Despite being in bed by 10:30 last
night I was tired all day today. I feel like I need a weekend and it is only
Tuesday.
Disc 842 is….I’m Having Fun Now
Artist: Jenny and
Johnny
Year of Release: 2010
What’s up with the Cover? A sexy summer-clad Jenny Lewis
reclines in a driveway. There is some annoying dude also in the photo who I
totally don’t remember including when I invited Jenny over for some driveway
lounging in our beach wear. Let’s call him “Johnny” since that is probably who
he is. Just having him in the shot is making me see red! No, wait - that’s just
a filter. I’m fine.
How I Came To Know It: I already knew I liked Jenny
Lewis from her previous solo work and work with the band Rilo Kiley. When I
heard she had done a collaboration with boyfriend Johnathan Rice I decided to
give it a chance.
How It Stacks Up: This is the only “Jenny and Johnny” album I
have. It is kind of like a Jenny Lewis solo album, and since I included it when
ranking Lewis’ solo album “The Voyager” back at Disc 675 I’ll do so again.
Of those four albums, I’ll put “Jenny and Johnny” third.
Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4
When I bought “Jenny and Johnny” it was billed to me
as a solid summertime ‘go to the beach’ type of album and that’s what it turned
out to be. This is an album of solid pop songs that give you a pleasant relaxed
vibe, but the production gets in the way of the more thoughtful qualities the
album also aspires to.
The hallmarks of Jenny Lewis’ solo career are still
here, with the easy melodies and lyrics that are straightforward and personal. Lewis
has a talent for taking dark and depressing subject matter and wrapping it up
in upbeat pop songs so it takes a few lessons for you to realize everything isn’t
just fun in the sun.
The music has a bit of a Beach Boys “Pet Sounds” feel,
with a lot of fuzzy wall-of-sound stuff, and melodies between Jenny and Johnny.
It reminded me a bit of the Blake Sennett songs from her time in Rilo Kiley;
airy and light. It is very well done (and generally better than those Sennett
tracks) but I still found myself wishing for more Jenny and less Johnny.
The songs would benefit from a bit less of the fuzz
that infuses the record and let the songs stand on their own merits. The
constant high singing and thick coating of sugary production sometimes makes everything
feel a bit too twee and precious. A song like ‘Just Like Zeus’ is best in the first bar, when it is just Jenny
singing, and when Johnny joins in it feels kind of like the Carter Family
before Johnny Cash; precise but lacking an edge.
“New Yorker
Cartoon” has a pretty tune but the imagery is too strained, and it drew me
out of the experience. It was like they fell in love with the idea of a New
Yorker cartoon a bit too much for their own good, which is odd, because New
Yorker cartoons aren’t even that good. I’d rather read Dilbert.
But I digress…
Back to the good stuff on this album, because despite
my lukewarm tone there is plenty of it. “My
Pet Snakes” is full of energy and has Lewis in full throat. Johnny’s raspy
and airy voice works here as a nice offset to hers. I liked them trading lyrics
back and forth rather than working harmonies all the time.
“Big Wave”
is an infectious song that just makes you want to go surfing, even though Jenny
sneaks in lyrics about living beyond our means. The tune makes you feel like
you are just one big wave away from the best time of your live, but the actual
big wave here is debt and excess, about to crash down around your ears. As
usual with Jenny Lewis, she is a master of juxtaposing fun and tragedy.
Like a lot of Jenny Lewis’ work, “I’m Having Fun Now”
has a lot more going on than is immediately apparent. It is a fun trip to the
beach, but also one that when you look around a bit you find some bums sleeping
behind the public toilets. There is enough substance to give the album a full 4
stars, but some of the production decisions held it just south of that mark for
me.
Best
tracks: My Pet Snakes, Switchblade, Big Wave, Just Like Zeus, Straight Edge of the Blade
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