Track Listing

1. Run Devil Run
2. Big Guns
3. Rise Up With Fists
4. Happy
5. The Charging Sky
6. Melt Your Heart
7. You Are What You Love
8. Rabbit Fur Coat
9. Handle With Care
10. Born Secular
11. It Wasn�t Me
12. Happy (Reprise)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3951 in Music
• Released on: 2006-01-23
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Previously best known as the front-woman of Rilo Kiley, Rabbit Fur Coat sees Jenny Lewis breaking out on her own to stunning effect. Teaming up with gospel singers Chandra and Leigh Watson, with a little help from producer M.Ward, and collaborations with Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst and DCFC’s Ben Gibbard, this is alt. country at its finest--sweet, heartfelt and deceptively simplistic.

Drawing inspiration from the record collection she shared with her mother whilst growing up, the album definitely has an old Americana feel to it, and several tracks wouldn’t be out of place on a Harry Smith anthology. Stand out tracks include the stunning gospel-tinged harmonies of "Rise Up With Fists!", the gorgeous "Melt Your Heart" (reminiscent of Mazzy Star’s "Fade Into You") and the full on toe-tapping country hoedown assault of "The Big Guns".

To be fair, though, all the tracks on here earn their place, and even the somewhat strange inclusion of a cover of the Travelling Wilburys’ "Handle With Care" works somehow. A truly exceptional gem of a record. --Melanie Wilkin

CD Description
'Rabbit Fur Coat' is the debut solo album by Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis. A lilting, alt-country-esque affair, the albums bring to mind artists as diverse as Bright Eyes andJune Carter Cash, with the former making an appearance on the album alongside a strong vocal performance from harmony group The Watson Twins. Includes the tracks 'Rabbit Fur Coat'and 'Handle With Care'.

Customer Reviews

Great stuff
Taking time out from her band, Rilo Kiley, Jenny Lewis shuffles out of the indie-darling spotlight and into the softer shade of a Memphis back porch for the release of her debut solo album, Rabbit Fur Coat.

The disc’s dozen tracks were in gestation for two years, with songs written in the Rilo Kiley tour van, rehearsed around sound-checks, and finally recorded in 2005 in the San Fernando Valley and Portland, Oregan. Ostensibly a solo affair, Lewis gives equal billing to Kentucky-born twins Chandra and Leigh Watson, but while their cooing southern belle harmonies add a sprinkling of charm, it’s Lewis’ own confessional poetry that’s the album’s focus.

Right from the gorgeous, haunting accapella of opening track, Run Devil Run, you know you’re in for a treat. It’s well known that Lewis has a most wonderful voice, but she excels herself here with a song of almost immeasurable beauty. Elsewhere, Lewis runs along the bumpy road of inter-band relationships on You Are What You Love and Melt Your Heart, and adopts a near perfect Lucinda Williams’ drawl on Rise Up With Fists!!, before unleashing the full-on gospel of Born Secular.

At the centre of the album lies the title track, which has Lewis completely alone with her acoustic guitar, telling the true story of her absent mother and her rabbit fur coat. The tone of Lewis’ voice makes the mood hard to pin down; it’s not one of happiness, but nor is it one of sadness, rather a weary acceptance of her mother’s peculiar obsession with her coat. Rabbit Fur Coat is immediately followed by a sparkling cover of the Traveling Wilburys’ Handle With Care. While Lewis handles George Harrison’s lines, she invites M Ward, Conor Oberst and Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard to share the vocals on the ever-convincing tale of the perils of stardom.

Lewis has tapped into a fifty-year-old Americana and found that moment at the birth of rock ‘n’ roll where folk, country, gospel and vocal pop all fused together. Acoustic guitars tumble their melodies over brushed snares with an occasional slide guitar brought to the fore, and Lewis achieves all this without the album ever sounding dated. Such is the alchemy of greatness.

Spinning Jenny - Cotton on everyone. Quickly!
Anyone of these tracks, with the possible exception of Handle Me With Care (good cover version though it is), could have featured on the last Rilo Kiley album More Adventurous. They are all that good individually. However they work even better collectively and this is definitely a case of the value of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts.

Many of the songs have been showcased by Jenny live before and a copy of her performance of some of them at The Echo (wherever that is!) has been available on the internet for quite a while. But they really come to life with the help of a bit of decent production and great harmonies provided by the Watson Twins. Not that she needs a lot of studio enhancement; her voice has always been that good. Like Natalie Merchant with knobs on.

Stand out tracks for me are 'The Big Guns' (stomping Country music that makes you want to slap your knees as the music swells), 'You Are What You Love' (simple but brilliant lyric 'you are what you love, not what loves you back'), 'Melt Your Heart' (all breathy sensual vocals) and the wonderful 'Born Secular' (could have been on 'Take Offs and Landings' with its simple drum machine backing) in which Jenny returns to a pet theme of religion and questions her lot in life.

Just one question, what's happened to the brilliant 'Somebody Else's Clothes'? Always thought this was a solo song. I know it's been properly recorded and it's too good to leave off this album or throw away as a B-side. Maybe a hidden track at the end? Please...

Jenny Lewis may actually be a bona fide musical genius but I have a horrible feeling the world is never going to cotton on. Cotton on everybody!

Handle with care, precious contents
This is a lovely album and a very rare kind of new country, it's not po-faced or full of false sentiment but it has lots of flare and quirkiness. For me the best country music was made by people like Dolly Parton, Glen Campbell, Willie Nelson and Hank Williams snr. people who understood 3 important country ingredients melody, story and a bit of showbusiness. Jenny seems to understand all of these and mixes it with a classic girl group attitude, think Shangri-las, think Ronettes, think the girls in the B52s. Big Guns, the first full song proper, shows she's got both pop and country in her soul. She delivers songs with heart but also with a twinkle in her eye and never gets too precious. Her cover of the Travelling Wilburies isn't as great as the original but it sure is a lot of fun. After that she sticks in a classic twisted story song, the title track, Rabbit Fur Coat.
This is a country record that will make some purists sniffy but will entertain anyone looking for good songs, good singing and some fun.