he’ll get paid…but at what price? The irony is that Lewis makes a hit by mocking the hit-making process. Good for anyone who feels vaguely nauseous anytime they turn on CNN or Fox News. Antidote also good for: generic pop music, reality television.
9. Close Call (Rilo Kiley)
Off her ’07 Under the Blacklight album, “Close Call” is about as close to pop as a Jenny Lewis number will get. This brief (at a 3:20 clocking, the shortest song on this list) tale of a call girl examines, with the same kind of ironic dark humor of “It’s a Hit”, the lure and the consequences of prostitution. “Funny thing about money for sex, you might get rich but then…it’s gonna be a close call.” The song is distinctly upbeat and not gloomy at all, taking more of a matter-of-fact tone to describe what happens to a girl “born to a gypsy mother and a bucket of tears.”
8. Happy (Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins)
Happy” somehow manages to be quite a sad song, continuing a trend of irony. The opening lines are perhaps the most beautiful: “I’d rather be lonely, I’d rather be free, I’m as sure as the moon rolls around the sea”, and they are sung in a way that could stand alone as the sole stanza of the song (see Fleet Foxes’ “White Winter Hymnal”). The implication in these opening lines is that she would rather be lonely and free, outside of the life she has always known, than ‘happy’, which seems to have a kind of societal connotation. My mama never warned me about my own destructive appetite” she comments later, hinting that her pursuit of happiness involves more pain than pleasure, and also explaining the melancholic tone throughout.
7. Science vs. Romance (Rilo Kiley)
A forlorn song backed by some philosophical insight comparing science and faith, and how the plain, cold math side of the world is blotting out her belief. “Used to believe in a lot more, now I just see straight ahead.” She spends her days “waiting”, presumably for some kind of spiritual revelation. Disasters, such as “crash sites” and “test sites”, preoccupy her in waking moments, the only things real enough to distract her from the boredom of everyday life. Like her other songs, there is a note of melancholy bemoaning the passing of art and beauty from the modern consciousness.
6. Rise up with Fists!! (Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins)
Pure Americana alt-country, “Rise up with Fists” echoes somewhat despondently, viewing pessimistically nearly all things in life: belief or faith of any kind, attempts to change the world, attempts to better yourself. Yet the lamenting is at the same time empowering, offering a picture of ennobled individual ‘grace under pressure’ struggle in a cursed world.
5. Acid Tongue
Collects everything that is beautiful and simple about her music. Similar to “Happy”, it views falling in love and traditional happiness through a skeptical eye. The keystone line comes near the end with: “To be lonely is a habit like smoking or taking drugs, and I’ve quit them both but man was it rough.” Again, loneliness and wanderlust are preferred and chosen, her experiment in dropping acid only making her tired. Now all she wants is to build herself a fire to stay warm from all the coldness in the world.
4. Portions for Foxes (Rilo Kiley)
“We’ll all be portions for foxes” is Jenny Lewis’ way of saying that all of us will have our hearts cut up into bits and pieces for foxes to eventually eat. In a way, it is a more techno-upbeat version of “Acid Tongue”, dealing explicitly with a relationship, and also with the repeated theme of loneliness. Loneliness leads to bad dreams, and the bad dreams lead me to callin’ you”, but it’s all “bad news”, reflecting again sociability as a last resort, which ultimately is unable to fill any spiritiual, emotional hole.
3. You are What You Love
A cross between the criticism of dishonesty in “It’s a Hit” and the cynical romanticism of “Happy” and “Acid Tongue”, this song contains again the suffering inherent in the empty world. Employing a happy-go-lucky, almost ‘I told you so’ tune, it seems to take dishonesty as a given. She is looking for a “ghost”; has intentions that are “wildly untrue”; and admits that her only real conversations are of no substance, “about nothing.” She tries to pretend that this isn’t true, and calls herself a “coward who paints a bullshit canvas of things that will never happen to me.” Ultimately it would seem that the only thing that can be trusted is the simplest of your own emotions, your love, and nothing more complicated than that.
2. Silver Lining (Rilo Kiley)
Likely the most popular of her songs, “Silver Lining” has also enjoyed critical success, being named the 27th best song of 2007 by Rolling Stone. It is perhaps even more simple than “Acid Tongue” with only a few different stanzas breaking up the repetition of the chorus. When you are with other people, the song seems to suggest, you can only be silver. Alone, you are gold. It is a celebration not only of the power of the individual but of the power of solitude, as the refrain contains a repetition of “hooray” without any of the sarcasm inherent in many of her other songs. The song contains but one line of remorse for choosing the ‘gold’ path: “I never felt so wicked as when I willed our love to die”, giving the final “hoorays” a hint of bittersweetness. But the final lines they are.
1. Pretty Bird
Like Emerson, the most powerful evocations of Lewis’ art come from nature. The simple story of the travels of a bird contains none of the complex lyrics of her other songs, but instead relies, in imagist fashion, upon the beauty of her description. Her songs are best when her voice, rather than the instruments, are the focus, and this perhaps explains the immense popularity of Acid Tongue compared to her other albums. She doesn’t need to explicitly state that there is something tremendously sad about the pretty bird making its lonesome way around the poles, it is implied in her voice and delivery. It is never said that beauty is a sad thing because the cold world will spoil it, but still you feel it and know it by song’s end.
Works CitedJenny Lewis. Acid Tongue. Jenny Lewis, 2008.Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins. Rabbit Fur Coat. Jenny Lewis, 2006.Rilo Kiley. More Adventurous. Rilo Kiley and Jimmy Tamborello, 2004.Rilo Kiley. Take Offs and Landings. Rilo Kiley, 2001.Rilo Kiley. Under the Blacklight. Rilo Kiley, Jason Lader and Mike Elizondo, 2007.
